As our longtime flagship partner at Coppin State University turns 125 years old, we welcome Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement Janeisa Lashley to school Nestor on the power of the HBCU education and all of the big celebration plans on campus this year.
Nestor Aparicio interviews Janeisa Lashley, Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Coppin State University, about the institution’s 125th anniversary. Coppin is celebrating with a capital campaign aiming to raise $25 million by 2025, increased enrollment, and new facilities. Key events include a summer concert series, a golf tournament, and a gala in October. Lashley highlights the university’s familial atmosphere, strong alumni engagement, and initiatives like the “Expand Eagle Nation” to bring HBCU experiences to other states. The university also honors its founder, Fanny Jackson Coppin, a pioneering educator and advocate for female higher education.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Coppin State, 125th anniversary, homecoming, alumni events, capital campaign, be more campaign, President Jenkins, summer concert series, enrollment growth, fundraising, new buildings, HBCU culture, Fanny Jackson Coppin, community support, Baltimore heritage.
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Janeisa Lashley
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are positively taking the show on the road. Crab cakes. It’s baseball season. Luke and I have got our passports out. We are headed to Toronto, Canada. I’m gonna have some poutine. We’re gonna watch some Opening Day Baseball. We’re also gonna be getting the show out on the show out on the road. We’re at Pizza John’s in Essex on Friday with the Maryland crab cake tour. I will have the magic eight ball scratch off spin a lucky batch. We’re also going to be down at fade Lee’s on the second of April for the second Orioles game. That’ll be a Wednesday afternoon against the Red Sox. We’ll have giveaways. We’ll have crab cakes, we’ll have shrimp salad. We’ll have all that good stuff. Sometimes even get some of our comp and state partners to join us down at fadelese. Right now, we’re going to be joined by our friend Janice Lashley, who I had a chance to meet. She’s the Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement. That is a very, very fancy title that I’m going to get to the bottom of, but she was nice enough to invite me with Joshua and the group down to compensate for their holiday party. I tell you what that was a couple months ago. I feel like I met everybody at Coppin, and then I got invited back two weeks ago for Hall of Fame, and my buddy Gary digital Williams went into the hall of fame, and I went over for the games that day. And the men, the women, everybody was playing, you need more parking over cop and that’s my institutional advancement is. I couldn’t find anywhere to park. I had to park over McComb and walk over. How are you I know it’s it’s been a really exciting time at Coppin, right? You got a lot going on over there it is.
Janeisa Lashley 01:29
Thank you so much for having me today. Good morning. Yes, I think you also came during homecoming, which is, it’s our 1/25, anniversary year. So our turnout this year was amazing. A lot of alumni, community members, our partners, came. So that’s why the parking was a little bit tough. Nobody
Nestor Aparicio 01:47
told me to get there early. I did not get the memo on that. You know, I was just coming for the basketball. And I’m like, I was there when Angel Reese was there, and it wasn’t crazy like that. And I’m like, this the homecoming. It is a big, big thing at Coppin for people to come back. And I know you’re very involved with alums, that was a beautiful thing that went on over there two weeks ago, but it’s the kickoff of a whole bunch of things that Dr Jenkins is excited about.
