BE A BALLER -"Building a lifelong legacy"

Bishop Dr. Darryl Sanders: Championing Excellence in Education and Ministry

• Coach Tim Brown, Uncommon Life • Season 4 • Episode 12

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Bishop Dr. Daryl Sanders shares his transformative journey from growing up in Columbus, Ohio, to becoming a beacon of leadership in both education and ministry. Dr. Sanders reveals how witnessing the success of Black-owned businesses and the support of inspiring educators instilled in him the values of leadership and perseverance. Listen as he uncovers the pivotal role his mother's belief in education played in shaping his and his siblings' paths, leading to a family legacy rich in academic achievement.

Discover the unique success story of Columbus Alternative High School, where Dr. Sanders serves as principal, and learn how a culture of excellence, accountability, and real-world preparation sets students on a path to success. We explore the school's innovative approaches, such as its Wednesday internship programs, and discuss the importance of fostering a supportive community for both students and teachers. Dr. Sanders also shares his insights on servant leadership, offering invaluable advice for aspiring educators and leaders on creating impactful and nurturing environments.

As we wrap up this enlightening conversation, Dr. Sanders emphasizes the critical role of genuine love and passion in ministry. He shares his mission to inspire young ministers to embody Christ's teachings beyond the pulpit, fostering connections and effecting positive change in their communities. Reflecting on his personal journey, Dr. Sanders underscores the importance of leaving a legacy that transcends personal achievements, encouraging young people to embrace their potential and make a difference. Be inspired by his unwavering commitment to education and ministry, and learn how his life lessons can empower future generations.

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Speaker 1:

Our young people today do to learn. They don't learn to do, and so that's different for us, and so we have to sometimes make sure that our young people are seeing themselves in the lesson. We're making the lessons relevant to their experiences and also making them understand that they can own their learning and that it's not just one person giving you information. That teacher can learn just as much from that student as that student learns from that teacher.

Speaker 3:

Welcome to Be A Baller podcast where we're building a lifelong legacy for our families, communities and the world. I'm your host, coach Tim Brown, and today I'm excited to introduce my guest, bishop Dr Daryl Saunders. He's a native of Columbus, ohio. He has spent a life serving as a preacher, evangelist, administrator, education and bishop. Dr Saunders began his career as an English teacher and currently serves as principal of Columbus Alternative High School, otherwise known as COS, a nationally recognized high-performing school. In addition to his work in education, he has also served in various roles in the gospel ministry for over 45 years, including associate pastor, evangelist, elder church administrator and pastor. Today on the show, dr Sanders will share his journey to build a lifelong legacy in education and ministry. Dr Sanders, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, boy. That was a mouthful there, man.

Speaker 1:

I had to get it all in brother and I had to stop and say who's he talking about?

Speaker 3:

Man, we're going to jump right in. You're retiring now after 37 years. I was just thinking about that. Can you tell me? Over the course of those years we know you've done various things. You've been in touch with different students, touched different students' lives, teachers, administrators, the whole deal. What have you learned?

Speaker 1:

about yourself during that time. I think one of the biggest things I learned about myself was that my call to ministry was synonymous to my call to being a school leader and a school teacher, because in every respect, you're doing the same thing You're serving the needs of young people and their families, their parents, and so the roles are so synonymous. So what I learned about myself is that I'm really a servant leader, and I always was, probably even before I knew I was.

Speaker 3:

I've been blessed to watch you grow. I watch you run around seeing Terry Plaza Mark driving from Central State. I didn't know if you was going to show up to work or not, but you came, brother. I came Question mark. But you got there. What were your thoughts? Just seeing a black-owned business, uh business, uh in in in Columbus, and all that, what was your? What'd you see in all that as a young, as a young man.

