By Dr. Gregory D. Williams
I must admit I am a bit of a dreamer when it comes to the way I see the world. I remain eternally hopeful that someday, despite recent evidence to the contrary, we will continue our journey toward greater support and understanding for each other. A few months ago, we shared with you our efforts to improve the world by sharing ‘good news’ on social media, primarily through Twitter. The work that many of us on the Odessa College team are doing is designed to remind us all, to paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that the arc of the universe is long and bends toward humanity for all.
In January 2021, I started looking for opportunities to share words of support, opportunity, and encouragement on Twitter in an effort to bring more positivity to ‘our corner’ of society and social media. At that time, I set a personal goal to Tweet every day, and I wanted to gain 1,000 followers. Now after 195 days in a row, to be exact, and many Tweets later, I currently have over 1,260 followers and that continues to grow. There have been a lot of great people who have helped me to achieve this milestone, and we are just getting started. This initiative is not about me, but about us! One person can only do so much, and I understand to make a real difference and a real impact, we must assemble a team of like-minded people to help us change our world.
Part of our College’s mission is to grow well-informed citizens of our community, our state, our nation and our world. Odessa College continues to normalize kindness and positivity, and we are looking for students who can be ambassadors for those efforts by becoming Positively OC Presidential Scholars.
In celebration of achieving the first milestone of 1,000 Twitter followers, we have created a new program under the Positively OC umbrella. The program will allow 10 Odessa College students to receive two years of tuition and fees, leadership development coordinated with the Office of the President and other campus leaders, and many more Positively OC Presidential Scholar opportunities.
Any new or continuing Odessa College student pursuing a certificate or associates degree at the college with a minimum 3.0 GPA is eligible.
Even though we have reached our initial goal, our work continues. We need more people to join the positivity movement! The we can do this movement! The I am enough movement! The we are in this together movement! So, as the positivity movement grows and my Twitter followers reach 3,000 and 5,000, Odessa College will increase to 20, and then to 30, the number of Positively OC Presidential Scholarships awarded annually.
Call to Action: Help us identify these outstanding citizens in our community who will help to make all of us better. Learn more at tinyurl.com/2vfdchm7.
Follow us on Twitter to learn more @OdessaCollege @OCPresGDW