Janeisa Lashley 02:13
8Yes, absolutely. So this year, being that is our milestone year of 120 years for the university, we have the opportunity to think about so many things. It is also the fifth year of President Jenkins here at the university. It is our campaign. The be more campaign is our capital campaign, which is the largest for the in University history to date, which is to raise 25 million by 2025 so you hear in a lot of fives, you have the 5/5 year for the president Jenkins. You have our 2025, $25 million campaign by the end of this year, and then the 1/25 anniversary. So with all of that, yes, our events this year are going to look a lot different, very much elevated, making sure that we’re honoring our past but also looking toward our future. So our classic events, such as the golf tournament, our gala, this year, they’re going to be moved to the fall. But throughout the summer, we have a summer concert series that happens June, July and August, that is open to all community members. It is a really great time for alumni to also come back to campus to hang out their free concerts. Where you have food trucks, we could have some crab cake trucks this year, some amazing things to again and make people remember why coffin is here, remembering all the great times they had as students or as community members, and just spend time with us. This is a really good year for us as a university. We are doing a lot of amazing things across the campus. Our enrollment is up. Fundraising is amazing. We have a really great partners that we’re really thankful for who continue to support us, continue to support our students in so many ways, and also new buildings are coming online to make sure that we’re supporting the increase in influx of people coming to campus, so I will make sure we put parking lot as another thing for us to add in addition to a new dorm. Well, we gotta figure out how to just gotta
Nestor Aparicio 04:11
get me there earlier. Is what you gotta do. I gotta, I gotta wake up earlier in the morning next time there’s double basketball games, Homecoming and Hall of Fame, breakfast, all of that good stuff going on. Janisha Lashley is here. She works at Coppin State. And I should say this to you. I mean, I’ve talked so much about HBCUs, and we had the anniversary of the big Fang Mitchell 15 beating the two a couple of weeks ago, and I shared some old pictures from 1998 I’m not even sure if you’re with us in 1998 but barely. But I was there with the how a basketball players this time of year with March Madness, people think about sports and different things like that. But I would say for you, I looked at your background a little bit. Not everybody went to an HBCU that works at an HBCU. I see you at Boston College in your background. I just want to ask you’ve worked at COP in three, four years. Give me your perception and. I don’t you’re not from Baltimore, maybe, but from Boston. Girl. So what does a Boston girl know? First off, the Red Sox and we’re, you can’t have my crab cafes. We got a Red Sox hat on two weeks from Wednesday. But um, what does a Boston girl went to Boston College know about Coppin or in regard to HBCU and perceptions and realities, because you did not go to an HBCU. Yes,
Janeisa Lashley 05:25
I would say coming from Boston, so very sports heavy. I’m very more of a soul fix fan Red Sox, of course, but I think I also coming from a town where we’re used to having so many parades between all our sports teams throughout the year. So I do love Boston dearly. To My Heart, well,
Nestor Aparicio 05:45
the Patriots cheated. You know that? I mean, I’ll just start with that, right?
Janeisa Lashley 05:49
We can’t talk about that. I have, I would say, since converted to Ravens fan in the last two years, since I came here,
Nestor Aparicio 05:57
beautiful. You look so much more beautiful purple, I promise you, purple brings out royalty. And every everyone looks beautiful and purple, trust me,
Janeisa Lashley 06:05
I think the the Yeah, the Patriots also are just not where they need to be. And I think once Brady retired, in general, everyone was pretty much it was as open to all Boston fans to decide if they would like to continue or open to another team. So at that time, I likely was moving here to Baltimore, but HBCUs and Boston are not big, right? We don’t have any in the city, and Boston is very much a very big college town, so as a first generation college student, it was very much more or less stay in state. And there’s so many options for us to choose from in state options. But I learned about HBCUs more after college. Transparently, being that there’s not many students that I grew up with or within my hometown who went outside the city for school, but coming to Baltimore, learning about more of the HBCU culture. In the experiences that students have with this more familial energy in a college campus, they have a lot more traditions. I would say it’s been amazing to be a part of one of the things that Coffman is doing is having it’s called expand Eagle nation, where they’re creating some articulation agreements with colleges that don’t have HBCUs in their state so students can have in state tuition if they’re out of state students. So they have had partnerships with Colorado, for example, I believe it’s been only about two weeks that they signed an agreement with a community college in California. So being able to bring the HBCU energy and knowledge to other states that have one HBCU or less is something that is very been piloted by Dr Jenkins and his team to make sure that we are being able to educate others about the HBCU experience in cities like a Boston and Massachusetts is on on that list too. Of they said, don’t have that opportunity or have that HBCU culture accessible for students.
