Being the President of your school’s NAACP chapter and Vice President of all youth and college divisions of the NAACP in the state of Virginia is a huge accomplishment. However, Montae Taylor, is as humble as ever. Taylor is 20 and a junior at ODU and is Pre-Law, double majoring in Criminology and Sociology.
Taylor is from Richmond, VA and when he’s not fulfilling his presidential duties he enjoys listening to and making music and watching the Dallas Cowboys play football.
HC: How’d you get involved with NAACP?
MT: I went to event and spoke out about stuff and I basically got recruited and it just went from there.
HC: Describe a day in the life of the NAACP president?
MT: Lots of emails, Taylor laughs, lots and lots of emails! I have to stay current with news and what’s going on around the community. It’s also a constant bombardment of what African American students feel like is happening on campus, even my friends come to me like ‘Hey Tae this is going on, and this needs to be done’ it’s a lot.
HC: What do you consider to be your biggest accomplishment?
MT: Starting the Young Scholars Program. It’s a tutoring and mentoring program. We’re partnered with a local church and are expanding to partner with other colleges in the area.
HC: How has college changed or molded you to be the leader you are?
MT: It’s humbled me for sure! It made me sit down and shut up and realize I’m not the big dude; Made me realize more about myself and how to deal with and talk to people.
HC: Are you happy with choosing ODU as your school?
MT: Yeah definitely, it was my first choice.
HC: Do you feel your mission or passion would’ve been better driven or directed if you were at an HBCU?
MT: No, when I talk to people at an HBCU involved with the NAACP they can’t get people involved because they don’t see a diversity. For them they’re not black issues they’re life issues because everyone is black.
HC: What’s the most challenging thing about what you do?
MT: Keeping my head on straight. A lot of people don’t want me to do what I do and a lot of people don’t see how deep it gets.
HC: What’s the most rewarding?
MT: Seeing other people get involved and just becoming more aware of surroundings and voicing their opinions.
HC: Where do you see the biggest void in the African American community? What do you think should be done about it?
MT: Actions, everybody knows what’s wrong but not too many people actually move on it. Not even just diplomatic stuff but a change of lifestyle. That’s our biggest problem, people say we don’t have unity but we have unity we just don’t act on things.
HC: What advice would you give someone who wanted to be active in the black community?
MT: Do whatever it is that you thought about doing. We don’t have time to sit, if you think about something one night wake up the next day and see what you can do to make it happen. If you don’t do it that day then keep trying the next day and the next and eventually you’ll make it happen.
Although Taylor doesn’t see himself as making a difference because he said “I’ve just been doing me, I never intended to go anywhere with it” he is certainly an inspiration to many. Everyone can learn from the simple steps he took that led to him making major accomplishments.