In the course of the 53rd annual Harlem YMCA Black Achievers in Business (bai) Gala, just lately held on the Marriott Marquis resort in Midtown, 17 year-old scholar Maurice Anderson acquired the Carrie Terrell Award for his management in this system and past. Based by Dr. Leo B. Marsh in 1971, the Harlem YMCA’s bai initiative serves as a scholar enrichment program geared toward supporting highschool college students towards their path to varsity.
Anderson, born and raised in Harlem, is a senior at Thurgood Marshall Academy which he has attended since kindergarten. His aspirations embrace mechanical engineering, rooted in his love of constructing issues resembling Legos, and ultimately becoming a member of the robotics crew in school. However, he stated it was the assist from the YMCA/bai program leaders that impressed him to excel, prompting “Black excellence.”
Anderson first joined the YMCA at age 14. Along with the assist of his household at residence, it was the mentorship and instruments supplied from leaders in this system that benefited him in his journey.
After college in the course of the week, Anderson goes to the YMCA like others within the teen program the place he has entry to completely different sources like STEM actions, tutoring, basketball, and school readiness programs. At Thurgood, he excels each academically and athletically as a member of the Squash crew. In 2023, he and his crew just lately made historical past as the primary all-Black crew to make the U.S. Squash Excessive Faculty Crew Nationals.
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Chris Foster, government Director for the Harlem YMCA, has been considered one of Anderson’s mentors in this system. They first met on one hundred and thirty fifth Road and Lenox down the block from the constructing when Anderson, who was together with his different classmates, launched himself to Foster and demonstrated “such character and management.”
“I see Maurice as being somebody who’s keen to be taught and somebody who’s keen to adapt and step as much as a problem,” Foster stated as he served on the board that chosen Anderson for the award.
Sources on the YMCA that Anderson stated he has utilized embrace the Teen Middle, Chief’s Membership, and Rowe’s Students, a school readiness program for college kids all through the town.
Anderson can also be lively in My Brother’s Keeper — an initiative launched by former President Barack Obama in 2014 — which serves as skilled growth and assist house for younger males of coloration. Anderson is now a fellow, the very best rank in this system. On this setting, the younger males create house to talk overtly about points of their group, whereas additionally providing psychological well being assist sources and collaborating in group service tasks.
As a part of the bai initiative, Anderson and different teenagers participated in an HBCU school tour throughout the nation. Nearer to creating a choice, a few of his prime decisions are SUNY Binghamton and Albany, the place he stated he’s trying to proceed management on campus.
A profession in mechanical engineering is just not the one path Anderson sees as he’s trying to turn out to be an entrepreneur proudly owning a enterprise and become involved in actual property properties throughout New York. Like different graduates from the YMCA and bai over time, he plans are remaining linked with this system going ahead.
“I don’t suppose there’ll ever be a time in my life that I’ll neglect the YMCA, that I wouldn’t come again to go to as a result of on the finish of the day, they’ve granted me the chance and a blessing for being a youth achiever and for giving me a spot that I can name residence,” he added.
