#RealCollege Covening held their national conference luncheon addressing both hunger and homelessness last weekend at Houston Community College’s West Houston Institute building.

Paul Quinn College President Michael J. Sorrell was a guest speaker who was invited to give his testimonial and success story of his “We Over Me” philosophy. This movement has been acknowledged for its push to make higher education more responsive to reality-based education of societal needs for their students.

Sorrell’s 12-year tenure at Paul Quinn is the Dallas college’s longest for a president. He founded the “We Over Me Farm” on the college’s former football field in which it gives back to its own community as a goal to create a “new urban college model”.

Paul Quinn’s goal is to end poverty and their basis on education shows for it with their “Quinnite Arts” curriculum. These arts are writing, speaking, critical thinking, and digital literacy; teaching basic work skills to its students so that the students may be one step ahead in their competition for jobs.  The college also offers a “Summer Bridge” in which students may be able to earn up to nine college credit hours to be even closer to graduation, mental health assessment exams, and mandatory semesters to travel abroad.

Many of the people in the session’s attendance where out-of-state students and community leaders willing to try to make a difference to not only their schools of their own, but others who are also in need of these humanity resources.