TC alumnus Brandon Martin (M.A. ’16) didn’t intend to become a full-time educator when he took on his first teaching role. At the time, Martin was a marketing student at the University of Georgia (UGA) on a full academic scholarship when a science course required him to co-teach  kindergarteners. When his Black male students learned that he was a UGA student, they were eager to know what position he played, already believing that athletics were the core path to college for a young Black man. Indeed, Black men are underrepresented in colleges and universities while simultaneously being overrepresented in collegiate athletic programs. Martin’s response to students was lighthearted — saying, “I don’t play a position at all. I play a calculator, if we want to count that” — but he was shaken by the question because it had never crossed his mind that athletics would be his only path to college.

After that experience, Martin pivoted his career goals, moving back to his hometown of Atlanta to become a sixth-grade science teacher. Once again, the Black boys in his class felt that athletics were their main path to success, but this time Martin recognized what was missing. Athletes and rappers were often the most relatable aspirational figures his students saw in the media, and even more importantly for Martin, they didn’t have mentors who could serve as positive examples. This was the inspiration behind the Close Ties Leadership Program, an Atlanta-based non-profit founded in 2016, shortly after Martin graduated from TC’s Education Leadership program.

Close Ties aims to create a generation of confident Black leaders by offering a host of support services for boys in fifth through 12th grade, including college tours, early exposure to careers, mentorship opportunities and programming to cultivate social-emotional skills. 

“To believe that Black boys are the reason for the gap in achievement means that we would believe that they were born that way,” says Martin. “They just need an opportunity to see somebody who has proven that it's possible for them to believe in themselves.” 

Driven by a belief in the “inherent genius” of Black boys, Martin takes pride in the opportunities that his organization provides to more than 125 students, from alumni-led college tours to career workshops with the likes of Don Roberts, the trumpet player and executive band director for Beyoncé’s 2018 Coachella performance. “We have grown tremendously, but we are still in line to deliver the same level of excellent service,” says Martin.

We sat down with Martin to learn more about his nationally-recognized organization and the impact of his TC education.

Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

There's been a lot of negative portrayals of Black boys and men. Why is it important to counter those narratives?

BM: We start our boys with the understanding that Black men are leaders, that Black men can be successful and they start that [path] as Black boys. We also let them know from the beginning that if you keep portraying these [negative stereotypes] it'll make you believe that this is the truth, even though it may not be. I tell them all the time, “Change the way people think. Don't ever believe the way they think is right.” 

There is strength to having a counter narrative of Black men who are going off to college, who are fulfilling their dreams and leading families. We don't allow [negative portrayals] enter their psyche because we fill them with so much positivity of who they naturally are. We try to keep our boys rooted in their own truth first, then they can live their truth and change the way other people think.

How has your TC education informed your work with Close Ties?

When I first started TC in 2015, I was [studying under] Brian Perkins, Professor of Practice, who gave me what I give my boys. I'd gone to PWIs [predominately white institutions] for undergrad and, in my mind, that's what I was prepared to enter. However, I had a Black man who stood before me, who has led schools, who has led school leaders and that inspired me [that] I can actually do this. I felt I was a recipient of the services that I give the boys. 

Even more than that, TC was training me to open and lead a school — hiring, firing, ethics, all the things that we learned there — and I took that same information and created Close Ties. Had it not been for TC, I wouldn't have had the official framework that built the business behind Close Ties. I've always had the passion for it, but [TC] gave me a clear framework to build an organization that will last longer than I will live.

Close Ties provides support for boys from fifth through 12th grade, what is the importance of long term support?

When we started in 2016 at Atlanta charter middle schools, the original plan was that we would serve them through eighth grade. And when our founding boys were about to go off to high school  then the parents of our founding members, when our boys were about to go off to high school, their parents were like, “We still need this support.” In that summer between eighth and ninth grade, we decided we’ll serve them the full way through, because we don't want to give them the tools and then just drop off.

We were building the plane and flying it at the same time when they were in ninth grade. But now we've built out a full gambit of services from from fifth grade through twelfth grade and we can truly see the impact of that support. The boys who started with us in 2016 are now juniors and seniors in college and out of those 24 boys, they've earned over $11 million in college scholarships. It's also been cool to see them now come back and pour into our younger boys. There's an intergenerational cycle of supporting one another.

What does success look like for you at Close Ties?

Seeing these boys when they come to us in fifth grade and have these big dreams, seeing the struggle that it takes for them to achieve, and then they graduate from high school and now are living those dreams.

One of our boys, Sincere, when he first started out with us he was like, “I wanna go to college, but I don't know anything about it. Nobody in my family has gone. I'm trying to figure this thing out.” Currently he's a senior at Wake Forest University, there on a full ride scholarship. We took our boys to Wake Forest this past spring break for a college tour with Sincere. This was our first time having one of our alumni lead a college tour for them and they were eyes wide open the entire time. It was so beneficial for them and they all left that moment feeling that they could do the same thing.

— Sherri Gardner