Nestor Aparicio 08:15
What is that culture that you find that you come in? What makes Coppin different than a young lady like you that went to Boston College or went somewhere else and worked? Somewhere else and worked in other places that drew you to the gig, but now that you’re in the gig, and again, I said I saw you back at the holiday time I’ve been on the campus. I go to the campus several times a year in different ways, in basketball. And Ruffin has me over. Dr Jenkins has had me over. When I hear about the familial feeling of the campus, I sort of feel that as a visitor when I come on the campus, whenever it is ball games. We’ve done swabbing over there for the bone marrow, Reg, st, just a lot of ways, it does feel very welcoming, you know. And it does feel like people know each other and they’re welcoming with other people. It’s a smallish campus that really plays well because of that. I think you don’t feel swallowed up when you’re there,
Janeisa Lashley 09:01
absolutely, I think because we’re a smaller campus than a Boston College or some of the bigger universities, do you do have the opportunity to really get to know the staff? You get to know the coaches, you get to know your professors a little bit more deeper. You learn more about like, specific opportunities for you as a student that can encourage you and your career pathways, I think they have a lot more scholarship opportunity as well for students, so they’re not leaving school in debt because of that. But I would say in general, the thing about COVID is that everyone really much takes care of each other, whether you are someone who works in facilities, someone who works in it, someone who works in the cafeteria or in athletics. Everyone, pretty much, is everyone’s going to hold the door for you. Everyone’s going to make sure that if they see struggling or visitors on campus and don’t know where the direction to go to or where the building is, someone will. Still like stop and make sure you’re okay. And that doesn’t typically happen on every big campus. Some people just will, you know, direct you and point you to the right direction, rather than escort you to where you actually need to go. And I think that’s like the difference of coffins campus compared to others that I’ve been on that makes us a little bit more I said that like that familial energy, but also very caring. I feel like there’s a lot of care. When I think about our alumni who come back, they are they are very lively. They they love each other. They love sharing about their past experiences, but they also love having a good time. That’s why I think about during our past Homecoming this February, they had our largest turnout for all our alumni events through the happy hour, which was at the Horseshoe Casino this year, which I think in itself, will bring people out to have a good time. Oh, what
Nestor Aparicio 10:55
is this? I got my I gotta get my dance card out my calendar. What’s this? That
Janeisa Lashley 11:00
was it passed during homecoming week, the alumni had a happy hour at the horseshoe because, you know, they had events called beats and bingo, where you come to campus and you are playing bingo based off of the songs that you’re hearing. So that was very unique experience as well. They loved it. But we also had an opportunity to honor some of our alumni and some of our donors who have given to the university and make sure that they can meet some of the students who are really feeling the impact of their generosity. Well, I
Nestor Aparicio 11:30
had a Hall of Famer, Gary Williams, who I’ve known for 25 years, long time, guest of mine here during his digital boxing days. We call him digital because his name’s Gary Williams. He got confused with the basketball coach, so we had to come up with a teacher. Up with a digital Williams. I had him on two weeks ago talking about not being able to park over there to see him get honored. This 125, you have going on. And I can sit here and read from the press release, and I can also read this, there’s a statue over on campuses. It was in me to get an education and to teach my people. This idea was deep in my soul. I love that. That’s beautiful thing. 125 years, you’ve worked at the university a couple of years. This is the big one, right? I mean, I had a 25th anniversary list you could see up 26 in my oyster. I didn’t know what to do after 25 so I’m like, we’re gonna celebrate 26 too. And I said to my I said, we need a logo for 26 my logo artists, just like you don’t do a logo. I said we do because once you get 25 you celebrate them all. You get 125 you celebrate them all. You’ve been here a long time, and there’s a really deep tradition about Coppin that I think people in Coppin know, but I think it’s incumbent upon me and you to sort of spread the word about 125 years. That’s rare and unique.
