MSCC Speaker Encourages Audience to be ‘Dipped in Destiny’

Courage, hope, and love make a powerful combination, and those who can harness all three can be “dipped in destiny,” says Dr. Brenda L. Caldwell, an internationally-known psychologist, author, program developer, and life coach.

Speaking at Mid-South Community College’s Black History Month program on Wednesday, Feb. 18, Dr. Caldwell presented an inspirational and informational message to a big crowd in the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Educational Excellence.

“We’re here for a very important occasion, and I encourage you to open your heart, your mind, your spirit,” she said. “I am a ‘hope dealer.’ I often talk about being dipped in destiny. You have to know that you have value, purpose, and potential.”

Dr. Caldwell said her hope was tested at a very young age. She recalls being more than ready for her first day of first grade before meeting her less-than-enlightened teacher.

“I remember being able to spell hippopotamus,” she said. “On the first day I have my book; I’m happy, and I think I’m real smart. Then I heard my teacher say to me, ‘Sit down, dummy.’ I can
remember it like it was yesterday.

“I never got past what happened that first day. That teacher should have been encouraging me, building me up, and telling me that I was smart. Don’t tell me that ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.’ That’s a lie. Sticks and stones can break your bones, and words can break your spirit. You have to understand the power of words.”

Caldwell failed first grade but flourished the following year with a new teacher – Mrs. Pentecost, a name associated with miraculous power. The presenter showed everyone a framed picture of the teacher who helped her regain her hope.

“That lady built me up every day. Mrs. Pentecost didn’t see a black child; she saw a broken child. She said, ‘Brenda, you are so smart. Brenda, you are so smart.’ Now this little girl who was called ‘Dummy Caldwell’ every day in the first grade is introduced as Dr. Caldwell.”

As a youngster, Caldwell said she loved to listen to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and often tried to emulate him.

“I used to imitate Dr. King every day when I was a child,” she recalled. “I used to say, ‘Mom, do I sound like Dr. King?’ and she said, ‘You speak real good, child, but you ain’t no Dr. King.’”
Caldwell does have a dream, though.

“I have a dream that one day we can get past skin color, get past what we think causes us to be so different and understand that we are, as Dr. King said, inextricably bound to one another,” she said. “We need each other whether we know or it not; it is the truth.

“We cannot become who we are destined to be until we are able to be free to be who we want to be. When you find out what you’re here for, nobody can stop you.”

She warned, however, against “dreambusters” and said when confronted, “You look your dreambuster in the eye and say, ‘I don’t receive that.’”

Caldwell said all great change, revolution, and progress begin with courage and are completed and sustained through love. “Love will do what nothing else will do.”

She completed her presentation by asking a student struggling with his or her commitment to higher education to come to the stage. When a female volunteer shared her difficulties (single mother, no support from family), Caldwell told her to close her eyes and trust her. She put a graduation cap and gown on the young lady and provided her a mirror while announcing her as an MSCC graduate from the Class of 2015.

“It takes courage to finish,” she said. “Your children need you to not just start but finish. Anybody can start something. It’s up to you to be a positive role model.”

Caldwell also provided a backpack with the word “hope” written on it.

“When you can put hope in your backpack, you will not give up,” she said.

The guest speaker also talked about the value of embracing black history.

“The African-Americans that contributed to our country did so to such a degree that we could not function in this world were it not for the ingenuity and creativity of black people…,” she pointed out. “What we have done as people of color has been significant to this country. We have a rich history, and we have an even greater destiny.”

She praised the efforts of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, one of the first African-American doctoral degree graduates from Harvard University, for bringing the many accomplishments to the forefront.

“Dr. Woodson had an idea to tell the African-American story, and he devoted his life to it,” she said.
Caldwell, affectionately known as “Dr. B,” is a native of Memphis and is president/CEO of B. Caldwell Consulting. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in Christian Psychology from Jacksonville Theological Seminary as well as a B.A. in Communications from the University of Memphis.