A Different Kind Of Morehouse Man
The era of Affirmative Action has officially reached it's twilight. The Civil Rights Movement is officially coming to a close. This will be used as proof of education being equal across the board. Joshua Packwood,a 22 yr. old white man has gone to a HSBC and is graduating as the class valedictorian. It will be interesting to know how this will effect the value of a Morehouse Education. Will it open doors that otherwise might have been closed before now? Are well connected alumni tearing down his doors with job offers? Since he initially had the opportunity to attend Ivy League schools such as Stanford and Yale and he chose Morehouse. Will it be said he took the easy way out, instead of challenging others like himself ? Please don't misunderstand my reason for asking this. His accomplishment is exceptional, whatever school he attended. But is a 4.0 at Morehouse equal to a 3.75 at Yale?
posted by Common at
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A different kind of 'Morehouse Man'
By Errin Haines
Associated Press
Monday, May 12, 2008
ATLANTA -- From his first day at Morehouse College -- the country's only institution of higher learning dedicated to the education of black men -- Joshua Packwood has been a standout.
His popularity got him elected dorm president as a freshman. His looks and physique made him a fashion-show favorite. His intellect made him a Rhodes Scholar finalist. His work ethic landed him a job at the prestigious investment banking firm Goldman Sachs in New York City.
But it's his skin that has made all of this an anomaly. This month, Packwood is set to take the stage and address his classmates as the first white valedictorian in Morehouse's 141-year history.
Joshua Packwood is historically black Morehouse College's first white valedictorian.
The 22-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., will graduate on May 18 with a perfect 4.0 GPA and a degree in economics.
He could have gone elsewhere, to a school like Columbia, Stanford or Yale, but his four-year journey through Morehouse has taught him a few things that they could not, and he makes it clear that he has no regrets.
"I've been forced to see the world in a different perspective, that I don't think I could've gotten anywhere else," he said. "None of the Ivies, no matter how large their enrollment is, no matter how many Nobel laureates they have on their faculty ... none of them could've provided me with the perspective I have now."
It was not as if this was the first time Packwood experienced life in the minority. He was among the few white students in his class at Grandview Senior High School in Kansas City, Mo. He has mixed-race siblings and his mother was married to a black man. Packwood's experiences growing up have helped him navigate black culture while remaining comfortable with his own complexion.
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