A Father’s Dream, A Son’s Future
On March 7, prior to the
COVID-19 stay-at-home
directives and travel
restrictions, Jeanclaude Ndango
‘20 found himself in a conference
ballroom in Sutton, West Virginia,
momentarily stunned. It took him
at least 10 seconds to register that
his name had just been called to
receive the prestigious Dr. Anne
Crum Student Leadership Award
and Scholarship. As he walked
up to the podium amidst a sea of
smiling faces, Ndango was still
trying to take in what exactly was
happening. “I didn’t know anything
about the award. When they called
my name, I was shocked,” explained
Ndango.
A transfer student and Human
Service Associate major, he thought
he was attending the West Virginia
TRiO Association’s annual Student
17 ACCESS ACM / Reimagining Dreams
Leadership
Conference at
the Flatwood
Conference
Center to learn
more about
other TRiO
programs
in the region. But he had been
nominated for Crum Award and
Scholarship, an award for students
who demonstrate incredible potential
and promise.
Ndango immigrated to the U.S.
at the age of nine and spoke very
little English at the time. His parents
brought their family to the States
from Cameroon, West Africa, to
make sure that their children had the
opportunity to earn a good education.
Soft-spoken Ndango brought his
A-game to the basketball court,
playing at High Point High School in
Beltsville before transferring to play
at Theodore Roosevelt High School in
Washington, D.C. During this time,
he met Coach Harry Asante
while playing in the Maryland
District Amateur Athletic
Union (AAU) summer
league. He watched how
Asante worked with his
players, offering advice
and guidance for life on
and off the court. He saw
a glimpse of what his
future could be.
R.C. Cofield, advisement coordinator
for ACM’s Pathways for Success
(TRiO) program, attended the
Student Leadership Conference with
Jeanclaude Ndango and Tara DeVore,
program director.
His father, who had always hoped
that college would be part of his
son’s plans, suffered a debilitating
stroke while Ndango was still in high
school. Following his graduation
from Roosevelt in 2014, Ndango
immediately went to work with his
brother to support their family. A few
years later, his father passed away.
“I locked myself away emotionally
from everyone after the death of
my dad,” said Ndango. “But then
I realized that I shouldn’t let the
things I couldn’t do anything about
interfere with the things I that I could
do a great deal about. I needed to
be strong if I really wanted to help
young adults like Coach Asante had
helped me.“
When he finished retreating inward,
Ndango enrolled at ACM in 2017. As
Tara DeVore, ACM’s Pathways for
Success (TRiO) program director, tells
it, “Jeanclaude decided to fulfill his
own passion and his father’s dream
so he enrolled at ACM.”
A first-generation college
student, Ndango’s grades improved
Potential and promise was something
that Ndango’s father and mother had
always seen in him. ” “
continued on page 19
ACM’s Pathways for Success Program is a federally-funded TRiO Student
Support Services program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.
Program goals include increasing the retention, grade point average, graduation
and transfer rates of first generation, income eligible students as well as those
students with documented disabilities. The program is funded to serve 140
ACM students annually.