It was a particular second in April 2025 for longtime Harlem neighborhood chief Yasmin Hurston Cornelius: Her son Ajani Cornelius was about to obtain the decision from the Dallas Cowboys that he was drafted. The household had rented a home and had round 75 relations and pals all ready for the decision in the course of the three-day NFL Draft. She was crying tears of pleasure.
“It’s like childbirth,” Cornelius mentioned. “All of the ache and anguish that occurred earlier than the kid — as soon as that child got here, you overlook every part, and also you’re simply joyful.”
Cornelius, 54, now runs 2 Sports activities Mothers, a nonprofit she co-founded with lifelong good friend Dr. Sabratha Thomas. The group gives help sources for student-athletes and their households. They’re celebrating their first anniversary this week.
Advocacy has been central to Cornelius’s work all through her life. In all of her experiences, she mentioned the frequent thread she realized is that folks don’t want solely entry however steerage as effectively.
“A number of instances, folks have a lot entry to alternatives, however they don’t at all times know learn how to perceive or learn how to help or learn how to navigate the system to get these alternatives, and that’s the place the guessing comes,” Cornelius mentioned.
In Harlem and past, Cornelius has held management roles with the NAACP; labored at totally different ranges of metropolis authorities, together with the New York State Meeting; served as district supervisor for Group Board (CB) 10; and held senior titles with actual property corporations. She has additionally hosted and produced reveals with WHCR and WWRL. She credit figures like Harlem chief Jackie Rowe Adams as longtime mentors and inspirations.
Born and raised in Harlem, Cornelius has lived in the identical condominium for nearly all of her life. Her constructing at a hundred and tenth and seventh Avenue is a Housing Improvement Fund Company (HDFC), of which she is a co-owner. At one level, she served as president of her constructing. Her mom, Azeeza Hurston, was a distinguished tenant activist and liable for turning the constructing into an HDFC.
Cornelius attended the Harlem College of the Arts and Laguardia Excessive College. As a baby, she was additionally concerned in serving to to feed the homeless. She was quickly related to the NAACP via the ACT-SO youth program, finally turning into Youth Council president, a nationwide board member, and president of the Mid-Manhattan department. She graduated from Metropolis School, the place she additionally based its NAACP chapter.
As district supervisor for CB10 within the mid 2000s, Cornelius was in a position to deliver sources on to neighborhood members. In 2016, she was elected as a New York State Meeting Committee member for Harlem’s seventieth District.
Professionally, Cornelius labored in neighborhood and actual property growth with the Native Initiative Assist Company (LISC) and the L&M actual property agency, the place she created and led the Group Affairs Division. She left that position in 2024 to deal with supporting Ajani, 23, via his pre-draft transition course of. It was round this time that she based the nonprofit after connecting with a number of different mother and father and feeling there was a necessity for help.
“We deal with making the student-athletes ready, not simply bodily, however academically, mentally, and emotionally, and that their households really feel geared up to help them,” Cornelius mentioned about 2 Sports activities Mothers. They work with scholar athletes ages 8 to 21 and their households, present mentorship and different alternatives, and steerage about learn how to navigate selections on the sector and past.
“It’s at all times nice when that athlete is doing effectively, however what occurs when one thing happens, when that recreation is misplaced, or if there may be an harm — how do you help that athlete … how do you deal with massive moments?” Cornelius requested.
To Cornelius, lively parenting is necessary in supporting no matter their youngsters’s pursuits are.
“There have been instances we didn’t have all of the solutions, however we stored transferring, studying, and advocating in actual time,” she mentioned. “(Ajani’s) journey has been inspiring, not simply due to the place he’s, however due to the self-discipline, the resilience, and dedication it took to get there. He confirmed me what it seems to be like to remain prepared and rise to the second.”
Cornelius additionally celebrates her older son, Tchiyuka, 26, who has adopted her footsteps into property administration.
“I’ve raised two younger males who took totally different paths, however the identical blueprint carried them … in understanding who they’re, and that’s why this work issues to me,” Cornelius mentioned. “They each had their very own paths, however I used to be so pleased with each of them and the place they landed.”