Janeisa Lashley 12:40
Yeah, absolutely. I I feel very honored to be present here during this milestone year for Coppin. In my last three years here, the university has changed significantly in a matter of years in terms of the growth in students, the growth in support and generosity and philanthropy. I think that the things that are happening this year, something has happened already. In honor of 1/25 they did a president’s unveiling of portraits, which is now in the President’s outside the president’s office in the library of our university, where they are able to honor all the presidents who have worked at Coppin to date. This year, we also have a 1/25, anniversary event coming up in April that will I’ll keep it on the wraps for now of what it will look like, but it is going to be an amazing time again, making sure that we’re honoring the past, honoring our past, professors, presidents, all the different people, alumni who have contributed to COVID in many different ways. I’ve learned so many great stories about through this experience, as we’re capturing on our social media, if you’re following us on LinkedIn and even on Instagram and our many different platforms, Facebook, Twitter, they are starting to do some stories of they call be more stories, or her story or his story, of alumni, professors, community members who have all different impact, impactful experiences at Coppin students as well Current Students of what they’re feeling so in the marketing and branding, social media wise, you’re you’re seeing what Coppin is like over the as we look back in our history, but also our present for our event wise, we are elevating some our events, adding a little bit more this year, but also making sure that we’re expanding. We want to make sure that outside of the Baltimore Coppin community. We also are bringing people here from out of state, as we said, to get the energy of Coppin to feel us as a hometown city in the hometown University. So we’re truly excited about what’s on the rise. So I would just give you a quick list of all our events that are coming. And up down the pipeline for 125 so we have our April event that’s coming up. Um you’ll I would say, make sure to look around the city. Some of the city will be lit up in different ways in honor of our 1/25 anniversary event.
Nestor Aparicio 15:13
Is that blue and gold that people see blue and gold somewhere, they’ll know it’s you, right? They will know from see that’s better than tourist and UMBC that does black and gold, because that’s too much like the Steelers for me. So blue and gold, I’m good with that looks okay, yeah.
Janeisa Lashley 15:27
So we will. You’ll see more coming out between this week and next week about it. But yes, the city will be lit up an honor for our university event. As I said, we have summer concert, which will have a crab part to this year’s event. So I’ll share with you more about what, which one of the summer concert series and entertainment that we’ll have. Oh, you’re having
Nestor Aparicio 15:49
a crab feast. Hello, there’s a girl from Boston know how to eat crabs the right way. Or is you two lobstered up and clammed up? What’s going on?
Janeisa Lashley 15:58
I can say I’m learning transparently, I am more of a crab legs. I’ve not done the full. What experience you
Nestor Aparicio 16:07
speak like you’re you don’t work at COVID, and you’re not in Baltimore. I have not eaten the thing. When you start to when you start doing little pinchers and stuff. I’m like, I gotta get my girl over to Costas. Is what I’m gonna have to do here.
