He is the definition of what a role model should be.” A Mentor, An Activist, An InspirationĬarol Ann Jackson graduated from Quinnipiac in May of 2013 and was offered a full-time job in a Fortune 500 company. Volpe states, “He has helped better the community as well and has given many children hope through his Crossroads Collective Program. He shares, as well, that Sawyer has an uncanny ability to encourage students to maintain a positive mindset to face any future challenges. Volpe notes that while many people focus on obstacles to their goals, Sawyer helps his students move past that point of view, showing that he cares about his students and their ability to carry something valuable from the semester. Volpe calls Sawyer a “father, role model, and inspiration.” Recalling his first week of class, Volpe remembers Sawyer posing a provocative question: “What would you do, if you knew you could not fail at whatever you chose to do in life?” Kevin Volpe, another of Sawyer’s former students at Quinnipiac, explains that Sawyer is more than just a professor to him. He works to help with understanding that your reality is not everyone else’s, an important aspect when studying how human society functions.” Sociology is a broad subject in which every aspect can be debated. He educates his students to learn application of concepts. ![]() She adds, “Sawyer does not simply teach terms and facts. Don Sawyer’s courses as both entertaining and enlightening, as he uses media, discussion, historical events, and personal experiences to dissect topics in the classroom. He shared my passion, he shared my vision, and he found a way to bring his scholarship to the real world.” If You Could Not Fail She notes, “For the first time in my life, I met someone who had made it out of the hood and into the academic sphere, and he used his life and expertise to interrupt the various systems that affect kids who were like us. In part her life was changed, she explains, because she learned about herself even as she learned more about the dynamics of hip hop and a culture she claims is essential to her sense of self as a young black woman, a culture that is “constantly misrepresented and overlooked.”Īs she learned more about Sawyer’s background and adversities he had faced, she realized that it was possible for someone like her to become someone like Sawyer. “Don not only studies what he teaches, he has lived it and brings a unique and powerful perspective to the classroom.” “His lessons weren’t just based on theory,” she adds. Jackson adds that Sawyer brought more than just academic research into the classroom he Skyped musical artists and brought in classroom guests. Though Jackson had taken a number of undergraduate sociology classes, she notes that Sawyer “changed the game” when he came to Quinnipiac- bringing “passion, perspective, expertise, and difference.” Don Sawyer changed her life in a number of ways, after she first encountered Sawyer in his “Sociology of Hip Hop” class. Sawyer offers these young men a way to use hip-hop as a medium of expression to discuss “their pain, faith, hopes and dreams and provide an outlet for the things they were going through.” Sociology of Hip Hopįormer Quinnipiac student Carol Ann Jackson explains that meeting Dr. Don Sawyer developed the Crossroads Collective program to meet with Wilbur High School African- American and Latino males who are not attending school and who are overly represented in the discipline process. ![]() In addition to making "Sociology of Hip Hop" the most popular offering in Quinnipiac University's Sociology department, associate professor Dr.
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