When
Willie Love, a recent graduate from Carnahan High School of the
Future, lost his father last year, he said Tony Thompson helped him
keep his life on track.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“He always been there for me,” Love said of Thompson, president/CEO of the Kwame Building Group. “He always tells me to follow my dreams and don’t give up on what I’ve been fighting for.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Love is a part of the Gentlemen’s Club, a mentoring group sponsored by the Kwame Foundation. In the fall, this high-achieving student and athlete will attend Missouri Western State University to study pre-law. For the past four years, every senior in the club has graduated from high school, and 98 percent of them have gone on to college.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“Our concept is working,” Thompson said. “There’s something about this group of men that enjoy being mentored by another group of men. If we can replicate that in the general public, then we’d be on to something.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>From the looks of it, Thompson won’t stop until he finds a way to do it. This year through the Kwame Foundation, Thompson established the Tyrone Thompson Institute for Nonviolence to help students with behavioral problems stay on track in school. For years, the foundation has also endowed scholarships for minority youth at several area colleges and universities.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Aside from the foundation, Thompson sits on several boards, including those for Teach for America, KIPP Inspire Academy, the St. Louis Public Schools’ Herzog Elementary School, Webster University’s Board of Trustees and the Regional Business Council’s K-12 board.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“There’s nothing more important in our society right now than getting our public education system back on track,” Thompson said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>On September 16, Thompson will receive the 2011 Stellar Performer in Education Award at the St. Louis American Foundation’s 2011 Salute to Excellence in Education Scholarship & Awards Gala. The dinner and gala will be held at the America’s Center.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>‘You will finish school’
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>When Thompson was in junior high, he remembers skipping school one day.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“My father gave me a nice beat down,” he said. “I didn’t know why he was so mad about it. He told me, ‘You will finish school.’ I had never thought about not finishing.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Thompson went on to earn four degrees, including a B.A. in environmental design and a B.S. in architectural engineering both from the University of Kansas, an M.S. in civil engineering from Washington University, and an MBA in finance from Webster University.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>It wasn’t until he graduated with his masters from Wash. U. that he would find out his father never went to college as a young man, but had been taking courses and earned his degree at the same time Thompson earned his masters.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I didn’t know my entire life that he didn’t have a degree,” Thompson said. “I know now as a parent why he was so angry. He wanted something better for us.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>His mother Betty Thompson, the legendary former state representative, consistently involved him in volunteering as a kid.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“My father stressed the importance of education, my mother was stressing importance of giving back,” he said. “That was the balance that the two of them brought to my life. Through education I combine the two.”
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Supporting minority students
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Benjamin Akande, dean of the school of business and technology at Webster University, said he has always looked at Thompson as a force of nature.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“He is a person that is clearly anchored in his beliefs and what he stands for,” Akande said. “Whether you are talking to Tony about family, or his passion for education and lifting up others, or whether you’re talking to Tony about business, what radiates is that passion. It represents the best of what is St. Louis.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Webster is just one college of many that receive support from the Kwame Foundation for minority student scholarships.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“By having a variety of institutions that I fund, I want to make sure that wherever a youth wants to go to college, they can go,” he said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>If students have perfect SAT scores, he wants to make sure there are scholarships to Washington University. If they want to start at a community college, Kwame has scholarships at several. The foundation funds $60,000 to $70,000 in scholarships every year.
‘Creative yet achievable’
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>As an alum, Thompson helped Wash. U. to improve its student diversity, said Ralph Quatrano, dean of the school of engineering and applied sciences.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“He comes across with ideas that are creative but are yet achievable, and those are the greatest ideas to come up with,” Quatrano said of Thompson.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Thompson’s idea was to encourage underrepresented minorities at small liberal arts colleges to attend Wash. U. after they had three years of college under their belt. Then in two additional years, they would get an engineering degree at the higher institution, he said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“Within a matter of minutes, Tony came up with a solution. He said he would help do it and would contribute scholarship support for this opportunity,” Quatrano said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Thompson has also been on the regional St. Louis Teach for America board for more than six years.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“He believes in the genius of all of our students, regardless of where they come from, and he aligns his work, his time and his generosity towards those ends, to ensuring that they have an excellent education,” said Scott Baier, executive director of Teach for America St. Louis.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“You will never find the guy to say no when children are involved.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>One of Thompson’s efforts that most impresses Baier is the Gentlemen’s Club.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Love said that ever since he got into the Gentlemen’s Club, Thompson has helped him see “a whole new aspect of life.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The other members agreed.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“Not only does he tell us to do the right things, he makes us believe that we can succeed in life also,” said Wendell Dorsey, a member of the Gentlemen’s Club and graduated senior at Carnahan.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Remembering Tyrone
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>With the Institute of Nonviolence, Thompson intends to teach young men skills to avoid violence. Instead of suspended students staying at home for days, the institute will work with the St. Louis Public Schools to place these students in a suspension room at the school, where an African-American male tutor would tell them about the importance of education and tutor them on the work they are missing by being out of regular class.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Students will also learn about history of African Americans who were not able to get education in this country and nonviolent communication.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The institute honors Tyrone Thompson, Tony’s brother, a nonviolent advocate and youth mentor, who was shot and killed by a teenager last year.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“When you hear Tony talk about Tyrone, he doesn’t talk about him in the past tense, he talks about him in the present tense and the fact that Tyrone will be with him for the rest of his life,” Akande said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The love he has for his family and for his community represents the totality of Tony Thompson, Akande said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Akande said, “It’s a capture of a remarkable man, who is grounded and who understands that he has an obligation to leave this place better than he found it and who is working passionately every since day to ensure that happens.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The St. Louis American Foundation’s 2011 Salute to Excellence in Education Scholarship & Awards Gala will be held Friday, September 16, at the America’s Center, with the reception starting at 6 p.m. and program at 7 p.m. For information and tickets, please call 314-533-8000 or visit www.
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