Speaker 1:

It, it. It was motivating for me to work in a store that really was on the cutting edge, before a lot of other businesses, uh, ever thought about some of the things that Singletary did, so to walk in and then see, you know, a cosmetic shop in a grocery store and pharmacy and all that kind of stuff. Before my time, I mean, I didn't have an opportunity to see that. So it gave me something to look forward to and it also, to me, sparked something in me that I too could be an owner and serve in different ways. So it was, it was motivating. I was only like 17 years old, yeah, like I said you, 17 years old, yeah, 17 years old.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, like I said, you're 17 years old. You don't know if you're coming to work or not, Right, but it all worked out. It all worked out. You know you've achieved the highest level of education. You know, having a PhD and bachelor's and all that. Why is education? Why was education so important to you?

Speaker 1:

Education to me was a lifeline.

Speaker 1:

My mom raised five children by herself, and that was one of the things that was told to me every day that you know that's going to be your liberation, that's going to be the equalizer in your life is to go on to pursue education. And so I received that spark. Go on to pursue education. And so I received that spark. And my mother not even having a high school diploma, she had five students, five children and all of us college graduates, and so my oldest sister, who's deceased she, received her PhD as well. So it was two of the five that went on to the highest level and they get to receive a terminal degree. It wasn't an option. I mean, that's just what was expected. It wasn't to say. We never had the question are you going to college? It was always what college are you going to? What college are you going?

Speaker 3:

to. Yes, you know, growing up in Columbus City Schools. Can you talk about some teachers who impacted your life and inspired you to be an educator?

Speaker 1:

Oh, there's so many, I don't even know where I would start. Ms Watkins, my second grade teacher. She definitely stayed on me because on my report card, although I got high marks, she always put on there talks too much. But she stayed on me. She saw something in me that I didn't see in myself, and also didn't help the fact that Ms Watkins attended my church, and so whatever I did at school, my mother knew about it.

Speaker 1:

But Ms Watkins stayed on me and would always remind me that I could do more. I could do better. That was my first biggest influence, and then my last would have been Jacqueline Tinsley, who was my guidance counselor at West High School, who told me that you know that you're going to college, so you need to make sure you get out of all those easy classes that you're trying to get into and make sure you're posturing yourself for a college preparatory track. And so she was on me all the time. We'd have check-ins and she would say you know, you went from an A to a B, why? And she said, and I don't want to see one of those again. And so I had a lot of people, but those two right there probably stand out the most.

Speaker 3:

Speaking about faith, as you kind of mentioned that alluded to that about church. I know you accepted your call to ministry as a teenager. Can you talk about your faith journey and what led to that?

Speaker 1:

Well, being a young man who was raised in church, church was all we knew. However, I never probably thought that I would receive a call to the ministry at a relatively young age. I was actually called into the ministry at 12, licensed in the ministry at 14. And I just felt that I knew. I knew that's what God wanted me to do. I mean, if I was in a group, a young people's group, I always end up leading the group. We had what we called Young People's Union. I was a president and then I ended up becoming the youth pastor of the Young People's Union. So ministry has always just been who I am. I mean, it's just, it's been my passion and I'm just happy to know that God found me worthy enough to be able to carry his gospel ministry.

Speaker 3:

You have been blessed at a young age being on the tutelage of some great preachers yes, great men and men. Can you talk about those men and the impact?

Speaker 1:

Probably. Well, I know number one would be Dr RF Harrison. Dr RF Harrison was the pastor of Refuge Missionary Baptist Church on Atchison and I think now it's called RF Harrison was the pastor of Refuge Missionary Baptist Church on Atchison and I think now it's called RF Harrison Square. Yes, yes, he was probably my biggest cheerleader. He would say to me all the time that you know you can preach, you can explain the Bible, but people need to know that you care about them. And he said just giving the word of God, without relationship, you'll never win souls for the kingdom. And so he was a big proponent of making sure that you had relationship with people and that you love people. And he would always say this to me he would say God did not call Peter to the ministry because he had everything right, but he called Peter because he knew Peter had a passion for people. And so he said don't ever take that out of your ministry. Always be in connect with your members and let them know you care.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's good, that's good you attended Central State University. I'm glad you're grinning there. You must have had a good time on the yard.

Speaker 1:

I did and some of those things we can't discuss.

Speaker 3:

Can you talk a little bit about going down and being part of the HBCU experience?

