Green Run High School senior C.J. Morris faced some special challenges growing up. His father was incarcerated twice before C.J. was in middle school, and he worked an after-school job to supplement the family income.
As one of only two African American boys in his classes who was in the gifted program at Windsor Oaks Elementary School, also had some special qualities.
These qualities, including academic talent and the determination to succeed, helped him to attract the attention of adult mentors.
Now 17, C.J. is looking forward to August, when he’ll enter Virginia Commonwealth University with the goal of eventually attending medical school and becoming an anesthesiologist.
C.J.’s involvement in Golden Fold, a community-based youth mentoring program sponsored by Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, helped him realize his first goal, that of being accepted into college.
“Before I was in Golden Fold, the only male role model I had was my grandfather,” said C.J., who grew up with his older brother, Larquan Riddick, in a household headed by their mother, Tiniki Riddick.
The grandfather, Bobby Lee Riddick, died when C.J. was in middle school; but C.J. also bonded to male adults in his church, Tabernacle Church of God and Christ, as well as to the mentors in Golden Fold, which he joined in the sixth grade.
(Photo - CJ's mother Tiniki Riddick, CJ, & Baldwin-Akin Varner in Green Run High School.)
C.J. became involved in Golden Fold through his friend Baldwin Varner, the son of Golden Fold Director Seko Varner and the only other African American boy in C.J.’s elementary school classes who was in the honors program.
(Photo of CJ (left front) & Baldwin-Akin Varner (Right front) in 2012 with The Golden Fold & SAAB members)
“C.J. is special because when I went to Windsor Oaks for their programs, there were very few children of color in these programs,” Varner said. “Then to have two in the same room was really special.”
When C.J. entered Green Run High, he also joined “Gentlemen Making a Change,” a support and mentoring group for Green Run students formerly directed by Varner, who was a former counselor at that school. GMAC is now directed by Golden Fold mentor and Green Run High School teacher Larry Reaves-Bey.
(Photo - Members of GMAC & The Golden Fold going to a conference)
“Mr. Varner changed my life,” C.J. said. “Golden Fold established a sense of being able to believe in yourself and who you are.”
The career and college counseling that C.J. received also helped him to choose a college and major.
(Photo - CJ and members of The Fold at Green Run for a Golden Fold special event in 2018)
“I like math and science, and I like helping people,” C.J. said. “The best way to incorporate math and science with helping people is to go into the medical field.”
C.J. is also involved in Impact Virginia Beach, a youth program within the Virginia Beach NAACP. He works part-time at Chick-Fil-A, and said it’s sometimes tough to balance school and work.
(Photo - Members of the NAACP's Impact Virginia Beach at a recent banquet)
“I’m vey proud of him,” said Tiniki Riddick. “He was the only young black man in his school to win the presidential award,” an award given to fifth-graders for academic excellence.
“Earning that pin made me want to keep moving forward,” C.J. said. “What I’ve learned from my challenges is that it’s not where you start, but where you finish.”
(Photo - CJ provides an STD training for The Golden Fold in 2017)
Va. Pilot article by By Jane Bloodworth Rowe:https://pilotonline.com/news/local/article_b904a7dc-3a94-11e8-b6bf-873218aca18a.html
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The Golden Fold Mentor Movement serves 6th - 12th grade youth by providing seminar based Big-Brother-type activities in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Contact: thegoldenfoldmovement @ gmail (dot) com or call 757-932-0177. The Golden Fold is a "Brothers and Others" Community Improvement activity of the Gamma Xi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi and the Gamma Xi Uplift Foundation.
