Rashad Beliard: Walking the Walk
Rashad Beliard is one of the student leaders who brought MBK Connect to life, as a John Jay student, program coordinator, mentor and an architect of the program itself. His contributions include recruiting and training mentors, designing programs and events and personally calling every admitted student to welcome them into the community. Through this work, Rashad helped establish the tone and culture of MBK Connect as a space that is relational, intentional and deeply human.
At the heart of Rashad’s leadership is a belief in the power of brotherhood—not as a performance of toughness, but as a space for honesty, reflection and growth. He speaks passionately about how MBK Connect creates an environment where students, including himself, are encouraged to look inward and examine who they are, what they carry and what they want to become.
“MBK Connect helped me dismantle a lot of the negative notions that are typically associated with masculinity and just men of color in general – where you’re supposed to be stoic, where you’re not supposed to be emotional where you’re not supposed to be expressive,” Rashad explained. “There’s power in all these things!”
Rashad sees self-awareness and emotional grounding as foundational to student success — particularly in higher education spaces that can feel isolating or misaligned with students’ lived experiences.
“I think students becoming more comfortable with themselves – whether it’s their identity, their masculinity, whatever it is – having that level of fortitude pushes them further in the education space, because they are coming in more secure and have that communal aspect.”
That same philosophy shapes how Rashad understands MBK scholars’ strong academic outcomes. He points not to pressure or compliance, but to purpose.
“We train our mentors to dissect some of the reasons why students are in college,” he said. “At the end of the day, a lot of these kids are in school because mom told them to, or they’re living someone else’s dream — and college is not the space for you to live somebody else’s dream. College is that space for you to live your dream, find your passion.”
Once that clarity emerges, Rashad and his colleagues help students imagine practical pathways forward. “We would spend time trying to help them develop plans on how they can make money with that passion. I’m not shocked [that students have strong academic outcomes] because you’re in school now for what you want to do rather than what someone is telling you to do.”
Rashad helped shape MBK Connect & MBK Connect shaped him
“MBK Connect gave me the ability to chase after my dreams,” he reflected. “I think one of the things that make MBK so beautiful is that we’re telling these young men of color that you can do anything that you put your mind to. Tell me your dreams, and I’m going to help create the proper incubation for that dream to come to life.”
For Rashad, that message comes with responsibility. “You cannot tell these young men, ‘be about it’, and not walk that walk.”
Rashad is walking the walk. As he completes his MA social work at Hunter College, he is preparing to launch his career as a clinical therapist — turning his passion for supporting the mental health of men of color into lived practice. His journey reflects the very ethic he instills in others: alignment between purpose and action, values and vocation.
Rashad’s story is a testament to what becomes possible when leadership is rooted in authenticity and care — and when students are not only supported, but invited to become co-creators of the communities that shape them.
