Empowerment & Resilience: Dr. Tabatha Spurlock's Inspiring Bryant & Stratton College Commencement Speech

Beth Murphy, Market Director, Bryant & Stratton College – Richmond, VA Campus: The Graduation Committee strives for excellence in choosing a keynote speaker of distinction. For today’s ceremony, we selected an individual whose passion for education and Bryant and Stratton College matches our own. Dr. Tabitha Spurlock is a dynamic and highly energetic motivational speaker, life coach, best-selling author and educator. For over 20 years, she’s been committed to educating youth from local housing neighborhoods with the Boys and Girls Club to the public K-12 education system. Her education career spans from serving as a business teacher to multiple positions on the district level. Currently, she is a licensed educator in Virginia and an integral CTE academic advisor for Richmond, where she passionately helps foster community partnerships and educate secondary youth and colleagues on career pathways. Dr. Spurlock has a true servant’s heart and a desire to help uplift, motivate, and inspire others. As a philanthropist and leader within multiple community organizations. She’s won numerous educational awards and presented at conferences and events within the state, regionally and nationally. She is currently a board management member for the Chesterfield YMCA where she attended as a child. As a victim of a traumatic accident in 2016, Dr. Spurlock learned firsthand how to persevere through her setbacks while recovering. As a best-selling author, she spent the last five years helping others tell her story. As a lifelong learner, Dr. Spurlock is currently enrolled in the Ed Leadership Program for Administration and Supervision with Longwood University. In addition to her commitment to professional and community efforts, Dr. Spurlock’s number one priority in life is her daughter, Kennedy. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Spurlock to the podium. (audience applauding)

Dr. Tabitha Spurlock: You are empowered. You are a positive thinker. You are a respectable person and leader in your community. You know you will not be successful in life without help from others. Therefore, you will seek their support and in return, pass along the help and blessings to others. You will strive to be a positive inspiration for all. Positive thoughts equal positive results. There are no limits to your abilities if you try. You are somebody. You are a positive thinker. You are empowered. Good morning and happy Friday. Thank you for allowing me the honor and privilege of serving as your commencement speaker today. I wrote that creed during my tenure at the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Richmond while serving as the inaugural program director at the Providence Park Boys and Girls Club. It was for females enrolled in a mentoring program called Sparkle of Life. They were six to 18 year olds from an impoverished neighborhood like the one I was raised in. And they needed a strong role model and mentor to tag team with their single mothers to give them guidance in life. Several of them became my goddorders in real life and one of them is in the audience today, Tiana Terry. Thanks to a philanthropist named Kip Kephart, I had the financial resources and local connections to expose the young ladies to just a sparkle of what life would look like outside of their inner city neighborhood. I wanted to give back to them like Irma Monroe did for me in 1993. I was a rising freshman at Thomasdale High School and I applied for a summer job at the YMCA. I interviewed and guess what? I got the job. I was happy for two seconds before reality set in. I was the oldest of three. My single mom worked multiple jobs. And I didn’t know how I would get to work. I respectfully said to Ms. Monroe at the age of 14, “Thank you for the offer, but I cannot accept it because I do not have a ride.” “Where do you live?” I answered, “Bermuda Run,” known to many now as “Colonia Ridge.” And she said, “I’ll pick you up.” I was a kid from the hood, and she saw my potential. She believed in me and my ability to do well. And she sacrificed to help me. For the entire four to six weeks of the summer program, She picked me up. She lived in Ettrick, and she made it convenient for us to travel through Colonial Heights, then Chester, to get to the Iron Bridge area, where we met everyone else to get on the van to drive to Ashland, to build trails in the woods. When Howard Corey, a fellow board member with mega mentors in Chesterfield County, recruited me to help with a Christmas toy drive in my old neighborhood a few years ago. I did not know that he was setting me up for my next level in life. Because I’m a servant leader, as you’ve heard, to my core, I said yes. And my yes opened the door for what would come next. I only planned to drop off gifts that I had purchased and a stack of my children’s books. However, I got there and I could not leave. The single moms reminded me of my mother. [ Applause ] And the children running around reminded me of myself, my siblings, and my peers. Noticing my passion to serve and how easily I connected with the residents. Santy Prada, former vice president of Advancement, asked me to join the Chester YMCA Board of Management a few months later. I’ve always wanted to give back to my neighborhood in a meaningful way to those in my old neighborhood. And my efforts over the years did not land. But when I gave it to God and just showed up, he opened what appeared to be a closed door. I encourage each of you to show up as your authentic self every day at all times and allow others to observe your God-given gifts and talents. Don’t worry about and become consumed by the opinions of others nor a timeline. A delay is not a denial. I enrolled in a four-year doctoral program on July 28, 2009. I was sitting in the audience like you are today at my commencement ceremony waiting to be hooded as doctor on July 27, 2019. Ten years to the day of my enrollment. take away there, run your own race. It doesn’t matter if you’re 20 or 50 years old. You did it and everyone here today supporting you is extremely proud of your accomplishment. I encourage you to bounce back from every setback in your life. As you heard, on October In October, 27th, 2016, I was a central office leader for a local school district, and I volunteered to read to a group of first graders for a district-wide reading initiative. Unfortunately, I never made it into the building because a fellow parent literally ran me over with her SUV in the school parking lot. As a result of the accident, I suffered a tibial plateau and I was unable to walk unassisted for three months. From the trauma, I was diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety, and depression. It took me years to recover. And in 2020, while we all were experiencing a global pandemic, I decided to tell my story to help others. I wanted to help parents struggling with that guilt of canceled birthday parties, vacations, play dates, et cetera. I had no clue that with the assistance of an awesome publisher, Audrey Hines, that I would become an Amazon bestselling author with a number one new release children’s book called, A Promise is a Promise. The irony of me never making it into that building. And now I have the privilege of reading my own children’s book to students in grades pre-K through five during classroom visits and career days. Nobody but God. As you think about your next steps and how you plan to use your degree that you earned, keep an open mind of the possibilities of where it may take you. If it’s your desire, tell your story one day. And whatever you pursue, be a leader, be a Tiana, be a Kip, be an Irma, be a Howard, be a Santy, be an Audrey, be a Dr. Tav, but most importantly, be you. My daughter isn’t here with me today, but she’s live streaming, so mommy loves you, Kennedy. But when I drop her off to high school every morning, There are three things I say to her before she get out of the vehicle. Be kind, be respectful, be you. Think about those who mentored you on campus during your Bryan and Stratton College academic journey. Are you willing to return as an alumni to mentor the next cohort of graduates? As I close, I want to thank my family, especially my brother, Javie. my mentors and friends today as my VIP guests. A special thank you to Beth, Brenda, and the entire Bryan and Shraddyn family for your trust and belief in me today. To the graduates, now is your time. I would like for those who are physically able and willing to stand and repeat after me. I am empowered. I am a positive thinker. I am a respectable person and leader in my community. I know I will not be successful in life without help from others. others. Therefore, I will seek their support and in return, pass along the help and blessings to others. I will strive to be a positive inspiration for all. Positive thoughts equal positive results. There are no limits to my abilities if I try. Come on. I am somebody. I am a positive thinker. I am empowered. Empower one inspire many. Thank you for your time and I wish you the best on your next phase of life. Congratulations. (audience applauding)