Speaker 1:

Being a part of the HBCU is phenomenal.

Speaker 1:

One of the things that I felt that I got from Central State was the ability to be given the permission to lead.

Speaker 1:

I went to several college campuses prior to going to Central State and they would talk about me being involved in organizations, but they never talked to me about leadership organizations, but they never talked to me about leadership. When I was on Central States campus, everyone was saying you could lead this organization, you could lead this, and so what they did is they gave me an environment that gave me permission to lead and they cultivated my leadership. And then I had President Lionel Newsom, who was the president at that time, who would call me on the stage of Central State and say I want you to give a prayer before we proceed in the convocation. I'm like what you know, but they put me in situations that postured me for leadership and I felt a sense of family, a sense of community, and it was also great to know that every professor I had looked like me and they all had doctorates, and so it was an environment of excellence and it pushed me, I think, to where I am today.

Speaker 3:

Great. You talk about some of those leadership roles that you had on campus. You were in charge of the dorm a few times. You talk about those.

Speaker 1:

I think I was a resident assistant and then the assistant house director in the middle of the year decided that he wanted another opportunity and the dean of students asked me to be the assistant house director. Now that was experience, because here now I'm with my peers and I'm finding myself having to tell on them about things that they were doing that violated the housing policy. So it was interesting, but again it gave me leadership opportunity. But in the same respect it also afforded me the opportunity to interact with young people across the United States who I wouldn't ordinarily interact with from Chicago, from DC, from California, and I had been pretty much relegated to Columbus, Ohio. So it helped me to understand people from different places and understand their needs and their aspirations.

Speaker 3:

You know, being a man of faith and being an educator. How are you able to balance those two? What?

Speaker 1:

keeps you from just wanting to shout. It's hard, but one of the things that I was committed to, and I've always been committed to, is that I will never leave Christ behind. We talk about no child left behind. I said don't leave Christ behind. Christ is who I am and I think that even if you don't speak it, it illuminates in you, and when you're interacting with students they can feel it.

Speaker 1:

And one of the things the advantage I have is that, even though more in an educational role in the school, but never do I lose who I am. And so you know there are times you know they'll come and say, hey, dr Sanders, I need you to lay hands on me, okay. And they said I'm not coming to you as my principal, I'm coming to you as my pastor, and so of course, you know there's no way I would say no, I'm not going to pray for you. So we've been able to integrate both. And again, education is ministry dealing with young people and helping them, shape them and help them to come to some decisions that are going to be life-changing for their life. That's all ministry.

Speaker 1:

So my ministry didn't stop. And so integration. It's easy to do that Now. My church members probably would have a different take, because if they want their pastor during a school day, the pastor's not going to be able to be there and I'll have to pick up the phone and say prayer can travel even though I can't. Okay, so now that I'm moving toward retirement, it's going to afford me the opportunity to spend more time with my parishioners.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you talked a lot about leadership. It's kind of curious what is your leadership style? How would you describe your leadership style?

Speaker 1:

I think it's a combination of servant leadership and transformation leadership, because I believe that in with this generation of young people, we have to lead differently. I'm a big proponent on students experiencing their learning. I was taught back in the day sit down, take your book out, take notes, and that's the way we were taught to learn. But this generation is different. This generation wants to do, this generation wants to participate in their learning and I often tell my teachers all the time it's a paradigm shift. You know, our young people are seeing themselves in the lesson. We're making the lessons relevant to their experiences and also making them understand that they can own their learning and that it's not just one person giving you information. That teacher can learn just as much from that student as that student learns from that teacher. That's good, that's good.

Speaker 3:

Learn, do to learn, do to learn. So, learn to do, that's good, that's good, that's good. Learn, do to learn.

Speaker 2:

Do to learn, so learn to do. That's good, that's good, that's good.

Speaker 3:

You know you're currently principal of COS Columbus Alternative High School, known as one of the most rigorous and academically challenged high schools, not just in the city but in the nation. Can you talk about? What is the COS difference? What is it about COS?

