Jamaal Eubanks hosted the inaugural Determination to Succeed Back to School Summit in the summer of 2024 to give students a fun, informative, and engaging late-summer opportunity to prepare for the coming school year.
“The impetus for this summit was just me seeing a need and filling a gap as a lot of schools and school districts have inquired about my program, in general, especially the interactive Determination to Succeed workshop,” Eubanks tells Madison365. “In all districts that I’ve communicated with, they wanted this, but didn’t have the funding or the desire to pay for it, and I still feel like these young Black men still need those tools to be proactive and have a successful school year.”.
On Aug. 22, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Black Business Hub on Madison’s South Side, Eubanks will host the third annual Determination to Succeed Back to School Summit to help students set the tone for the school year for themselves, learn how to set goals and chase dreams and how to navigate the system as young Black men.
“For this third summit, I’m actually looking for continued growth and connecting with more young men,” Eubanks says. “I had a great cohort that I carried through for the course of the school year, and the students and the parents enjoyed it, and we’re super appreciative and thankful for their kids’ participation in the stuff that they learn that they carry throughout the school year.”
The Determination to Succeed is a four-part interactive workshop series focusing on the endgame of success, with an emphasis on mental toughness, perseverance, resilience, and accountability through self-reflection. The Determination to Succeed Back to School Summit is an opportunity for African American students from throughout the Madison area to come together for an inspirational day of learning from mentors representing a variety of professional fields while obtaining important information and resources needed to be ready for their first days of school.
“So we’re planning on having 30 students at the summit again. I feel like it’s a great size for intimate conversations and connections to be made between volunteers and student participants this year,” Eubanks says. “Adding another wrinkle to it, we will have Anthony Cooper as our keynote speaker.
Anthony Cooper Sr. is a dedicated and visionary Madison community leader, serving as the CEO and founder of Focused Interruption, a pioneering organization specializing in community violence intervention and prevention in Dane County.
“Anthony Cooper is perfect to kind of bring it all back home because he encompasses a lot of what our youth are experiencing, whether it’s the successful aspects of business, fatherhood, or running through some of the pitfalls of the legal system, and being able to overcome all of those obstacles no matter what cards you are dealt,” Eubanks says.
At the summit, there will be a welcome and introduction, followed by morning workshops. The lunch speaker panel will consist of Keon Hutson, James Sutton, Marcus Porter, Sterling Woods (a.k.a. SoloEatss), and Antoine Mcneail…
“Facilitators will be myself, Dontrey Ewing, and Dr. Derek Johnson, the founder and executive director of The College Station,” Eubanks says.
(Photo by A. David Dahmer)
After afternoon workshops, Cooper will close out the day with his keynote address.
Eubanks wrote the book “The Determination to Succeed,” a story of perseverance and resilience through the lens of self-reflection, for young people in the summer of 2020. Since then, he has developed The Determination to Succeed program, which has been contracted by local area schools and has had a great deal of success
Eubanks recently created a self-advocacy framework, the Eubanks Learner Language (ELL), a structured, research-grounded tool that gives every student, from upper elementary through higher education, the language to understand how they learn and how they feel most supported, and the confidence to communicate those needs to every adult in their life.
“I’m definitely going to talk to the parents about ELL. It’s an academic success tool,” he says. “I’m creating a parent empowerment summit with the five pillars that are needed for every family for a successful school year. Those are some of the pieces that are going to be talked about as well.”
Eubanks will provide shirts, wristbands, and backpacks to all of the students attending the Determination to Succeed Back to School Summit.
Eubanks says he’s excited to be hosting his event at the Black Business Hub for the first time.
“The timing to have the summit at the Hub was perfect, because the first two years I had done it at Capitol High, and I had been thinking that maybe we would have it two years on the west side, maybe a year or two on the south side, and maybe a year or two on the east side … kind of spread it all over the city.
“Of course, having it on the South Side for the third one is special, because for me, it’s like coming home,” he adds. “I grew up two blocks from the Hub.”
Seats will fill up quickly for the Determination to Succeed Back to School Summit, Eubanks says. “Every year, it gets filled up. I would encourage people to register sooner rather than later,” Eubanks says.
“One of the big goals of the summit is for students to create community amongst themselves, which will add a layer of peer accountability in the future,” he adds. “Another goal is just to provide the skills, tools, and strategies to have a successful school year.”
