Parental Involvement Is Key to Success of Young Men of Color - SchoolBook In front of a modest but engaged audience at a panel discussion about raising young men of color, Sheron Smith, mother of the actor and rapper Mos Def, delivered a message that received an enthusiastic response. "When you have a child, it's not about you anymore," she said to applause. A few minutes later, Brenda Greene, a professor of English at Medgar Evers College and the mother of the rapper Talib Kweli, agreed that parents play a crucial role in their child's upbringing. "We have to take that responsibility or no one else will," she said. The importance of parental involvement in all aspects of a child's life was a sentiment repeated throughout the panel, which was held at the Fashion Industries High School in Chelsea on Saturday afternoon. The discussion was the closing event of Eagle Week, a weeklong series of activities organized by the Eagle Academy Foundation to inspire and educate young men of color. Other activities for students from the Eagle Academies for Young Men in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens included a day of community service, a breakfast at Yankee Stadium with speeches from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, and a "youth summit" featuring book discussions with authors and mentors. David Banks, president and chief executive officer of the Eagle Academy Foundation, said the goal of the week was for students to "be inspired to know that they are special, that they can be all that they want to be." And many students who showed up to the youth summit on Saturday - the event immediately preceding the panel discussion - said they had gained a lot from the activities. "I felt good about being out there with my Eagle brothers," said Xavier Thomas, a 17-year-old senior at Eagle Academy in the Bronx. It brought us Eagles closer together. "I learned a lot about myself," added Omashola Oroye, 17, also a senior at Eagle Academy in the Bronx. I learned that I can do a lot of things, but I need other people with me. Panelists at the parents" forum said there was no one better to fill that void than a child's mother or father. Dr. Greene drew upon her personal experience as a parent, saying that when her sons were growing up, she was heavily involved in their education, attending PTA meetings, monitoring their homework and progress in class, and building relationships with teachers. Even now, she said, although her sons are grown, she attends parent-teacher conferences for her grandchildren "Whether mothers are raising their sons alone or with their father, they need to bring the village together and put their kids first," Dr. Greene said. You can't let your kids go. Cassandra Mack, chief executive of Strategies for Empowered Living, agreed, saying parents needed to shift from seeing their child "as a challenge, to one as a priority." Another panel member, Alan Farrell, who works on the city's Fatherhood Initiative, summed up the sentiment that most panelists expressed. "One of the take-aways is advocacy," he said. And advocacy means we have got to show up.