(relaxed music)
-: You know, I was the first person in my immediate family
to go to college.
I had some very excellent high school teachers
in the public schools of Chicago,
so I was convinced that when I came to Gustavus
I was going to take the professional education courses
and become a secondary ed teacher.
Gustavus afforded the opportunity for students
to do independent studies in the subject of African history.
I had a number of experiences there at Gustavus
that really propelled me on the path
that brought me to Charleston today.
I have been involved in the AME church all of my life.
I joined with a couple of colleagues to write a book
which tried to contextualize the racially motivated
murders that occurred over at Emmanuel AME Church
in June of 2015.
We wanted to try to memorialize the lives of those people
who lost their lives, and we wanted to make sure
that the reading public understand what kind of people
these were, what kind of contributions they had made
to this community, what their great potential was
to continue to do good.
I have found that a lot of times,
people look at the position that you occupy
and they look to you to be the voice of the voiceless.
There's a lot of responsibility there.
There's risk as well as reward,
and you do what you can to try to improve the community
that you are a part of and make the lives of those
who live here better in whatever way that you can.
I am Dr. Bernard Powers, and I'm a Gustie.
Make your life count.