Speaker 1:

I think the difference at COS is that there's buy-in, there is a strong professional learning community. We have some of the best teachers in the state of Ohio I would say even in the country who stay at COS. I mean, the average teaching years at COS is 21 years, so there's not a lot of turnover. So it's a strong commitment of the teaching community and also parent involvement. Our parents select for their kids to go to COS. They put them in the lottery. So these are parents who are now active in their child's education and they don't just drop them off. They actually participate in all the learning activities and events that we have in the school.

Speaker 1:

And we have students that are committed to learning and it's not by osmosis, I mean, they just come and say, well, you know, I want to learn all of these things. We provide an environment where learning is attractive okay, where young people maybe from the inner cities coming there. They had to hide their intellect, they had to show, you know, they had to be hard, you know, in their communities, but when they come to cause they can exhale, they can be smart and it's okay to be smart. The other thing is that we have young people who check misbehaviors. It's not just teachers saying that we don't do this, or administration we don't do this. We have students that say we don't do that at COS, that's not the COS way, and so that environment is prevalent and has been prevalent for over 46 years.

Speaker 3:

Wow, cos is 46 years old. You mentioned the COS way and I've been waiting to hear what is the COS way? I walk in a lot of schools, doc, I'm going to tell you, but you come to COS. It's a whole different deal, right? The student buying.

Speaker 1:

What is the cause? Well, it is grounded in our motto Okay, academic excellence is the standard, not the exception, and so the standard is academic excellence. I mean, that's what you buy into when you come into the cause. Environment Is it everything around you? Whether you play sports at your school, you're excellent at that. Whether you're at academician, you're excellent at that. If you're in the arts, you're excellent at that. And that's what you hear all the time. Teachers are saying it all the time. University, college, universities are displayed all over our school, where that becomes the mindset that you know you're going to go to the next level. And so that is the causeway. Causeway is grounded in excellence, and that we believe your excellence may not look like my excellence. That's a key too. Everyone's excellence may not be all straight A's, but if that is what you can do, then that is your excellence. So we believe in exploring that.

Speaker 3:

That's good Talk about your Wednesday program. What's kind of unique in that?

Speaker 1:

COS was one of the first schools in Columbus City Schools that allowed a full internship program. When they founded it back in 1978, I think students went out in their 10th, 11th and 12th grade years. Students will go into the community and they would work in areas that mirrored their aspirations, their career aspirations. Later on the district adopted an internship program, but we're the only school that maintained a full Wednesday schedule where students don't go to school at all. On Wednesdays they go into the community and they're working in businesses where they're getting hands on experiences and they're also getting an opportunity to see if this is something they really like to do or not. And that's a good thing, because then they don't waste the money to go to college and then decide I don't want to do this. They're finding that out even in high school. So we continue that program and it has become even larger now. Our partners have grown but they have a strong relationship with our school and they believe in our students and our students really benefit from that internship program.

Speaker 3:

That's good yeah. As you begin to wind down your career, what advice would you give to young principals, for those aspiring to become even just educators period?

Speaker 1:

Don't announce you're the leader, be the leader. A lot of our younger administrators today are big on telling everybody they're in charge. And I've learned if you have to tell someone you're in charge, then you're really not in charge. Be what you want to, or be what you want to see. You know, if you are expecting teachers to be patient and loving and caring, then they have to see loving and caring in you. If you want your students to have positive relationships, then they have to see you having positive relationships with your teachers. And, as I tell people all the time, as administrators, your number one customer is not students. An administrator's number one customer is teachers, because teachers serve the students. But if you don't serve your teachers well, your teachers won't serve your students well.

Speaker 3:

Wow. Well, you're on the road today with all these gyms. I love that. You don't have to announce. You're the leader, just be the leader, just be the leader. Wow, that's good. You know, I know ministry is so important to you and I know mentoring young pastors and elders is another thing that's important to you. You're known as the friend and mentor of preachers. Can you talk about why that is so important to you?

