Motivational speaker Greg Forbes Siegman recounted his life story to a roomful of Boston College students last Tuesday - a story which has garnered both admiration and bewilderment from the media since Siegman began speaking publicly in 1997. The event was co-sponsored by the Ignation Society of BC, the UGBC, Campus Ministry, the Women's Resource Center, Keyes Hall Council, First Year Experience, and White Mountain Creamery ice cream shop, which served milkshakes to students who wanted to speak with Siegman after his speech.
Siegman is the head of a successful non-profit organization called the Brunch Bunch, which has one simple goal: send kids to college; but Siegman emphasized that the implications of this organization are rooted in something much larger. Too often, he argued, people underestimate what they can accomplish. The Brunch Bunch is the culmination of a decade spent bringing more opportunities to America's less-privileged children.
Siegman began his speech with a series of anecdotes from his childhood. Raised in large part by his grandmother, Siegman found creative ways to entertain himself, while wrapping himself up in his schoolwork and enduring occasional bullying from his peers. Siegman's growing imagination could be demonstrated, he said, in a list he constructed of things to do before he turned 30 - ranging from arguing a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, directing an Oscar-winning film, and becoming President.
After graduating first in his class from his elite, suburban high school, Siegman anticipated acceptance into the school of his choice and didn't bother to apply to any safety schools. What he didn't account for was one high school teacher who decided he needed a reality check.
That teacher wrote Siegman a scathing letter of recommendation, telling the Ivy League admissions officers that Siegman lacked the intellectual capacity to attend an elite university. After telephoning colleges around the country, Siegman finally found a small school in Louisiana that would accept him.
Siegman spent his first semester at that unidentified school in his dorm room hallway, protesting the fact that he wasn't studying at Harvard. He hung a poster of Martin Luther King on his door to symbolize the injustice of his rejection from Harvard.
One day a classmate told Siegman that she turned down the Ivies to come to Louisiana - a statement that changed Siegman's perspective. Once he started opening up to his fellow students, Siegman began to gain an appreciation for the school, becoming one of the most active students on campus and finding ways to give back to the community.
"What used to be a chip on my shoulder had now become a motivation to do something positive," he said. "The poster of Martin Luther King on my door no longer symbolized injustice, but the struggles of people for basic civil rights."Although Siegman had formed close relationships at school by the end of his sophomore year, he felt compelled to earn a diploma from a more prestigious university. While visiting his family in Chicago, he strode into the admission office at Northwestern University and demanded a transfer. "This is the part of the story that most people find unbelievable," Siegman said. "I showed up at the office that morning, and by the end of the day, I was a student."
Siegman made the on-duty admission officer a proposal. He would pay full tuition, and if he made it to the end of the academic year with no grade below an A, he could remain for his senior year and graduate with a full diploma. If he failed, there would be no record of him ever attending the university.
Siegman now found his life back on track, attending an elite university, juggling job interviews with America's best companies. All this success, however, left him unfulfilled. While in Louisiana, he had worked as a school teacher part-time, and back in Chicago he increasingly came to the realization that teaching was his true calling and returned to his teaching gig in Louisiana.
Siegman began to win over students in his overwhelmingly black school district. One day he ran into two students and decided to take them out for milkshakes. Ever Sunday ever since, Siegman would take the town's children out for milkshakes in order to break down racial stereotypes and foster community spirit.
The Brunch Bunch concept has since grown into a full-blown non-profit, presented on Good Morning America and in The Washington Post. Siegman has awarded scholarships to students who have overcome poverty and students with physical handicaps as part of his "11 - 10 - 02 Foundation".
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