Leading with Leaders Who Led Me

Leading with Leaders Who Led Me

Greatest MINDS Executive Director's Note:

What a pleasure to reconnect with a (former - yeah right!) mentee now a colleague in the field of community building - D'Lynn Jacobs. D'Lynn is now the Executive Director of the Open Horizon Foundation. I was invited to be in a fellowship leadership program with 22 Executive Directors across the country with Open Horizon. This three day Leadership Retreat helped me to reflect and explore new techniques and bring more services and resources to the communities we serve! Established in 2019, Open Horizon is a family foundation based in Alexandria, VA, serving the Greater Washington DC area, the US South, and beyond. Committed to advancing racial and social justice, we dedicate ourselves to catalyzing positive change through funding, building capacity, convening, and amplifying voices.

I made a collage of some of the images I took at the Leadership Retreat! Here is a blog about the retreat by Courtney Wright: - https://open-horizon.org/leaders-retreat-2024/ Please check out this family foundation working to build networks and community - https://open-horizon.org/.

After the retreat, D'Lynn wrote this blog about reconnecting with me 20 years later "leading with leaders who led me" and being appreciative of role-models in the community and giving others opportunities to succeed. I was so touched by this blog she sent out that I share this with you as a testament that we are true role-models ! Even though you might not think young people are not watching. They are.

I am also honored today to receive a $10,000 donation for the work of Greatest MINDS from the Open Horizon organization.

- George "Chip" Greenidge, Jr. -

"Today is a special day for us. It is nearly the end of Black Philanthropy Month, described in a clear piece herehttps://www.essence.com/news/essence-black-philanthropy-month/ and a nice highlight from one of our partners here (https://abfe.org/) The end of the article in Essence highlights a giving day that many foundations honor and the reason that they give on 8.28. “In conjunction with BPM celebrations, every year there is also “a giving day on August 28 to promote financial support for Black-led and Black-benefiting grassroots organizations.” The date on which Give8/28 occurs “has a special significance for the Black community in the United States: [on] August 28, 1955…Emmett Till’s murder ignited the Civil Rights Movement; [on] August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, [delivered his] ‘I have a dream’ [speech] in Washington D.C.; [on] August 28, 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated disproportionately the New Orleans Black residents; [and on] August 28, 2008, Senator Barack Obama accepted nomination for presidency.” Chip, the work that you have done and continue to evolve with Greatest MINDS is in line with this crucial Black history, and Open Horizon recognizes it today. You are healing toward a tomorrow based on the needs we must acknowledge today. Personally, I doubt that I would have gone to Spelman and been on this brilliant career path without your mentorship and organizational vision. We hope this contribution to your general operating funds shows our solidarity for your program’s excellence and your leadership."

- D'Lynn Jacobs -

Here are our online donation pages:

Give 8/28: https://www.give828.org/organization/Greatest-Minds

GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/2024-black-college-tour-programs-fund

Leading with Leaders Who Led Me

By D'Lynn Jacobs

March 8, 2024

“What was it like to invite our partner Greatest Minds’ Executive Director George (Chip) Greenidge Jr. to our Leaders Retreat?” The question took me off guard a bit as I had thought about it logistically but had not really processed the experience that was so full circle and humbling for me. I didn’t have words to reply at the moment. I could only express that I would “think on it” more to find clarity. Here is more clarity.

Greatest MINDS is an organization that provides mentorship and guidance to citizens and first-generation college students seeking to become active and successful contributors to civil society by giving them access to college, career, and community networks in Boston. It expanded in the decades since my time in the organization to also have a presence in the South in Atlanta. The organization’s founder, George (Chip) Greenidge, Jr., a Morehouse brother originally from Boston himself, coordinated the programming and facilitated an annual Black college tour for years for youth in Boston to broaden their awareness of what was possible. In fact, the college tour continues to this day and my little cousin recently went on it although he still chose a PWI or predominantly white Institution (no shade.)

I was 15 or so, maybe 14, when I found a community with the National Black College Alliance in 2004. Young Black Boston was small. Opportunities were limited and seemed available for only a few, and even further limited by parents’ or guardian’s barriers or blind spots. Many of the opportunities I was blessed to take advantage of overlapped across organizations and community institutions in which I was involved. I reflect that this is a product of leaders like Chip establishing deep authentic relationships and knowing (and caring) how our communities work.

When I shared with my sister that I was amped that Open Horizon was uplifting a leader who made a difference in my life’s trajectory with the Black College Tour, she replied “wait, wasn’t that the church?” Her memory was that the college tour was facilitated by our church because the program offered applications and scholarships for participation to youth through church ministries. Chip realized the benefits of tapping into the intricate connections in our community beyond schools and engaged youth through the influence of religious institutions affirming the history of the Black church as a cornerstone of our communities and our organizing.

Today, I am a Spelmanite class of 2007. When I saw Chip again after 20 years, welcoming him to our 2-day leaders retreat at our opening gathering, the 15-year-old in me that used to meet at Freedom House and the mature high school student that rode down and across the South to a number of Black colleges, came right out. She was proud to show Chip who I had become and to connect with him in the community as an Executive Director who is consistently evolving in her leadership practice. She, my younger self, was proud to show me who he had become as a leader in Black Boston and voice for reparations influencing a broad and intentional national dialogue.

I have crossed paths with other successful and accomplished NBCA members out in this adult world and it affirms that investing in opportunities for intentionally marginalized youth makes an incredible difference. It did for me, and I am brilliantly witnessing the ways in which it does through the organizations with which we partner.

Today, Chip continues in this work with Greatest MINDS, a preceding organizaton that keeps much of the same values as the NBCA. I salute the work of you Chip and the many mentors and volunteers who support this crucial work you do.

Please consider me a lifelong ally in building our communities.

Sincerely,