National Champ Swishes Aspirational Message, Challenges Shaw University’s Freshmen

RALEIGH, N.C. — The man who helped orchestrate the 1983 national basketball championship for the North Carolina State Wolfpack drew up a play for Shaw University’s class of 2028 during its fall convocation Tuesday in C.C. Spaulding Gymnasium, where the Bears hoop and string together real serious sets of volleyball.

Dereck Whittenburg during his keynote address told the university’s freshmen their self-belief combined with the instinct to gain critical separation is the winning formula toward graduation.

“What you hang around is what you become,” Whittenburg said. “You have to separate yourselves sometimes to do what you’re supposed to do before you do what you want to do.”

That may look like going to study in the university’s library because there’s too much noise from video games and music in the dorm room; not inherently bad things yet not particularly

conducive for learning, Whittenburg explained. Individuals who move like that understand their worth, he said.

“You don’t need social media to validate you. You have to be confident in yourself. You are here for a reason, because you belong. You’re smart,” he said. “You’re worthy, you’re intelligent and you’re necessary.”

Whittenburg and his wife, Jacqueline, in 2015 founded The Dereck Whittenburg Foundation to provide financial assistance to juniors and seniors in college. The idea is having them complete their undergraduate studies with lower student-related debt. Since its establishment in 2015, the foundation has awarded nearly $1 million dollars in need-based academic scholarships.

Thirty-seven Shaw University students have received $185,000 of that.

“You have more coming,” Whittenburg said. “I understand the history of Shaw. You can compete at Shaw anywhere in the country.”

Shaw University is so special to the Whittenburgs that its students were second only to those at N.C. State — Dereck Whittenburg’s alma mater — to receive scholarships from the foundation.

“I’m a Shaw donor. Proud to be one,” Whittenburg said. “Donors, faculty, everybody, do a little bit more, extra to help our students. Our responsibility and job is to make sure they have success. That’s our job. That’s our responsibility.”

What that looks like, for example, is faculty and staff getting out of their offices and into the university’s cafeteria and other campus spaces where students congregate, Whittenburg said

Whittenburg played in the NBA, coached college basketball and right now is associate athletics director for community relations and student support at N.C. State. He was the executive

producer for “Survive and Advance,” a documentary about N.C. State’s title run through March Madness, surviving and advancing with coach Jim Valvano.

The foundation’s mantra is “Dream. Believe. Work. Now Finish!” Shaw University President Paulette R. Dillard challenged the freshmen to embrace that.

“Your work is not done, class of 2028, until you finish,” Dillard said. “So this is the start, and I look forward to shaking every one of your hands in 2028 when you walk across the stage to receive your hard-earned degree.”

“You have to do the work. You have to put the work in,” Whittenburg said.

Roughly 400 new students are enrolled at Shaw University. It’s a 36% increase from the past academic year. That figure includes both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as those in the university’s adult-degree program.

“Shaw is on the move,” Dillard said. “The Bears are on the move.”

That includes the school football and volleyball teams, both undefeated this season.

Directors of sports information in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association predicted the volleyball team to repeat as conference champions. Last season, the Bears earned their first NCAA tournament win.

As well, The ShawU District continues to come together. The transformational real estate project will preserve Shaw University’s history of progress while positioning it to take advantage of its prime location in downtown Raleigh. More information about that is here.