For Brodrick Thomas, serving as Trevecca Nazarene University’s first coordinator of student engagement and diversity isn’t just a job — it’s a calling.

“I feel like this university has given me so much,” Thomas said. “This is my opportunity to add my little piece to the legacy that is Trevecca.”

Thomas, who earned an MBA through Trevecca’s School of Graduate and Continuing Studies (SGCS) and is currently completing a master’s degree in organizational leadership, started his new role July 1. He earned an undergraduate degree at Auburn University.

As the coordinator of student engagement and diversity, Thomas will work through Trevecca’s Center for Leadership, Calling, and Service to engage first-generation college students, foster community, and prepare students to make a difference in an ever-changing, diverse world.

“I want to engage students who are first-generation students and bring them into the Trevecca family, shape them, and get them to graduation,” Thomas said. “In order to truly prepare our students for leadership and service, we have to also grow them in a very diverse background because they have to be ready to be proactive in a world that’s very diverse and changing. If we truly want them to be reflective of our culture and Trevecca, we have to reflect our world a little bit more.”

Thomas has previously served the university through his work in plant ops and as a student success adviser in the SGCS.  

Much of Thomas’ role will center on helping first-generation students — those who are the first in their families to go to college — adjust to life at Trevecca. It’s an experience Thomas understands well.

“I’ve been in these students’ position,” Thomas said. “I was a first-generation college student myself. My dad died when I was in the fifth grade and that left my mom and me alone. My mom had to take on extra work in order to just keep a roof over our heads, give us food to eat, and keep the lights on.”

His mom’s long hours took a toll, Thomas said. When he got to college, there were basic skills he was missing, like how to study or organize his schedule. When he and his mom arrived at Auburn for Thomas’ freshman year, he says they didn’t know what to expect since neither had any college experience.

“When I first showed up at Auburn, which is 23,000 people, my mom and I had no clue what to do,” he said. “We had no idea how to move forward. If I can be a person that bridges the gap for some of these kids and their parents, I’m more than excited about taking that journey with them and helping them finish.”

Thomas says he simply wants to help first-generation students be successful. His plans include partnering first-generation students with older students who are already accustomed to college life while also providing the resources to motivate, equip, and encourage first-generation students throughout their college careers.

According to Tom Middendorf, associate vice president for academic services, Thomas’ new role is designed to help students begin to identify the experiences, factors, and cultures that have shaped their worldviews and guide them learn from the experiences of others. Trevecca, he says, is a place where students and faculty alike are challenged to view the world through the lens of faith.

“We have to be cautious that we don’t fool ourselves into believing that our books are the key to a good education, but that’s only a small part of a good education,” Middendorf said. “We have an amazing opportunity to learn from one another. I believe every graduate of Trevecca can use this aspect of our education to heal brokenness in the world."

In a world marked by division and violence, Thomas has big dreams for his new role. He envisions helping to build a diverse on-campus community that eventually extends into the city and the world.

“As a Christian university, our true mission is to go and fill in the divides and cracks between people in our society,” Thomas said. “This university should be a place where all those students can come and have that conversation about how to move this world into a place that’s more cohesive instead of divided.

 “I think students are the glue to that. In order to make an impact in this world, we have to foster that environment and trust our students to take it to the world.”

Still in the early days of his new position, Thomas is already hard at work. He recently met with Michelle Hernandez-Lane, Metro Nashville’s chief diversity officer, and wants Trevecca to be a driving force in how Nashville moves forward.

“Nashville is a very diverse place and is becoming more and more diverse,” Thomas said. “Our city is on a path to grow to be one of the largest in the southeast, eventually. What Trevecca does today will definitely affect what our future looks like.”

While Thomas’ responsibilities include guiding first-generation students and building a diverse community, he doesn’t see those as separate goals. Thomas is guided by the words of author and theologian John Donne: “No man is an island.”

“John Donne constantly wrote about how all of humanity is of one author,” Thomas said. “What happens to my neighbor concerns me because we are all of one body. People are being molded into something [by their environments]. If you really want to fight the darkness in the world, this is a way that alumni, friends of Trevecca, and the Nashville community as a whole can combat the darkness.”   

For Thomas, the focus on first-generation students and diversity this new position represents is a logical move for a university that has historically been focused on bringing the light of Christ into a dark world.

“The world is darker than ever, and if we claim to be a light to the world as Christ calls us to be, salt to the world as Christ calls us to be, then this is the road to coming closer to that ideal that Christ calls us to,” he said.

--Trevecca Nazarene University