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The clear-sighted earnestness of Carver alumnus Jeffrey Joseph is typical of Carver students, but Jeffrey’s story is uniquely his own.
Jeffrey is a third-year J.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina School of Law. Upon graduation he will be joining Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough as a first-year Associate handling complex transactional and regulatory matters for the firm’s Energy Industry Group. Having just served there as a Summer Associate, he will be working in their Charlotte, North Carolina office next year.
How Jeffrey reached this point in his life and career involved his devoted Haitian parents, Carver summer and after-school experiences, and the insightful and determined advocacy of Dick Whitcomb resulting in a scholarship to attend St. Luke’s School. Jeffrey attended Emory University supported in part by Carver scholarships and the Boule Scholarship. Jeffrey’s success is a testament to what happens when education lives up to its highest potential to ennoble the human spirit.
Born in Norwalk, fluent in English and French Creole, bursting with athletic and academic ability, Jeffrey did not come into his own until a crucial parent-teacher conference at West Rocks Middle School. At that moment, Jeffrey fully accepted what his parents, teachers, and Carver friends and staff believed him capable of achieving.
Dick Whitcomb is an Advisor (ex officio member) to the Carver Board of Directors after serving as a board member for many years, and he is Headmaster Emeritus, St. Luke’s School. Dick has been there for many Carver students through the years.
St. Luke’s School opened the world to Jeffrey, especially as a football star traveling with his team. “Carver experiences gave me the confidence to succeed at St. Luke’s School, as one of the few Black students there,” Jeffrey shared with us.
Jeffrey could have easily leveraged his athletic accomplishments to gain entrance into an array of prestigious colleges, but he chose to attend Emory University for its academics alone. Though he initially chose Political Science over sports, Jeffrey takes his daily inspiration from his hero and role model Kobe Bryant: “Mamba Mentality is about prioritizing your professional goals over having a normal, balanced life. It is about playing without fear, mastering your craft and wanting not only to win, but to dominate.” The five pillars of Kobe’s Mamba Mentality are: Resilience; Fearlessness; Obsessiveness; Relentlessness; and Passion. This is the Jeffrey we know and love.
Few things are more heartwarming than bearing witness to one human being expressing deep gratitude for the profound, course-altering impact another has played in her or his life. This is what Jeffrey feels toward his parents, Dick Whitcomb, church communities, Carver, and so many others through the years. “I tell people all the time that my successes and accomplishments are not my own. I owe so much to those who have poured into me.”
Jeffrey is a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, founded on the Howard University campus. The Omega Psi Phi Fraternity remains “…on the front line, leveraging its power, influence and more than 100 years of commitment to the uplift of our people and our communities.”
Jeffrey transcended his challenges. In many ways, Jeffrey is still that middle school student who, despite the years, has never stopped being a grateful and eager pupil. He still embraces the Norwalk and Carver communities with all his heart. “The Carver has poured so much into my family. The success of my younger brothers Tomar and Isaiah, also Carver kids, are examples of this investment.”
“Sure, it takes a lot of hard work, luck, and God’s direction in life,” Jeffrey said. “However, I’d be remiss not to acknowledge the privileges I have been afforded along the way. I see and feel the inequities that affect our community every day and when advising Carver kids my approach is more nuanced that simply telling them, ‘If I can do it, you can too.’ I am merely one among many examples of what a Black kid from Norwalk can achieve. You can be a Kadeem Roberts, an up and coming politician, or Silas Redd, one of the best athletes to come out of this city. You just have to be willing to sacrifice and work for it. If anything, I simply want to inspire kids to seize even the slightest of opportunities even when the finish line isn’t readily apparent.”
Jeffrey continues, “I don’t know anyone else’s circumstances. There certainly are difficult and discouraging societal structures and barriers in place every step of the way. Despite the challenges, each young person can still exert control over her or his life. My message to Carver kids is to give your all to finding your individual paths to success. Find a way ahead that is bigger than your limitations. There is a wide-open world awaiting you that is bigger than your present-day circumstances. Fight for your dreams and don’t ever be afraid to advocate for yourself. Take full advantage of what you have access to; there will be good people ready to help you along the way.”
While preparing to become a lawyer, Jeffrey is presently a part-time Teaching Assistant for Professor Theodore Shaw's Social Justice Lawyering class at the University of North Carolina. His duties include research and preparation of source material for the class and legal analysis and writing of novel issues pertaining to voting, a particularly poignant subject for the nation during these fraught days.
As a Juris Doctor candidate, Jeffrey serves as treasurer for the school’s Holderness Moot Court and is a member of the Court’s Sports Team. Jeffrey is treasurer of the school’s Black Student Law Association, and serves as a member of the Transactional & Corporate Law Association. Jeffrey is also an intern with Oakhurst Energy, a provider of solar, solar storage, and other renewable energy development services. As a recent Summer Associate at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, Jeffrey worked on complex transactional and regulatory matters for their Energy Industry group.
In 2019, Jeffrey worked for the North Carolina Department of Justice in their Revenue Section where he assisted attorneys in all aspects of investigations and litigation. From 2015 to 2018, Jeffrey worked as a Contracts Administrator for United Technologies in Houston. He also interned in their contracts department in 2014. Jeffrey interned in the General Counsel’s office at GE Capital Aviation Services in Stamford in 2013.
From the moment Jeffrey found his voice, even though he did not know the details of the journey that would unfold before him, every positive act tacitly invoked a value that would stay with him throughout his life. Awareness, no matter how confused at any moment, developed from those positive steps forward. Real generosity toward the future lies in giving your all to the present.
Jeffrey’s story shows how one person can mend what has been torn apart, make justice imaginable in a world so obviously unjust, and give happiness a meaning that Carver kids can believe in. Jeffrey reawakens our noblest nature with newfound poignancy today. As much as Jeffrey is grateful for the countless acts of generosity through the years that enabled him to fulfill his goals, we share his story with deepest gratitude to Jeffrey for his Mamba Mentality and for giving our youth today an inspiring example of the Carver mission in action.
