As the first staff member of the African American Studies Program at Iowa State University, Donnell Bivens used what he learned during his own journey from aspiring professional athlete to graduate student and mentor to undergraduates.
 | "We tell (students) to stand up straight, to say their names with confidence and to have pride in their work." — Donell Bivens |
A native of Chicago and a top high school basketball prospect, Bivens played at Iowa State and tried his hand at semi-professional basketball before deciding that big-time sports are a “meat market” where “coaches and teams have little regard for the players as people.”
With the encouragement of some faculty members, he enrolled in a master’s degree program in educational leadership and policy studies. Still, he was unsure if the academic life suited him, and he lacked confidence in his ability as a public speaker.
J. Herman Blake, director of African American Studies, hired him as his assistant and instructed him to spend the first month shadowing him.
“He told me to watch everything he did,” recalled Bivens. “He told me to focus on his teaching style and how he communicated with others.”
One day Blake’s secretary told Bivens that Blake would not be coming to class and that he should take over. It was a terrifying experience — but one that he later came to appreciate. “It was like a gorilla was on my shoulder, and after it was over it stepped off,” said Bivens. Blake’s confidence in him changed the way he thought of his academics. “I began to see practical applications of the theories I learned in the classroom,” he says. “It gave me confidence to speak in front of small and large groups.”
As the African American Studies Program grew, Bivens was asked to lay the groundwork for the male support group that was to become the Band of Brothers. His goal was to stress academic excellence in a “down to earth” manner. “I wanted to get young guys in a room with African-American professors and administrators,” he notes, adding that he realized the power of the real experiences and struggles of those who had been successful.
“These students wanted to hear stories that made them think: ‘Wow, that sounds like me.’ ” As one who could talk about his own experiences caring for his younger sister while his mother worked, Bivens was in a good position to help the young men of the Band of Brothers raise their personal expectations and excel. As he puts it, the group’s mentoring initiatives “reinforce the fact that minority students are just as intelligent as the majority.”
Bivens earned his graduate degree in late 2003 and left Iowa State to take a job as a counselor-adviser at Metropolitan College in New York City. During his last few weeks at Iowa State, he discussed his role in the formation of the Band of Brothers and the work that continues on the campus at Ames, Iowa.
Bivens said the Band of Brothers program addresses the negative self-perceptions that many black men bring to campus and provides the tools that many of them lack, such as study and networking skills. “We tell them to stand up straight, to say their names with confidence and to have pride in their work,” said Bivens.
He recalled one young man who had been the valedictorian of his high school class, but could barely maintain a GPA of 2.5 at Iowa State. “He told me that his confidence level dropped immediately when he walked into classrooms of 100-plus white students who did not look like him,” said Bivens. “He made assumptions that hindered his attitude and performance.”
In the program, such students are encouraged to get involved with study groups and to ask questions in class, even when they feel uncomfortable or unwelcome. Bivens understands the challenges facing first-generation college students. “As much as your parents may want you to make it, they can’t answer your questions,” he said. “You have to ask very personal questions of strangers.”
Likewise, he can empathize with student athletes even as he urges them not to place their hope in a sports career at the expense of their academic lives. “If you grow up in the ghetto and watch your mother struggle all your life, and someone comes along to offer you a contract that will allow her to never work again, you’ll take it,” he says. For such reasons, he added, “athletes are the hardest group to reach.”
