I guess one of the things they talked about with Alpha Phi Alpha was the service,
and they mentioned the type things they do. They mentioned how they would go out, like when I was-. Back then when you were pledging you were on line,
and you had to do x number of service type events. We would go and they would sometimes recommend things and say things they had done,
you know, just go to some person in the Raleigh area on a Saturday and clean up their yard and do stuff like that, say some elderly lady that wasn't able to do those type things.
So you would go do things like that, which gave me another different view because back in those days the campus was all I knew from Raleigh, North Carolina.
I didn't venture out, you know, those gates, that type thing, so that gave me a chance to see another part of it.
And then you started learning the history. You learned about other Alphas that had been through like, you know, Dr. Martin Luther King, and you start thinking, wow; I can be a member of an organization that Dr. King was a member of,
you know, and you think of other people of renown, and you just start appreciating what the organization's about.
Then I met probably the other person that had the biggest influence on me, not only at NC State but probably in my life, and that was Dr. Augustus Witherspoon.
He became like a father, mentor, brother, friend, everything. He was just that type of guy,
and not just to me and every member of Alpha but to other African Americans on campus, and just with students in general.
He was always interested in trying to further the experience here at NC State and encouraging people to do well.