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Fabric of AU

Mr. Aaron Ducksworth

As the new Director of Diversity, Community and Inclusion, Mr. Ducksworth is passionate about empowering students and training future leaders–all while seeing diversity the way Jesus does.

Interviewed by: Will Finley, Class of 2027
(Editor’s note: questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity)

Mr. Aaron Ducksworth believes diversity is important for him because diversity is important to the Triune God. “At the end of the day… I’m a child of God. We’re all children of God if we believe in Christ. That’s the center of everything we do. That’s who he says we are.”

Aaron Ducksworth
What do you see as your role here at Anderson University? More specifically, what does that look like?

In my role, which is heavily student facing, I serve and engage students. So, there’s the student-facing side, and then there’s the higher level administrative and community-building side. That’s what (Anderson University Vice President for Diversity, Community and Inclusion) Dr. (James) Noble does on a VP level. So, while he’s working with administrators and stakeholders in the community, my role specifically is student-based, composed of three primary parts. One of those is the advisor for the Connect Club here on campus. In the other I oversee the programming and planning for the IAM Mentoring Program. Also, I serve as the site coordinator for the Call Me MiSTER program. So, there are a lot of moving pieces.  

Call Me MiSTER is a program that was created a little over 20 years ago through a few HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in South Carolina and Clemson University. The goal of Call Me MiSTER is to increase the Black male population (of teachers) in K-12 schools. From a South Carolina standpoint, statistically, there were fewer than five percent minority males, specifically Black men in the classroom, teaching. I think since its inception to now, they’ve done a phenomenal job. It’s become a national program.

How have you seen the program grow?

Call Me MiSTER helps to increase the qualified Black male population that can go into schools and school systems on all levels. Since its inception, it has produced more than 40 cohorts and 500 MiSTERS working on every level of education administration. This sort of growth increases visibility and helps students dream differently, which helps them reimagine what a teacher looks like and the impact an educator can have in the classroom and community. That becomes really important, I think, in many ways because, for little kids, they’re seeing Black male teachers who look like them. Also, there’s a lot of little kids who are seeing teachers who don’t look like them. I think that has an immediate impact but also a long-term impact.

Your face just lights up when you’re talking about the program. Where did that kind of passion originate in you?

I grew up in south Mississippi, 40 minutes from the water. And so, when it comes to things like education, when it comes to things like race and the different things that take place around race, I learned about those things at a very, very young age, just as a product of growing up in south Mississippi. And so, whenever I have an opportunity to help people in general, but especially to help people who are taking the trajectory (of helping educate kids in school), and when I see what Call Me MiSTER is and can be for someone, that’s just an exciting thing for me. I like leadership, I like development, I like formation, I like learning. And so, for me, Call Me MiSTER is a way to help form young leaders to become who I think God is ultimately calling them to be.

What exactly does the developmental process look like? How do you help facilitate growth in students?

The leadership development component is designed around Call Me MiSTERS’ Servant Leadership Model. There are living-learning communities for MiSTERS who come into the program. They typically come in as cohorts and the goal is for them to live together throughout their entire undergrad career. There’s tuition assistance as well. Then there are networking and internship opportunities; usually, each summer that open up for them. It’s also about building networks with other chapters. MiSTERS are getting a co-curricular education outside of the classroom that they can’t get inside of the classroom.

One of the aspects that I’ve implemented is book studies centered around key assessment categories. These books also relate to education, leadership development or just maturing as a young man. And each week we’re looking at certain chapters in those books, so there’s kind of a reflective time to where they’re writing out their thoughts and we have a discussion about those. I’m not asking them to agree with everything in the book. I’m not asking them to disagree, either, but to honestly assess what the author is saying. How does it land on them? What is it doing as they’re reading and understanding?  

I’m also planning to bring in community educators and administrators to share and impart wisdom related to career navigation, educational policies, etc. I believe the wisdom, knowledge and experience they can impart has the ability to produce a specific type of development and growth. We also host events and go to conferences; we’re self-funded, so we’re always looking for donors to partner with us.

You said the overall goal of Call Me MiSTER is to recruit more Black male teachers into the education workspace. But what is the long term goal?