8Janeisa Lashley 16:18
I’m like, I don’t have no, no. I don’t know what that one is, but I’m the CC’s for, I mean, Cocos. So
Nestor Aparicio 16:25
Coco I met Cocos tonight, if you want to stop by, by the way, but they don’t have crabs. They have crab cakes. It’s different to pick it for you. We gotta, gotta roll our sleeves up, Boston girls and like, we gotta, we gotta get in there. And, you know, get busy. So I did, I did a crab tutorial. And if you’re on Facebook, you can look this one up. About four years ago. Five years ago is right before the plague. We shot a little video, because Don Mohler, former Baltimore County Executive, is telling me he’s from Catonsville. I’m from Dundalk, east side, west side. So, you know, we got a thing going on. And he watched me eat a crab, and I was schooling this young lady at Faith Lexington market, and he said, You’re doing this wrong. You’re you’re opening you’re showing her the wrong way. And I’m like, What do you mean a wrong way to eat a crab, even 10,000 but eat crabs my whole life. He said, You’re doing it wrong. Yeah. So we had a little camera, and Damien from faith lease whose mother is world famous, she invented the jumbo lump crab cake, by the way, Dami Han’s mother at fade Lee’s. So she put her hands in, and I have a video of me and her hands. And Matt Gallagher used to help run the city with Martin O’Malley, and we did this video. And she I’ve never seen a crab done this way, so it’s new to me, and I’m old, and she showed me, and I’m like, well, that’s a damn mistake, because the legs came like lollipops off the crab, where you would eat them. They were like big clumps of crab meat. And I said, I’ve never seen that before, so we videoed it. I cut my hand open, bled all over the place, trying to do it her way. And I put the phone in my pocket, and about three days later, I found the video of meat in the crab. My finger was still bleeding, and I’m like, I’m gonna put that up. I put it up. It’s got 4 million views on Facebook on how to open and eat a crab properly, and it’s still not the way I know how to eat it. I’ve never done it the way she showed me, even though 4 million people have seen it. But it’s apparently the right way, if you’re from Catonsville, to eat a crab and gun dog, we just beat on it. You know, it’s Christopher Columbus. We beat on it, find it, look for the meat and all that. So I’m going to teach you the Dundalk way. If you hang with me, if you want all that Gucci, Gucci west side thing where you cut yourself, you go do that, but you’re having a crab feast. I can’t have Janissa. Ashley is here. She’s got a fancy title, Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement. I can’t have you not knowing how to eat a crab, or give that yucky look at the crab feast for one on one for COVID. So I’m gonna personal responsibility. I teach you how to eat crabs. I appreciate
Janeisa Lashley 18:50
that. I will take that on. I promise you I’m not posh. But yes, I’m used to lobster. And yeah, well, you can’t eat a lobster
Nestor Aparicio 18:59
posh unless you just get the tail, right. But if they bring you a whole lobster, you got to get a bib. You got to get, you get those little cracker things. We don’t have any of that. We just, we have a hammer, just a hammer of a little and a butter knife is all you need. You don’t even
Janeisa Lashley 19:14
need. I used to, I used to cracker for the legs. Like I said, I mostly get the crab legs. Well, listen, Mo’s, you’re
Nestor Aparicio 19:22
a Boston fan. You’ve had a lot of angst lately too. You haven’t won lately. So we have to this will get all of that energy out. Um, so 125 your craft feast in the summer. You’re doing okay? So all year like this goes all the way to next March, right?
Janeisa Lashley 19:34
Um, well, we are some Well, our our main events will end in the end of this fall. So we have, after the summer concerts and the craft fees and all the different things. We have our golf tournament, which is supported by athletics, that happens in September at Turk Valley. And then we have our annual gala, which will be our third one for the university, and that is at the Baltimore waterfront. Yeah. Marriott, and that is in October, and it’s an honor this year is it’s very special. We typically have had our gala in May, but this year, the birthday of Fanny Jackson Coppin, the namesake of our university, is October 15. And usually during that week, we have what is called I Love Coppin week, where students have different events on campus. We have alumni come back in honor of Fanny Jackson Coppin. So the gala, which is our names, are one of our biggest signature events. This year. We expect closer to 900 people. Last year was about 750 our first year was 550 so suddenly increasing to make sure we are expanding our reach, but also the excitement that we’re seeing from the community to come to the event. So it’ll be in October, and it’ll be the end of what is called fan and Jackson COVID week. So again, it’s going to be a really awesome time to honor some of our distinguished partners throughout the year, some alumni, some of our philanthropic partners, some of those who are just been leaders in Baltimore that we’ve seen and want to recognize, but also opportunity for again, our students to share with our community a little bit about some of their paths, but also be able to meet a lot of the