Speaker 1:

Well, in a lot in our world today, um, our young men and young women who are going into ministry. They, they have a lot of people competing for their attention and, to be honest with you, I'm not, I'm not sure they have a lot of positive role models, uh, or or positive supporters. And so they get into this place where they feel like I have to have a big church, I have to have a large congregation, I have to have the nice car, I have to have the private jet, because that's what our world is showing ministry to be and they lose their way in that. And so I've been instrumental in helping them to understand that Christ is not an airplane, christ is not the big church, and the majority of his most significant sermons was done one-on-one or with a small group of people. And so I've helped them to understand that they got to prioritize and put things in perspective.

Speaker 1:

It's not about being the career preacher, it's all about being God's preacher and making sure that he's going to say to you well, done one day my good and faithful servant, and so what I do is pour into them, is helping them to understand the whole relationship piece with Christ and people and that they need that. They have to get out of this Hollywood model of the preacher and really focus on if you've really been called, because if you've been called, I believe you have a passion and a love for people genuinely. That's if they do right or they don't do right. You know, Dr RF Harrison said that to me.

Speaker 1:

He said when he knew I had aspirations of pastor. He said, son, I'm going to ask you a question Will you love people if they do right or they don't do right? And I said what do you mean? You know, if they're going to follow the word of God, they're going to do right. He said no, but no, you're going to have something, son, that's not going to do right, but you still have to love them, because that's what Jesus did. And so that's my mission and that's my passion. Working with young ministers is letting them know let's get back to the love of Christ and loving people that's good you know, this is a legacy podcast where we talk about building a lifelong legacy.

Speaker 3:

You truly built a legacy in education and ministry. What does the word legacy mean to you?

Speaker 1:

It means that you're leaving something behind for someone else to follow, and I hope I've done that. I hope that I've touched enough people in my life where they can say that you know what? I see something in him that I would love to emulate, and if I'd done that, then I've done, I guess, my job, because that's what I think Christ is all about it's making sure that he's left something behind that people can follow, and he has, obviously, because the disciples followed him and then disciples discipled, and so that's what we all do, and so that's my prayer is that I've touched someone by them looking at my life.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I think you may have hit on this a little bit, but what is the legacy of the bishop? Teacher, educator, evangelist, educator, preacher? What is the legacy of Dr Saunders?

Speaker 1:

That I bring young people into a sense of awareness that they first of all love God and love themselves, and that they become instrumental in being impactful in their community, in their neighborhoods, and they're making change. Because I hope that I've done, that my life has sparked some change in education as as in the church, and that they too will find their niche to see what they can do to make changes in their sphere of influence. That's good.

Speaker 3:

As we wrap up, give a final word to those students and staff at Columbus Alternative High School. What word would you leave for them?

Speaker 1:

Resilience. We're living in a difficult time right now and there's a lot of things that you can look at that can discourage you, but to be resilient. You know, remain strong and understand that you're not. You know, remain strong and understand that you're not. We're not in this alone, that we still have a God who sits high and looks low, and he is in charge. Does it make a difference what political affiliation you are, what beliefs you know that you may have about what is going to happen? Just know that God is in charge and because he is in charge, we don't have anything to worry about. So be resilient.

Speaker 3:

That's good, that's good. Well, that's all the time we have today for today's episode of Be a Baller podcast. I want to thank our special guest, bishop Dale Saunders, for his commitment educating and serving the next generation of students and ministry leaders. Thank you, dr Saunders, for your model of excellence in education and ministry. I hope the audience enjoyed this conversation as much as I did. Remember, building a lifelong legacy is not just about what we achieve in life, but also how we use our gifts and talents to make a positive impact on the world around us. And don't forget to subscribe to our podcast so you can stay up to date on all our latest episodes. Our podcast guests are always willing to share wisdom and inspire others to build a lifelong legacy. So, dr Saunders, thanks for being on the show, thank you. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2:

If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends and family. The Be A Baller podcast is available on all major podcast platforms. This podcast was created by Coach Tim Brown and recorded and edited by the video production class of Worthington Christian High School. Be sure to come back next week as we continue to discuss on how to build a lifelong legacy. Until then, don't forget to be a baller.