Chris Sain Jr.

Statistics said I'd be dead or in jail by 25. The data suggested that as a first generation college student, I didn't have the grit, the mental toughness and educational capacity to persist and earn a degree and that I was not "college material." The constant message I received from society and the media was that black men are failures. We are only good at going to prison.  Unfortunately, I didn't get the memo. Institutions of Higher Learning had not yet met me. Who was I? I was a young man determined to defy the odds. I was a young man that was Book Smart, Street Smart and had Common Sense and knew that institutions of Higher Learning had never seen an individual who possessed all three of these attributes and characteristics. I was a Urban Young Professional, wise beyond my years that blew the roof off of Michigan State University, Saginaw Valley State University and Wayne State University. At the age of 24, I graduated top of my class with a Mast