Game Changers:
KEITH DELAWDER Staff Writer
Dr. Michele G. Turner’s Mission to Set Black Students At USC Up for Success
A
s executive director of USC’s Black Alumni Association (BAA), Dr. Michele G. Turner, is on a mission to advance policies and practices that promote higher education access, equity and inclusion at USC. In over a decade of service, Turner has led the Black Alumni Association (BAA) to raise millions of dollars in endowments not just to increase the number of black students at USC, but to help cover tuition costs. Turner took the position at her alma mater’s BAA to be a role model for young people and lead by example. Along with her work at USC, Turner is an entrepreneur who owns several businesses, is CEO of a successful healthcare company, and is a published author who released her first book, “AFFIRMED: Life Lessons In Racial Healing and Transformation” which breaks the silence of being biracial in America and emphasizes the importance of affirmation and the need for racial healing in today’s political climate. USC’s Black Alumni Association is a hybrid organization that utilizes their pipeline of successful black alumni to create, not just a sense of belonging, but models for students to see themselves in their own future
We need to understand how privilege is very racialized,” says Turner. “The number of seats affected by the scandal really weren’t enough to move the needle for black admissions, but the interesting thing about the conversation is that it did reveal to us how how privilege works on a different level. as black professionals. “Some of the challenges involved with being black at USC is in regard to undergraduate enrollment being currently at 4%. This means, while you’re there for a incredible education, your experience being one of few can be very isolating,” says Turner. “You may be a brilliant student but if you don’t know who your community is, you may not have the opportunity to get equitable well rounded experiences and a major challenge is, ‘how do I belong or thrive in a place like this?’” Through her office’s Best Practices Mentoring Program, students get targeted support along with access to a network of over 200 black alumni utilized to move successfully through workforce pipelines. “The 4% number is really a reflection of
affordability,” says Turner. “In a school that receives 66,000 applications there is quite a number of black students who are in that pool for consideration, and yet it’s not enough to be admissible. You need to be able to make a good decision, for your family in terms of affordability. So the USC Black Alumni Association has always had a mission of fundraising for scholarships for black students specifically. “There’s a misnomer out there that says, ‘we have plenty of low income grants and money’. Well we’re a middle class demographic now, but the fact is racism has caused systematic gaps in wealth. We’re only one generation-or-so into being professionals so we don’t have to same kind of ability to utilize resources to afford things like $70,000 per year educations.” It’s this same access to wealth at that was spotlighted in the recent ‘college admissions scandal’ which illuminated the cross section between wealth and race in having access to elite education. “We need to understand how privilege is very racialized,” says Turner. “The number of seats affected by the scandal really weren’t enough to move the needle for black admissions, but the interesting thing about the conversation is that it did reveal to us how how privilege works on a different level. We certainly don’t have the resources for someone to change our test scores because they own the testing center. We don’t have those kind of relationships, so it just wasn’t our fight. But we learned a lot.” In the end, says Turner, it’s not money, but the same factors for success at USC
apply equally to black students. “The biggest factor for success is ambition and vision. But,” she adds, “you have to be affirmed and given the confidence that you can be in the room and do what you came to do, because once you think you can do it, you can do it.” In college, Turner wanted to become an entrepreneur because she saw how business ownership could change the narrative for her family. Upon graduation, she went to work for IBM where she developed the problem solving, team building and leadership skills that would ultimately fuel her success as an entrepreneur in a business she established with her husband providing healthcare in underserved communities Desiring to further connect her personal success to purpose, she returned full circle to USC as executive director of the USC Black Alumni Association. “I saw this as my way to help young people who had the same dreams I had once,” says Turner. This year, Turner authored her first book, “AFFIRMED: Life Lessons in Racial Healing and Transformation”, growing out of her experiences as a biracial woman, while emphasizing the importance of affirmation and the need for racial healing in today’s political climate. The book spotlights thirteen uniquely different "life lessons" confronting the intersections of identity, conformity, tradition and heritage in a manner that exposes the strengths of choice in a changing world– and how they shaped her into the woman she is today.
Swift
Termite Control
Since 1996
EXPERT SERVICES Termite Inspection Fumigation Local Treatment Professionally Trained Staff Latest Treatment & Technologies Proven Effective Methods Reports Issued Promptly Commercial and residential
LICENSED • BONDED • INSURED
For more information, call
(323) 295-1220