What I’m Reading: ‘The Memo’

Higher education is the training ground for the leaders who will develop solutions to the pressing social-justice challenges of the 21st century. The Memo: Five Rules for Your Economic Liberation by John Hope Bryant (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2017) serves as an indispensable guide for developing the core competencies of ethical leadership in students. Such leadership is rooted in critical thinking, strategic action, and a moral responsibility to leave the world a better place than we found it.

Bryant, founder and chief executive of the nonprofit Operation HOPE, offers a framework for engaging students in a robust exchange of ideas by drawing upon the entrepreneurial spirit of innovation. The foundation of entrepreneurship is seeing a problem and creating a solution.

Through his organization, which trains people in financial literacy, Bryant is tackling poverty and inequality. He is building new ladders to economic liberation through education and community mobilization. This same ingenuity and creative problem-solving can be used at colleges to deal with a myriad of social-justice challenges through a multidisciplinary approach.

Bryant reminds us that “we need a generation of builders.” Higher education can equip our students with the necessary tools to build a more just and inclusive society. We are the leaders who can guide them toward that goal.

Artika R. Tyner is director of the Center on Race, Leadership and Social Justice at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, in Minnesota.