Bro. Akil Mondesir M.Ed.

Bro. Akil Mondesir is a co-creator of the Tenacity Challenge in Massachusetts. The Tenacity Challenge brings together urban and suburban Latino and African-American students in an extended process of academic preparation that culminates in a team-based day-long scholarship competition, and in doing so, increases academic capacity and promotes a culture of achievement in participating students from both urban and suburban schools. Bro. Akil Montesir has spent the past 13 years developing this program as a means by which to prepare high school students for the rigors of collegiate curricula, and equally important, connect these excellent students with financial resources for college.

Brother Mondesir opines:

“It has been my long-standing belief that one of the greatest determinants of a students’ success is an internal drive, a tenaciousness that compels them to strive towards ever greater feats of accomplishments. The Tenacity Challenge, through its rigorous structure and emphasis on collaboration, has proven to be an incubator for developing talented students into true scholars… What gives me great pleasure is to see how so many students get excited about math and science or the research they are doing for their History argument. I have noticed quite a substantial change in students who participate in the challenge as they are much more motivated to do well in school and hold themselves to a much higher standard of academic performance. I am confident that these fantastic outcomes will not only help them do well in school, but will also help them succeed in life.”

Brother Mondesir’s commitment to these students exists beyond the confines of the Tenacity Challenge. Bro. Mondesir maintains a relationship with his students through Phi Beta Sigma’s Sigma Beta Club where he and other Sigma men can continue to prepare young men not just for college careers, but also wholesome values, leadership skills, and social & cultural awareness.

For more on the latest Tenacity Challenge, click here: https://www.thebedfordcitizen.org/2020/06/ninth-annual-tenacity-challenge-grapples-with-racism-reparations-and-the-2020-elections/