From Homeless Kid to Successful Executive to College President

In July 2022, I went to Washington DC for the unveiling of the statue of Dr. Mary McCloud Bethune in the National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. It was a historical event—one that I’ll never forget. A lot of notable people had a lot of wonderful things to say about Dr. Bethune. One of the most impressive was Dr. Lawrence Drake, interim president of Bethune-Cookman University. It was an honor to have him as a guest on The Crossman Conversation.

Dr. Drake came from a disadvantaged background. Even though he was homeless and living on the street at the age of 16, he managed to go to college and make his mark in the corporate world. He was a division president with the Coca-Cola Company when he retired in 2007 and has pursued a variety of philanthropic and entrepreneurial endeavors since then. In 2021, he became dean of the College of Business & Entrepreneurship at Bethune-Cookman University and was appointed interim president in 2022.

“I’m incredibly proud and honored to serve as [BCU’s] president because, at this stage of my life, this is the best job I could ever have,” Dr. Drake said. “I get a chance to engage with students every day. What I hear them talk about is the future they’d like to have, and our job as an institution is to give them that future by providing an experiential learning framework for them to grow and develop, to be courageous—but most importantly, we want them to be curious.”

He talked about Dr. Bethune’s amazing history—how the daughter of former slaves became an educator, a civil rights pioneer and activist, an advisor to five U.S. presidents, part of the U.S. delegation that created the United Nations charter, an entrepreneur, and so much more—and how her legacy is living on at the university that she founded.

“We want our students to enter to learn and depart to serve, which was part of the ethos Dr. Bethune had,” Dr. Drake said. “She was trying to elevate the importance of human capital. We have to be focused on making sure that we give every opportunity for every person we touch to be the best version of themselves. And in that, we produce an asset that this state and this nation and the world can benefit from.”

You’ll want to hear more of Dr. Drake’s powerful message. Here’s the link:

https://www.theshepherdradio.com/podcasts/the-crossman-conversation/episode/s1e43-interim-president-of-bethune-cookman-lawrence-drake-shares-from-40-years-of-experience-in-business-and-education/

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Want to know why I’m so passionate about supporting HBCUs? Here’s the link to the show where I talk about that:

https://www.theshepherdradio.com/podcasts/the-crossman-conversation/episode/s1e29-special-guest-john-martinez-reverses-the-shows-typical-roles-and-interviews-john-crossman/

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The Honorable Belvin Perry is the chair of Bethune-Cookman’s Board of Trustees. Hear what he has to say about the importance of HBCUs:

https://www.theshepherdradio.com/podcasts/the-crossman-conversation/episode/s1e03-judge-belvin-perry-todays-guest-and-talks-the-root-of-american-law-the-importance-of-hbcus-and-what-it-is-like-to-be-a-judge/

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John Crossman is the founder of Crossman Career Builders, the host of The Crossman Conversation, and the author of Career Killers Career Builders. Check out Crossman Career Builders on YouTube. Connect with John on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.