The Inspiration of Education

Marvin Pierre ’02 was destined to do great things, but it wasn’t until he was talking to a class of fifth grade students—taught by fellow Tabor alum Shante Agard Oniyide ’02—that he found his calling.

“Shante calls me up and says, hey you need to come to my class, talk to these young men, and inspire them to do well with school, and so I did that.” While he was there, Pierre found a chart in the classroom that showcased the students’ reading levels; it wasn’t the strongest. “I knew what that meant for the future outcomes of those young boys that I just spoke to,” reflects Pierre, acknowledging the hard truth that some of them would find themselves in the criminal justice system. “Many of them would likely not graduate from high school, and it took me back to—you know—my conversations with Dr. McFadden.”

Dr. Samuel McFadden was a pillar in the local Tabor community, having worked at Tobey Hospital for thirty years, serving as Chief of Radiology for 25 years. A close friend of Harold and Shirley Bost, McFadden regularly served as a mentor to Tabor students, particularly young black students, including Pierre, who looked up to him and connected with him during his time at Tabor.

“He was a great role model for me, a great male figure, and he imparted a lot of wisdom and advice around how to live my life, what legacy I wanted to leave behind,” he shares. “I remember one conversation we had, and he said, ‘You know, Marvin, you’re going to be really successful in life, I have no doubt about that. But I want you to always remember that as you climb up the ladder of success, always reach back to pull up another person.’”

In 2006, four years after his Tabor graduation and just a month before Pierre’s birthday, McFadden passed away of pancreatic cancer. “Since his passing, I’ve always been trying to figure out how do I keep his legacy alive; when I was in Shante’s class it just dawned on me. I was like, ‘Yeah this is what he’s talking about–paying it forward, reaching out, reaching back.’”

And so, Eight Million Stories was born, a name that comes from the song by A Tribe Called Quest in which the words “help me, help me” are repeated at the end. McFadden and Oniyide’s students inspired Pierre to work with educational spaces, focusing on young boys of color. “I want to help them see some of the things that Tabor allowed me to do. I really learned about the opportunity gap when I was at Tabor, and the have and the have nots.”

I’m so passionate and grateful for what Tabor has done for me; it’s just really helping me understand that there is a greater purpose for me in this world.

To kickstart the non-profit, Pierre began networking with various individuals and organizations to share his vision and gain support. It wasn’t an instant success, and Pierre received a lot of rejections at first. But he advocated for his cause, using his experiences and insights to highlight the importance of empowering marginalized youth. While the support wasn’t flooding in at first, he started small, and he maintained his networks. Pierre was persistent; he took advantage of opportunities to try a second time when he was further along in the process, and he used every chance he had to pound the pavement and make more connections.

“I just became someone that was on top of people’s minds because I was really able to leverage those relationships, giving people updates on what was happening,” Pierre says. “No fancy brochure, I was just sending an e-mail and telling people everything I was doing, where I’m looking to go, and how you can help me.”

Pierre committed to building and maintaining a robust network that he could utilize which would allow him to build support for students so, he says, “I could go back into the communities that I come from, where the majority of kids look like me, and give them the right road map on how they can navigate themselves out of poverty, just like I did.”

In Houston where Pierre lives, he acknowledges a big issue with the school to prison pipeline; back in 2016, he says, the county was referring almost 12,000 kids into the juvenile justice system and many of those kids were referred for nonviolent offenses.

“It’s worse after their time in the facility, and we realized that many of them encountered challenges going back into community schools as a result of not having access to educational employment. And, those kids found themselves back inside of the same facility that they had recently transitioned from. So, we decided to start a program that gave kids a direct and equitable pathway to get their education, providing them with the basic skills that they need to find meaningful employment, and most importantly addressing some of the social emotional needs that often are the root causes of why students end up inside of the potential facility.”

When students enter Pierre’s program, most of them are working to obtain their high school equivalency diploma. To prepare for that, they typically spend five days a week, four to five hours a day, doing academic coursework. The team at Eight Million Stories also provides wraparound services and case management on site, helping students navigate any social issues or challenges that they might be encountering. The goal is to prepare students for life beyond Eight Million Stories, so the team works with students to discuss transition plans—college, career, or military—and helps them develop skills and obtain professional certifications.

Pierre is looking to grow Eight Million Stories, expanding into three new locations in Houston this year. He’s also in early conversations about developing locations in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana.

The work hasn’t been easy, but it has been rewarding for Pierre, who says that anyone looking to create a new business like his needs to simply, “Bet on yourself.” He acknowledges there are moments when it gets lonely, you feel like you aren’t making progress, and you’re questioning whether it’s worthwhile. His advice? Block out the noise, the negativity, and the naysayers, and just be your own biggest cheerleader; be a visionary, don’t question your work, your vision, or your ideas.

“I’m so passionate and grateful for what Tabor has done for me; it’s just really helping me understand that there is a greater purpose for me in this world,” Pierre says. “Whether I knew it at that moment or not, I have actually, and continue to, share the values, practices, and things that I learned at Tabor with the kids at Eight Million Stories and really giving them a clear picture of hope that they could do something with their lives.”