Page 4
June 1, 2016
Allen Temple CME Church
P ortlAnd o bserver
2016
PASTOR’S APPRECIATION AutoReview S i e n n a
TOYOTA
Please join us in honoring our Pastor
Dr. LeRoy Haynes, Jr.
Pastor • Teacher • Civil-Rights Leader
Author • Spiritual Leader
Speaker: Reverend Robert C. Jointer
Bethesda Baptist Church
Theme
“Pressing Toward The Higher Calling”
Philippians 3:13-14
Date:
Time:
Where:
Sunday, June 05, 2016
4:00 pm
Maranatha Church
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acceptance rate into the school
and Sekai’s lack of a high school
theater program to tout, her reser-
vations were warranted.
Yet SEI wasn’t going to let
Sekai’s talents go unnoticed. En-
rolled with the non-proit organi-
zation since her freshman year,
her abilities were recognized
early by her teachers and men-
tors, according to SEI President
and Chief Executive Oficer Tony
Hopson. SEI was more than hap-
py to morally and inancially sup-
port her efforts.
“The idea has always been to
take our African American stu-
dents in the community and get
them to reach their full potential,”
says Anthony Deloney, the di-
rector of SEI’s After School and
Summer Programs. “But Sekai is
so driven; she knows the things
she’s trying to do.”
Jefferson is one of a few PPS
institutions under SEI’s wing and
has so far seen a great deal of suc-
cess with improving student out-
comes, especially the 30 percent
increase in Jefferson’s graduation
rates since SEI began offering
their various support services like
mentoring and tutoring.
“In our culture, a lot of people
think ‘what’s the way you can be
successful? Play basketball, be a
rapper’ -- basically all these things
the media tells us we can be. But
we’ve always said that life has
options. That’s our motto. There
are so many things you can do to
be successful, so many different
avenues,” says Deloney. “What-
ever we can do, we want to jump
in. The only thing we ask is that
when you become that super ce-
lebrity that you come back and in-
spire that next generation of kids.
That’s how we’ve been able to do
this for 35 years.”
Sekai is one of just seven Afri-
can American students nationally
accepted into the renowned school
this year, though she doesn’t rec-
ognize this as any sort of compe-
tition and more as an opportunity
to be a part of a thriving black cre-
ative community.
“I think sometimes we’re taught
that the reasons we are places are
because we’re black and not be-
cause we have the talent. I have
to remind myself that I have the
talent. I know what kind of actor I
am and it encompasses me being a
black woman, but a lot of that en-
compasses other parts of me and
who I am,” says Sekai. “I don’t
want to be seen as the only black
woman in the room. I want to be
seen as Sekai, the actress that can
do this and that. Either I’ll be right
for the part or not, but it won’t be
because I’m black.”
As part of her transition into the
next chapter in her life, Sekai has
chosen to drop her last name Ed-
wards. “That name isn’t a part of
my people,” says Sekai. “It comes
from our family’s slave owners. I
don’t want any part of that.”
She hopes that other students
don’t let their inhibitions stop
them in their tracks, like they al-
most did for her.
“Sometimes we see what peo-
ple want us to see. With social
media, you’re seeing what that
person wants you to see. When
someone looks at me, they see me
as someone who got into Juilliard
and is really successful. What you
don’t see is the scholarship that I
didn’t win, the school I didn’t get
into, the time I took third place
or didn’t place and the time that
I failed. We tend to look at every
time someone succeeds but we
don’t see the 20 times that they
failed in between. A lot of times
we get discouraged when we fail
or fall down but understand that
you learn from that. You get up
and you apply for the next thing.
You don’t know if that’s what will
get you to the next level or not,
you have no idea what’s going to
happen down the road. You try. If
you’re shooting all the time for
things, eventually you’re going to
hit something. That’s what I say,
keep going and keep trying.”
For more on Sekai and her jour-
ney, go to her recently launched
website sekaiabeni.com.