For much of his life, CJ Hunt '07 planned to be a cast member of "Saturday Night Live." Hunt, who described himself as "very vocal" and is a member of Brown's improvisational sketch comedy group IMPROVidence, wanted to use humor as a form of social commentary.
But while at Brown he found a more active method for fostering change: teaching. He now plans to spend the next two years teaching in New Orleans as a Teach For America corps member.
"It's more meaningful than comedy or any other performance," Hunt said.
Growing up in Massachusetts, Hunt was educated at elite private institutions, spending his high school years at Milton Academy. He said coming to Brown led to familiar experiences, as the University has a student body somewhat similar to Milton's: mostly white, wealthy and academically driven.
Hunt's experiences at Brown soon changed his perspective on race relations, especially with respect to urban education. He began taking classes in the Department of Africana Studies and eventually became a concentrator.
"It's a way of looking at the world," Hunt said of Africana studies. "I'm understanding how power works, how inequality works, how people challenge systems of inequality."
The summer after his first year, Hunt participated in Summerbridge "on a whim."
Summerbridge is a nationwide academic enrichment program that uses a students-teaching-students method to "increase educational opportunity for high-potential, low-income middle school students," according to the program's Web site.
Providence Summerbridge, located at the Wheeler School, provides extra classes and mentoring for students from struggling Providence public schools and helps them gain acceptance to competitive high schools.
Hunt, who taught English during the rigorous summer program, said he gained an understanding of urban educational problems by interacting with his students, many of whom came from impoverished backgrounds.
"It repositioned education in my mind, because I had a very privileged educational background and that's what I knew," he said.
Hunt said he used humor to relate to his students. Elkinsette Clinton, student and family services coordinator for Summerbridge, said Hunt and his students often performed skits during routine morning announcements.
"He was hilarious," Clinton said. "He would have us in stitches - everyone loved CJ."
But Hunt wanted to do more than perform: he wanted to help students learn.
"I'd be teaching kids who are 10 times more talented than me, but didn't have access to the same opportunities," Hunt said. He used exercises from performance comedy to engage his students, such as staging mini versions of Shakespeare plays and interactive debates.
Clinton recalled an occasion when Hunt played recordings of spoken-word artists for the class and then held a poetry slam for which the students wrote their own work.
"He was a wonderful teacher, a wonderful advocate for our kids," Clinton said.
She said at one point during the summer, the program directors were considering asking one of Hunt's students to leave because he had missed so many days of class. But Hunt felt the student was a strong writer who could still benefit from Summerbridge.
"He talked so passionately about his accomplishments, and we changed our minds instantly," Clinton said. "That's the kind of power CJ has."
The greatest reward, Hunt said, was when students realized they had the potential to succeed despite the many setbacks they faced.
"By the end of the summer, you have these kids saying, 'I never thought I could do this before,'" he said.
Experiencing the results of his work made Hunt realize he could have a more tangible effect on racial injustice through teaching even a few students than through performing comedy.
"It's like a light bulb went off," Hunt said.
Most of the Summerbridge volunteers left the program in the fall, but Hunt stayed on because he wanted to get to know his students better and help them achieve their academic goals.
At first, Hunt focused on helping a small group of students apply to Milton - a process that he said is as rigorous as applying to college. He and four other Brown undergraduates worked with the students for months, but in the end, none of them submitted their applications. Hunt said this disheartening experience taught him that trying to open the doors of schools like Milton, though important, does not create educational equality.
"That's not the answer," Hunt said of sending high-performing urban youth to private schools. "Equality would be that schools in their neighborhoods are as good as those like Milton."
After this realization, Hunt decided to devote his career to improving urban schools. To start, he joined Teach For America, an organization that grants two-year contracts in troubled school districts to recent college graduates.
Clinton said she was not surprised to learn Hunt was attempting such a difficult job.
"He would take on that challenge and just run with it," Clinton said. "He's so passionate about what he wants to do, and you can see it."
A week after Commencement, Hunt will fly to Louisiana and spend the summer training for his new position.
"I'm pretty scared, but also excited," he said. "I picked New Orleans because of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In the rebuilding process, schools are really central."
Hunt said he hopes to observe how new schools shape the impoverished, mostly black neighborhoods destroyed by the storm.
"How schools are built, where the good ones are located, is going to define the way the neighborhoods look," Hunt said.
After finishing his stint at Teach For America, Hunt plans to pursue a master's in education, and six years from now he hopes to work with some friends from Brown to found a charter school named after Ella Baker, a civil rights activist who helped start the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Looking even further into the future, Hunt said he would eventually like to be a district superintendent, and, maybe one day, work in education policy.
"He doesn't have to say he loves working with students," Clinton said. "He would make them laugh, but he would also make them learn." Hunt said only close relationships with inner-city students would give him the knowledge necessary to improve suffering schools.
"And that's what I would like to do," Hunt said.
