By: Damaris Abreu
The Director of the Say Yes Scholars Program, DeAntae Ware, has opened numerous doors for students across Tri-C campuses. Through Academic Success Coaches and community organizations she allowed to help foster academic success, develop practical self-care skills, and practice building healthy boundaries in multiple types of relationships throughout the school year.
One of the most recent opportunities has been the program’s collaborative efforts with Author, Speaker, and Educator Dr. Michael Copeland. He wrote several books, including “The Journey of One Determined Educator”. From his authoring experience, he helped students through a series of writing workshops. They began back in February and are called the “Author’s Academy”. The program was designed to help students develop their own chapters within the Say Yes Scholars Program’s first anthology.
Some of the inspiration for writing the anthology came from the moving “Spoken Word” performance by poet Tommie Stanfield of several poems. His trilogy of chapbooks is: “Where to Start” (2017), “This Journey Isn’t Over Yet” (2023) and “Dreams Die to Become Reality” (2025). This is one of his poems:
Breakthrough
I feel like we’re mimes because there are barriers that neither of us can see
But run into all the time, so we can never get too close
Like we used to…
We are always behind this glass
And i feel like we miss that touch so much
That we crash into each other just so we can feel something
Windshields shouldn’t be able to stop us from breaking through to each other…
The anthology will be entitled: “Transforming Through College: Stories of Growth and Grit”.
Students, staff, and other members of Tri-C campuses and neighboring communities will be able to relate to each writer’s life-changing journey of discovering who they are as they navigate the college environment. And learn what they are designed to do to help other people around them.
Watch for the upcoming flyers in May announcing the book launch and information on how to purchase the anthology via Amazon!
For more information on self-publishing and / or purchasing Dr. Copeland’s books, please contact him via Copeland Consults LLC Website: www.drmichaelcopeland.com.
For more information about Tommie Stanfield’s books and/or how to book him for a “Spoken Word” performance, please contact him at: stanfieldtommieiii@gmail.com
For more information about the Say Yes Scholars Program, please call DeAntae Ware at: deantae.ware@tri-c.edu
