If I didn’t learn one thing during my time at the Capstone, I learned how to face Adversity and make it my friend. I’ve channeled enough resentment from tough situations that I could’ve looked Adversity straight in the eye and given it the middle finger, but I will gladly offer Adversity a firm handshake and a smile when I walk across the stage on May 7.

When I first decided that I wanted to attend UA, Adversity pointed to the expensive ACT Prep prices that I couldn’t afford. It only encouraged me to find alternative ways to study for the test and market myself as an ideal candidate for enrollment.

After being accepted, it told me that my cultural and leadership experience would be limited because I was as an African-American male attending a predominately white institution with a tainted history on race issues. That only encouraged me to build my network and to be persistent in finding leadership experiences on campus, in the Tuscaloosa community and in the state.

Adversity told me that I couldn’t effectively serve as a leader because I did not have a car my first four years of college. That pushed me to be strategic in how I utilize my resources, and forced me to put pride aside to ask for ride or to walk wherever I needed to go.

Adversity stuck by my side when my mother’s health declined, but it forced me to strengthen my relationship with God and to acknowledge his blessings when she beat two bouts of cancer.

Adversity said that my leadership capabilities had plateaued because I was a fifth year senior. This encouraged me to continue my hard work towards becoming a Blackburn Fellow, becoming president of my fraternity chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha (the best fraternity ever founded), and bringing nearly 2,000 middle school students to UA’s campus as part of the orientation initiative I developed, “Kick-Start College”.

Each Kick-Start College event, along with milestones achieved working with the UA Education Policy Center and Student Affairs, has allowed me to help others cope with Adversity a little bit better than I did. They can bravely face their obstacles and succeed.

I no longer run from Adversity, I embrace its presence because of my achievements as a student at UA. I would even go so far to spend my last dining dollar on my good friend Adversity because it helped me become the servant I am today.

Undre Phillips is a senior majoring in history. He has served as president of Alpha Phi Alpha and the director of Kick-Start College. After graduation he will be pursing a Master’s in Public Administration at The University of Alabama at Birmingham.