On Thursday, Nov. 19, University of New Hampshire alumnus Tito Jackson visited the Rockingham Lounge to give students an inside look into his life and to express his visions of leadership to members of the student body.
As 20 students sat and listened, Jackson brought a friendly and comfortable atmosphere to the room. He easily opened up to the students, as the topics he covered included his own personal background, ambitions, involvement and experiences at UNH, as well as his message to the students that surrounded him.
“When you pass from this life, there’s your name, the date you were born, and the day you passed away,” Jackson stated to his listeners. “In the middle there is a hyphen, and that’s your life. This should be represented by how much you changed the world.”
Jackson spoke of being adopted when he was just one month old and talked openly about his adoptive family. He also joked about having five sisters and a lack of shower time.
He thoroughly engaged his audience with feelings of change.
Jackson also discussed being involved in one’s community and taking advantage of college and the time students have here to improve themselves. He focused on the wide varieties of subjects that allow a person to grasp their potential and improve the world they live in through action.
Freshman Amber Davis, a biochemistry major, gave her insight into the message that she took from Jackson’s lecture.
“Make a difference,” Davis said. “If there's something you see that you don't like, do something about it. Young people are the ones who make change happen.”
Julie Rocco, a sophomore at UNH, also attended the leadership event. Currently speaker of the UNH student senate and the vice-president of operations for Kappa Delta sorority, Rocco hoped to learn more about leadership and getting involved in government after interning at the Massachusetts State House this past summer.
Rocco said she learned a lot from the lecture, including the importance of being proactive and passionate in order to make a change in one’s community.
Currently, Jackson is the industry director for information technology in Governor Deval Patrick’s Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development in Boston, MA.
In this position, Jackson serves to recruit and retain companies in the state of Massachusetts in order to create and retain job opportunities for the community.
After graduating from UNH in 1999, Jackson found himself with a major in history, but no idea what to do with it.
However, Jackson soon found a spot at Johnson & Johnson doing pharmaceutical sales, as the organization found his drive to succeed a welcome addition to their company.
Involving himself in non-profit organizations and volunteering with children in the Boston community, Jackson soon became fond of government and improving his position to make a difference, finding a home in Deval Patrick’s campaign to be re-elected as governor. He has been working for the last two years with the governor.
“Starting off, I would go out late at night with my friends and have them help me post flyers on cars all over the city,” Jackson said of his early work in Patrick’s campaign. “My friends loved it though, because when I asked for help they knew I was buying the drinks that night.”
Jackson himself ran for Boston City Council, accumulating 30,000 votes from his community. He found himself with the fifth highest votes; only the four candidates with the highest votes received spots on the city council.
After graduating from Brookline High School, Jackson found himself looking into Morehouse College in Georgia, a historically black all male school, and the college Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. attended. However, Roger Beattie, a coordinator for minority recruitment and retention at UNH, paid for Jackson’s UNH application.
“Without Roger Beattie,” Jackson said. “I never would have come to UNH.”
Arriving at UNH the first day of his freshman year, Jackson was shocked to find only one other black student in his dorm.
He quickly formed the Black Student Union, which provides a safe and comfortable environment for black students at UNH. The Union became involved in getting petitions for the university to bring more black students to UNH who were non-athletes.
At the time, only 55 black students were enrolled at UNH, and the majority were involved in athletics. The Union also participated in a sit-in at the UNH president’s office, which ended in a negotiation for a proactive recruitment of minority students.
Jackson’s success with not only black students, but with the university as a whole, led to his election as the second black student body president at UNH in 1997 and 1998.
“You only need a small group to make a change,” Jackson said. “When you make that step, it creates change.”
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