Explorations in Black Leadership

Co-Directed by Phyllis Leffler & Julian Bond

College Mentors and Opportunities

DOVE: I do think that when I go to University, that there were quite a few people who were influential just by the people that you wouldn't imagine that would be influential like a German professor who said to me at one point — I was taking German, it was the language that I chose because it was all around me — and he said, "well, why don't you apply for a Fulbright?" and I said, "but I don't want to study German, it's just what I need to get on," and he said, "well, you want to get to Europe, you don't you? You want to travel, don't you? Make something up. Find — " So, in other words, he sent me home for the summer to write my grant proposal and so I learned how to write a grant proposal because I said, well, I want to get there. What do I have? What skills do I have that will interest the Fulbright Committee and still be true to what I wanted to do and so I said, yeah, I want to translate German poetry and that's how I got my Fulbright and so I learned something about that kind of pitch as well.