My name is David C. Mills Jr., and I am an engineering student at Columbia University from Nashville, TN. Disciplined Respected Entrepreneurs (D.R.E.) has had a subtle impact on my development as a student, a young entrepreneur, and as a young man.
Nashville is more liberal than most of the southern United States, yet it still experiences varying degrees of institutional discrimination. Fortunately, my parents made it their mission to expose me to successful black professionals at a very young age. I’ve served as a page in the Tennessee General Assembly where my father introduced me to many prominent African-Americans in the Tennessee Government. I’ve also attended several National Dental Association (NDA) conferences where my mother provided me with tremendous exposure to African-Americans in the medical community.
These experiences have provided me with an outlook on life that empowers me to believe that I can accomplish anything, period. One of my biggest frustrations in life has been that I’ve found it difficult to find intelligent blacks amongst my peers that share this perspective about their futures. Too often, my peers have either been discouraged by their teachers or, in the worst case, by their parents. I segregated myself from the “black crowd” at school, because I couldn’t connect with them as well in the classroom as I could in the gym or on the playground. My family prides itself on the ability to excel in the classroom, not just on the basketball court or the football field. It was disheartening that I wasn’t able to find the sense of accomplishment and hope in black youth that I so often found in my parents’ colleagues. Fortunately, I never lost faith.
Charles Fyffe once mentioned to me that D.R.E. also stands for Dream. Research. Execute. My father has always encouraged me to dream big and let my faith do the rest, so when I learned of D.R.E. at the Black Solidarity conference at Yale University this past spring, I immediately knew I needed to take advantage of this opportunity. Since joining, I have been involved with events where I have connected with fellow black students from across the country that are intelligent, but also share the drive and determination that, I believe, leads people to success. From the Executive Conclaves in New York City to when Howard University’s business fraternity hosted D.R.E., I have been engaged with current and prospective members of D.R.E.. The program has opened my eyes to the possibilities available when, as a community, African Americans collectively invest in our own future. I am honored to be a Disciplined Respected Entrepreneur, part of a group that is invested in the future of our community and I look forward to making history.
