The Hope Dealers

I've written about the group of Morehouse College students who over the years have come up here with Morehouse alum Corey Hardiman to mentor Chicago Public School male students on their spring break. They choose cold Chicago instead of the warm weather of spring break beaches.

When most college students think of spring break, they think of a tropical getaway along sandy beaches. But for the sixth year in a row, a group of students from Morehouse College in Atlanta is giving back and serving the South Side of Chicago.

The Morehouse mentors were matched with their mentees at Chicago State University on Thursday.


"The reason why I started the Young Men of Color Conference was because, for me, growing up I didn't see brothers who look like me doing successful work," said Corey Hardiman, founder of the Morehouse group called Hope Dealers. "All we are here to do is to promote excellence of young men of color. If they can't see it, how can they become it?"

These spring breakers are focused on getting their CPS mentees ready for a career, helping them resolve conflicts and teaching new life skills.

I think it was cool that they made it to Harlan this week, Harlan is where I graduated from high school. Back in the day, I could've used a young male college student to show me how it is. Hopefully I'd have listened and followed up with them.

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Hope Dealers (Red Jackets) from Morehouse College visiting Harlan Students. #HOPEDEALERS

A post shared by Harlan C.A. High School (@harlan.falcons) on Mar 12, 2019 at 1:36pm PDT