The Truth Staff
The University of Toledo held its 42nd Annual Conference for Aspiring Minority Youth on Saturday January 31 in Lancelot Thompson Student Union. The event featured keynote speakers Maurice Clarett, former outstanding running back on The Ohio State football team, and Chamique Holdsclaw, former University of Tennessee and WNBA basketball star. Both are mental health advocates.
Alexis Means, anchor for 13abc, served as mistress of ceremonies for the Saturday morning. The event is believed to be the longest-running free conference of its kind in the country. This year, over 1,400 students, parents and community members registered for the four-hour conference.
The annual UToledo Conference for Aspiring Minority brings notable speakers from across the nation and the world to speak to Toledo area middle school through high school students, their parents and the community. For 42 years the conference has encouraged students to better understand the importance of education, social justice, and wellness, to their lives.
Established in 1988, Toledo Excel helps underrepresented and low-income students, including African American, Asian American, Hispanic and Native Americans, achieve success in college. Through summer institutes, academic enhancement activities and guidance through the admission process, students increase their self-esteem, cultural awareness, and civic involvement.
Among Excel’s services to high school students are Saturday School, Summer Institutes, tutoring, academic retreat weekends, campus visits, advising for strategic admissions and financial aid, and ethnographic field studies in the U.S. and abroad. (source: u.toledo.edu)
Speakers for this year’s conference included UT President James Holloway, Toledo City Councilwoman Cerssandra McPherson, State Sen. Paula Hicks-Hudson, Lucas County Commissioner Anita Lopez, Owens Corning Vice President Brandon Stephens and Excel Founder Helen Cooks, PhD.
A musical presentation was performed by Lexi, a national recording artist, after which Holdsclaw gave the first plenary address.
Holdsclaw attended the University of Tennessee from 1995 to 1999, where she played under coach Pat Summitt and helped to lead the Lady Vols to the women’s NCAA’s first ever three consecutive Women’s Basketball Championships in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
At Tennessee, Holdsclaw was a four-time Kodak All-America, one of only six women basketball players to earn the honor.
In 2006, Holdsclaw was named to a women’s collegiate basketball silver anniversary team for being picked as one of the 25 greatest players of the past 25 years. She was also picked as one of the five greatest players in the SEC of the past 25 years.
The number one draft pick in the 1999 WNBA draft, Holdsclaw played for 11 seasons averaging 16.9 points for her career.
Holdsclaw wrote in her autobiography Breaking Through: Beating the Odds Shot after Shot that she had suffered depression during her professional basketball career, and attempted suicide on one occasion.[19]
Documentary filmmaker Rick Goldsmith produced a film on Holdsclaw’s life and battle with mental illness called Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw.
Her unique journey was part of her address during the conference.
After a short break, Maurice Clarett was introduced and he presented the second plenary address.
As a freshman, Clarett started at Ohio State for the 2002-2003 season, rushing for 1,237 yards (then a school record for a freshman) and scoring 18 touchdowns, which helped the Buckeyes to a 14–0 record and the 2002 BCS National Championship. He scored the winning touchdown against Miami with a five-yard run in the second overtime in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. Clarett was the first freshman to be the leading rusher on a national championship team since Ahman Green of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1995.
Clarett’s time at Ohio State University was marked by several troubling incidents. Among other on-field and off-field incidents, in July 2003, Clarett became the center of an academic scandal when a teaching assistant reported that Clarett had received preferential treatment from professors and said he had not attended any classes during his only year at Ohio State. He was suspended for the 2003 season over the acceptance of improper benefits and lying to investigators. Clarett had begun battling depression and alcoholism since as early as 2002.
After being drafted into the NFL, things continued to go badly for Clarett. He did not end up on a roster and eventually committed criminal robbery offenses which landed him in prison
During his three and a half years in prison, Clarett shifted his attention to develop his mind by reading psychology books and as much business-related literature as he could, and managed to turn his life around.
Having suffered from depression, Clarett joined other mental health advocates in August 2013 in promoting expansion of Medicaid in Ohio. He has spoken at prisons, juvenile detention facilities and worked with youth football camps to share his story so others do not repeat it. Clarett has also reconnected with Ohio State by taking courses and working out with current football players.
David Young, director Toledo Excel, and Lance Price, Jr, a UToledo Alumnus and former Toledo Excel student, closed out this year’s conference with acknowledgements and evaluations.