It’s about developing young leaders. And something unique has happened with the program that a lot of the guys who go through the program, they’re winning all these accolades, not because they’re necessarily going out to win, but I think there’s a type of formation that’s occurring through the program that’s a really good complement to what they’re learning inside of the classroom. There are going to be things they learn that a classroom and Call Me MiSTER can’t prepare them for; and it doesn’t attempt to. But what Call Me MiSTER does is help move from theory to practice, while also removing knowledge barriers and challenges as much as possible, so that when a MiSTER faces a certain situation in the classroom, they’re like, you know what? I have a something to go back and draw from. That, I would say, is also part of the goal as it falls under leadership development. Because it’s a leadership development and mentorship program.

Let’s shift gears a bit. What can you tell me about the Connect Club and the I AM mentoring project? Let’s start with the Connect Club.

It’s the multicultural student-led club with a vision of “cultivating a community of leaders that understand that diversity must be rooted in love.” It was started to really give students a place to come and be rooted in love, rooted in community and to be amongst each other. I think sometimes there’s a learning component for sure as students engage in discussions, but I think sometimes there’s just a come be, come exist, come rest, come have fun in this space. And I think informally you learn through those experiences, but those experiences aren’t necessarily always targeted for learning. So, there’s a combination of the two. It’s a needed club on campus for students of different cultures who like to celebrate their culture. It’s not an inclusive or exclusive club. Everyone can join. And I think that’s even reflective in the leadership team. Black, White, Asian, Hispanic—all are a part of the leadership team of the Connect Club. I think about the scriptures. There are people who have gone out and you are entering into their labors. I’m entering into the labor of other people in this work. There are things that have been done, groundwork that’s been laid, good foundations. And I look at it from my perspective as a steward. It’s my job to build on that foundation.

What about the I AM mentoring initiative?

It’s really unique. The motto is, “I am who we are.” That comes from one of the “I Am” statements of Jesus. There are two guiding scriptures for the program. Jesus says (in John 8:12), “I am the light of the world.” But then also there’s Matthew 5:14, where Jesus says, “We are the lights of the world.” That’s the only “I am” statement that’s repeated and flipped on the disciples. He says, “When I am the light, you are the light.” And so those are the scriptures that guide the I AM program. It’s connected to a scholarship program, but it’s also a mentorship program. The way it works, incoming freshmen and incoming transfer students apply for the scholarship. And if they get the scholarship, they enter into the I AM program. They are then partnered with a mentor, and that mentor walks with them their freshman year or that entire transfer year. It’s really a mentor development and leadership development initiative.

What would you like people to know about you personally? And how do you feel about AU’s diversity efforts more broadly?

I really like helping people. I like implementing new things and trying to help people in general, but especially our students since my role is very student-facing. Look at the covenants, the 12 tribes, the disciples, the Church in Acts, the women at the well, the people saved in the Gospels, Genesis 1:27, Matthew 22:36-40, Revelation 7:9, and even the Incarnate One who was born, died and resurrected in a Jewish body. To me it seems impossible to truly study the scriptures in their historical and socio-cultural context and not see that God both designed and cares deeply about these things.

These are a few ideas that I think about as it relates to diversity. And I mean we have kingdom diversity as our focus here. So, we take our diversity cues from the scriptures. There are different ways to think about diversity. They’re not all necessarily bad, even some that are not biblical. But I think a biblical approach, rightly understood, is the best one, especially for a Christian institution.

I’m currently working on my Ph.D. in Christian and social ethics. And I like thinking through ideas at the intersection of ethics, theology, faith and culture. If God is who the scriptures reveal, and we are becoming who he created us to be, he’s given us knowledge and measure of wisdom, and he’s given us community together. There’s a certain way in which we should be stewarding his creation in a particular way. So, I like thinking through that and trying to help move us in that direction.

The Lord has also given me a measure of wisdom and he’s given me a measure of patience that I think is helpful for this work. So those things working together, I think, help me navigate certain issues in certain spaces well. But again, I say these are things that the Lord has given me, I didn’t give them to myself. And that’s helpful.

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