Brown ’96, a model of strength and security
The first in her family to earn a college diploma, Velynn Frazier Brown ’96 felt an urgency to give back to her community after graduating from Lewis & Clark.
As an undergraduate, Brown was active in theater and served as a resident assistant and president of the Black Student Union.
Today, she is a professional mentor, who works full-time with Friends of the Children. The program makes a 10-year commitment to the community’s most at-risk children by pledging to provide each child with a meaningful one-on-one relationship, starting at age six or seven.
Parade magazine recognized Brown’s work and featured her in its May 28 issue.
"I met eight little first-grade girls," Brown says. "They come from worlds of failure and uncertainty and still have the energy and strength to give life one more chance. They come from drug-abusing and alcoholic family environments. Sometimes Mom can only afford to feed them one good meal a day."
The father of one of her children was gunned down, shot in the head, causing the child to become extremely withdrawn and depressed. Several other children have fathers in prison.
To empathize with the children, Brown draws from personal experience, which includes the painful loss of a close relative due to a drug-related overdose.
"As a mentor, it is my job to represent strength and security," Brown says. "Lewis & Clark taught me how to express and articulate who I am, even in times of conflict and misunderstanding. My girls and I started in the same world. Although they must find their own way, the greatest gifts I can give them are the ability and confidence it takes to speak with their own voices."
Brown meets a couple times a week with each child, now ages 10 and 11, to help them with their studies and to expose them to a wide range of experiences and opportunities. She may teach one of the children good hygiene or take her ice-skating. Then again, Brown may just sit with the child, listening to her and helping her with problems at home.
"When I grow up, I want to be just like you, Velynn," one of her girls wrote.
Through the program, Brown pursues one of her career goals of giving back to her African American community.
Says Brown, "I must rise not only for myself but also because of where I’ve come from and, most important, for future generations."
Brown, whose maiden name is Frazier, was married in the summer of 1998. All eight of the girls were part of the wedding ceremony. Now in her fifth year as a Friend, she is determined to stay with her children as long as possible, preferably the entire 10 years they’re in the program.
"I believe in my families; I believe that they can change," she says. "There’s so much weight, so much oppression. They have to have someone to show them how to change. I know my little girls see themselves in me."
Sometimes, Brown’s heart sinks after she drives one of her girls home to a family that is in chaos. But she is convinced that over the long run she is helping to empower each of her children to overcome many of the obstacles they face.
"It’s about attitude. It’s those baby steps that I know will make a difference," Brown affirms.
—by John Furry
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