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Graduate Receives 2025 BOLD Educator on the Rise Award
Anderson University College of Education and Call Me MiSTER graduate Kamin Bond was recognized with the 2025 BOLD Educator on the Rise award. The award recognizes Bond’s dedication to his students and his commitment to excellence both in the classroom and on the basketball court.
Bond, a 2023 graduate who is a middle school math teacher and head basketball coach at Beck Academy in Greenville, was recognized during the annual BOLD Celebration in Education in February. BOLD Leadership Network is a nonprofit organization made up of a collaborative group of Black male school leaders whose goal is to make a positive impact in the community.
“To have someone in the community see something in me that I’ve been doing the work I’m passionate about—it was an honor,” he said. In addition to this award, Bond was blessed to be nominated this past August for the GSC First-Class Teacher Award.
Though homeschooled much of his education, Bond wanted to teach in a public-school setting where he feels he can impact young lives in the most meaningful ways. Teaching seventh grade math, he is committed to building an engaging, safe and positive culture in his classroom and developing strong critical thinking skills that will serve them well in life.
“I believe that developing a strong work ethic is important in helping this current generation of students,” he said.
Bond shared the simple joys he obtains from walking into his school every day. Seeing the character development, observing the academic progress and creating amazing memories with these middle schoolers is what it is all about for Bond. He shared that it was his mission to stay locked in for his students’ sake and be a daily dose of a positive light that will never dim.
As a student, Bond received from the College of Education the Teacher Candidate of the Year award. He also received the Call Me MiSTER Distinguished Service Award at the conclusion of Camp iRock, a summer educational camp for elementary school students.
Being in the Call Me MiSTER program was transformational for Bond.
“Call Me MiSTER was really impactful for me, I would say,” Bond said. “Something that’s big about Call Me MiSTER is the brotherhood and leadership training but also staying on mission and staying on focus… I know that I’m there for these kids; I’ve been trained up to stay locked in on my ‘why.’”
“Kamin was an outstanding student and leader at AU, so it comes as no surprise to us to see him recognized for his work as he lives out his calling as an educator,” said College of Education Dean Dr. Mark Butler. “The Call Me MiSTER program is an exceptional program designed to support and mentor young men as they prepare to impact their communities, and Kamin is the realization of those aims as a role model, a professional and an outstanding mentor now himself.”
Call Me MiSTER was created to increase the availability of African-American male educators from diverse backgrounds, offering tuition assistance to undergraduates who are largely selected from underserved, socioeconomically disadvantaged and educationally at-risk communities.
One of America’s greatest living Civil Rights leaders celebrates the academic achievements of the AU Class of 2025
Ambassador Andrew Young, who played an integral role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., addressed graduates and received a standing ovation during the 2025 spring commencement on the historic Alumni Lawn at Anderson University last spring.
Introducing Ambassador Young was Dr. Matt Daniels, distinguished university professor of law, political science and human rights. In 2024, Ambassador Young endorsed the joint initiative of Anderson University and Good of All that, under Dr. Daniels’ leadership, brought together students from universities across the nation to study and practice the principles of civility, public service and human rights this summer. This program has been named The Ambassador Andrew Young Higher Education Fellowship Program.
Ambassador Young shared his journey from a childhood growing up in the South during the Great Depression to answering his call into a lifetime of public service. He shared that he found his purpose early in life by taking on jobs nobody else wanted to do.
“I figured that’s what the Lord laid out for me, and I developed a career literally for the last 75 years where almost everything I’ve done… I have made a phenomenal career out of doing things that nobody else wanted to do,” Dr. Young said. “Nobody wanted to work with Martin Luther King. People were getting beat up and put in jail… Nobody wanted to answer his mail and there were stacks of mail that people that sent him from all over the world, so his secretary said, ‘if you really want to help Martin Luther King, take some of his mail home with you and try to answer several letters.’ All it took was a little will and a little determination and a little faith in myself, but more important, a little faith in God that if this was something that needed doing and there was nobody else—if I did it—I’d be doing the right thing, and that’s sort of the creed of my life.”
At 93 years of age, Ambassador Young said he continues to look for ways to impact the world for good. He gave this challenge to the graduating class of 2025:
“There’s a whole world out there looking for people with your potential, with your dedication, with your training,” Young said. “The world is really hungering for the leadership that you bring, and so remember, commencement is not the end. Commencement is the beginning, and so this is the beginning of your triumphant life under the power of the Holy Spirit and then the image of the living God.”