Born and raised in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia, Rev. Elisha Morris is a 1975 graduate of Germantown High School and a 1984 graduate of Cheyney University of PA. Licensed to preach in 1986, he was Ordained in 1994 by Bishop O. T. Jones, Jr. Rev. Morris was an Associate Minister/Elder at the Mount Airy COGIC, founded by Bishop Ernest C. Morris, for 30 years. Currently he serves as the Second Assistant Pastor at the Higher Ground Temple COGIC under Superintendent Edward M. Barron in Camden, N.J. Rev. Morris is involved in many community organizations.
Recently, Rev. Morris spoke to FunTimes in an interview.
What does HBCU mean to you and how has your experience impacted what you do in the community?
As a graduate of Cheyney University, I am happy to say I would not be where and what I am today had it not been for Cheyney. Cheyney’s colors are blue and white and “I bleed Cheyney blue blood” daily. Cheyney took the man and made him a Change Agent/Seeker of Truth and my family and friends are better because Cheyney made a difference in me and set me on a path to make the world better, one child at a time. I was happy to return to Cheyney as the Assistant Director for Career Services and the Internship Coordinator in 2010. In 3.5 years, I was able to host America’s First ever Corrections Job & Internship Fair held on an HBCU campus during Black History Month (2/7/13). This historic event resulted in five internships and many jobs between 2013 and 2015, numbers that had never been achieved before. The relationships built on an HBCU campus last a lifetime and can be called upon for assistance or encouragement from the time they are created until the grave.
How can the lot of HBCUs’ be better?
HBCU graduates must join and support their local and national alumni associations! Money is the lifeline, the blood of any college, but it is that times ten to an HBCU because very few graduates from an HBCU start a business and even fewer grow i to be more than a ten-person company. At White colleges, graduates become business owners or go into the family business, thus making it easier to give donations to their college, both from their own pocket and from their business, which is a tax write-off. Black HBCU graduates must find ways to give back after giving from their pocket; encourage their family and friends to be auxiliary members of the local HBCUs alumni chapters. Chair a committee, get your classmates and even recent graduates to join your committee and put them to work raising money, recruiting students, planning golf or card parties or BBQ contests, Boat rides, Cruise for Scholars for your HBCU as fundraisers. HBCUs graduates must bring back to their campus, businesses that would otherwise never set foot on that campus, in order that cutting edge current best practices can be presented to the students in real-time. Whereas now, most HBCU graduates learn about cutting edge practices in their chosen field after graduation and seem unsure of themselves when first hired. Internships and alumni interaction on campus for every major would go a long way to alleviating this situation in undergrad classes.
