Mr. Bryson: Sowing Seeds of Success

EAST PEORIA — This fall, although many new faces are visible at Illinois Central College, it is the absence of a familiar one that some students are noticing. In July, Mr. Agbara Bryson retired from the ICC Counseling Department after more than sixteen years of service, and he is leaving behind a legacy of having supported some of the most disadvantaged students.

According to Bryson, he first came to ICC as a counselor in 1997 so he could work somewhere where he could really help people, but this was by no means the beginning of his counseling career.

After being born and raised in Peoria, he worked as a probation officer, community therapist and then senior vocational counselor. “My connection to the community… kind of just led me over here,” said Bryson.

Bryson mentored to every student that he could, but over the course of his career, he came to see that African-American males in particular needed the kind of guidance that he was offering.

“Most of [these] guys think moment to moment, day to day,” said Bryson. “They don’t see themselves even alive five years from now. So we have to take what I call that ‘war mentality’ into expanding themselves to be a productive member of society.”

As it says on ICC’s website, the counseling department is there to give students a place to come to get help with “personal problems,” but Bryson admits that he didn’t confine himself to his office. He would often walk around the campus checking up on the students with whom he had built bonds to make sure they were staying in class. He referred to this practice of his as “intrusive advisement.”

This persistent counseling style may seem like it would make students uncomfortable, but in reality it did the opposite. Bryson said that they came to trust him because they saw that he cared about them.

The pinnacle of his counseling career began in 2009 when Bryson founded Harvesting Dreams. According to its Facebook page, this community program, which meets at ICC, was created to “enhance personal, academic and career success for African-American students through advising, mentoring, community and college involvement.” Or as Bryson put it, “We are planting seeds so they can harvest their dreams.”

Many of the students that Harvesting Dreams targeted were very likely to become college dropouts, but Bryson reported that after they joined they not only got involved on campus but also had a higher retention rate than the average ICC student.

Harvesting Dreams became known for its success not only at ICC but in the community as well. For its positive impact, it was recognized by both Peoria mayor Jim Ardis and Illinois Lt. Governor Sheila Simon. Now, Harvesting Dreams has chapters in two Peoria schools and Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg.

As great as this success was, Bryson explained that the increase in the number of students seeking counseling led to some new stresses within his department.

“I didn’t feel that [the students and I] were really getting the support that we needed, so those issues kind of led me to my retirement,” said Bryson. “The College as a whole, [was] a very strong supporter… but a little tense in my department.”

Bryson’s sudden departure saddened many of his students and left them questioning what the future held for Harvesting Dreams.

“A lot of people were looking for him…They didn’t know that he’d left,” said Raymond Holloway, 21, of East Peoria, who was one of the many students mentored by Bryson. “I think that the young men in that program and the incoming boys need him or need someone like him.”

While Bryson has heard those concerns, he doesn’t feel students should worry.

“Now the program’s been absorbed [by the ICC Diversity Department],” said Bryson. “I’ll be coming back and working with them to help through the transition component and try to usher students back into Harvesting Dreams. So it will be going on, which is a good thing, and under a different department, which is an even better thing. So my retirement worked out perfectly.”