By Jamila Cupid

On September 14, 2007, Howard University Graduate School sponsored its Second Annual Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society Forum.  Member institutions in attendance included Yale University, Cornell University, Georgetown University, Washington University at St. Louis, the University of Washington, and the University of Michigan.  This year, the featured keynote was Julian M. Earls, Ph.D.  Dr. Earls currently serves as the Executive in Residence of the Nance College of Business Administration at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio and co-chair of the Science and Mathematics Education Policy Advisory Council for the State of Ohio.  Throughout his career he has received nine academic degrees, including a Ph.D. degree in Radiation Physics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and several honorary doctorates, including an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Howard University at the May 2007 commencement.  

            Dr. Earls stated that the aim of his speech was to reinforce within the Bouchet Honor Society members the things they already believed.  He advised the members that "Two geese "drop out" of formation to be with a goose that gets ill or wounded and falls to the ground. As human beings, we must be willing to "drop out", take time, and be with colleagues who may need our support. We must use our talents, skills, and abilities to help and support those who may be in need."  He encouraged all to learn to effectively communicate and teach, explaining: "One cannot antagonize and influence at the same time.  An individual must approach those he/she wishes to influence with a rational, logical basis, and do so in an agreeable manner." 

            Dr. Earls told honorees that it is crucial that they learn to ask the right questions in life, even more so than to have the right answers, and he challenged them to make a sustained effort to stay on their new paths.  

            The Bouchet Honor Society was established in 2005 by graduate students and administrators at Howard, the nation's largest on-campus producer of African-American Ph.D. recipients, and Yale to commemorate Edward A. Bouchet, first African American to obtain a Ph.D. degree in the U.S., which he received in physics from Yale in 1876. The Bouchet Honor Society is committed to producing graduates of high caliber who are well prepared scholars and who are leaders in advanced higher educational institutions across the nation. Inductees exhibit the characteristics of academic excellence and service exemplified by Bouchet during his lifetime.