things we want to make sure is that with any of our partners, whether you’re alumni, individual corporate company who has donated to COVID, you have the opportunity to truly meet our students. You’re truly being able to understand why they are at Coppin, how your impact, how you’re given, is impact in their lives. And these are the different ways I would say, when you asked me earlier about what makes copying unique. I don’t think that’s something that most universities, most universities will do. Of course, you’ll get something in the mail of saying, you know, a thank you for your gift in different ways. But I think we try to make sure that we’re intentional every season, to make sure we’re making that meet and greet with our donors and with our students, so that we are also allowing them to network, allowing them to understand the different career paths that they can take, but also be able to truly meet the people who are helping them get through their college
Nestor Aparicio 22:13
if you have been tuning in here on the radio last couple weeks, you probably heard some cop and basketball, the ladies, the men, the me act tournament, we have been the proud partner of compensate for 14 years now running all the athletic events this year, we stepped it up, COVID stepping it up, 125 years to talk about other things going on, on and off campus, and 125 years at a big celebration. And I must say, janisa Lashley is our guest here today. Your gift to me, my gift to you was teach you how to eat crabs, especially if you’re going to live and work in this town, being from Boston, of all places. But I have, I am not familiar at all with Fanny jock Jackson Coppin. And I literally, I if Dr Jenkins had texted me 20 minutes ago and said who was, well, who was copping named after, I’d be like, I don’t know. I gotta Google that. So when you started giving me the fanny Jackson, I had to google Fanny Jackson. Coppin was an American educator, missionary and lifelong advocate for female higher education. I did not know that this was female based. I thought it was African American based, HBCU female based, one of the first Black Alumni of Oberlin College. She served as a principal for the Institute for colored youth in Philadelphia, and became the first African American school superintendent in the United States of America. She passed in 1913 at the age of 76 that’s a quite an advanced age at that point for anybody, and founded the university in 1900 125 years ago. So born into slavery. Wow. What a story you’re gonna be telling that story all year. That’s a great story. Right? In
Janeisa Lashley 23:45
honor of Women’s History Month, I think it’s right on time to have this conversation. But yes, if you knew Coppin started as also as a teacher’s college, so it makes a lot of sense of her trajectory and how Coppin has progressed in that way, our education and college of education is one of our most beloved colleges of all the all the ones that we have, I would not many of our students who work, who are in the College of Education also have the privilege of being out In the community and going back to their local high schools to teach as part of their practicum, but also being able to one thing you always hear from alumni is that their educators throughout the year, that’s why they came to COVID. A lot of their teachers growing up in the many schools across the Baltimore City were they learned at Coppin and got their bachelor’s from us. So that is a story that I would say. It’s another unique thing about Coppin, where many, I would say, students and are not, would not be able to say that all the majority of their teachers were taught at Coppin. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 24:58
no better advocate than. Having a teacher say, where’d you go to school? I went to cop and had a great experience. Go over there. 125 years they’ve been doing over to COVID in West Baltimore, off the North Avenue. Stop by see them go to a game. Softball season’s up, so I gotta get Sherm. I know Ruffin will be excited about that as well. They have sent us genesa Lashley today to talk about all of the great things that are going on in 125 years. She is the Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement and future crab eater and learner for the 125th anniversary Genesis. Thanks for getting up today and spending time with us and and educating us, and I will see you at one of these concerts or one of these galas. I got five six months to work on the gala, so I got to get the tuxedo together and make sure I get all the cat hair off of it, make sure I’m working the right COVID Tie. A pleasure to have you on and crabs on me.
Janeisa Lashley 25:44
Count on it. Thank you. I appreciate you. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Alright, my
Nestor Aparicio 25:48
thanks to Doctor Jenkins and everybody over COVID for making the magic happen around here. Sport Coppin and COVID state sports com for all the things they do there. Games are on here, although we had a lot of basketball on here the last couple of weeks, if you hear it on the radio side, and you can always participate. And if you look up, if you like the bat lights, if you see the blue and the yellow around town, that’s compensating the mighty eagles. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive and learning stuff and eating crab cakes. You.
