Brian Rucker
Washington, D.C.
Rucker took part in Operation Understanding DC, which teaches African Americans and Jewish Americans about each other’s cultures in order to foster understanding.
During the first part of the year-long program, Rucker learned about Jewish history, observed services, and attended a Seder. Next, he spent a month traveling from New York to Memphis, Tennessee, to relive the Freedom Rides. This journey changed Rucker’s perspective on life by introducing him to community organizers and inspirational speakers who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Also part of the program were training sessions that taught Rucker how to facilitate discussions on racism, anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination.
His Operation Understanding experience, and learning about African Americans throughout history who became great leaders, inspired Rucker to become his high school’s student government president. “It was through reading, seeing, and meeting other people who took the initiative to do something for their community that I eventually came to the belief that I could be one of the people that I admired,” he says.
At Haverford, Rucker, who was also captain of the debate team at his high school, is on the search committee for the next Dean of Multicultural Affairs and hopes to revive the Haverford debate team. He plans to major in philosophy with a minor in Africana Studies and to eventually become a civil rights lawyer.