02/21/2022
For the past three years, SUNY Cortland’s Male Multicultural Initiative has held a Men of Color Student Leadership Summit, a dynamic series of workshops and speakers promoting academic success and goal attainment for male students of color.
The fourth annual leadership summit — a virtual event on the theme of “mental fitness” — takes place from 12:30 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 5,with advance registration.
The event is free and geared to college and university participants in the upstate New York region. Past summits have attracted participants from as many as 26 universities, high schools or church congregations.
To register to attend the talks, and to find out more about numerous other speakers, visit the summit website.
The summit will provide dynamic workshops and sessions, speakers, and promote completion and goal attainment for male students of color and traditional students, according to organizer Cyrenius Fitzjohn ’19, SUNY Cortland assistant chief diversity and inclusion officer.
“It’s an honor to coordinate and be a presenter at this year’s Men of Color Leadership Summit,” Fitzjohn said. “We have a special group of individuals who will be a part of the summit this year: students, current staff members and alumni, who are all united in the effort to expand the work of diversity, equity and inclusion in our community.”
Highlighting this year’s virtual summit will be keynote speaker Juan Miolan ’09, founder, president and vitality coach at Thrive212, Inc., which helps people in high-pressure situations find physical, emotional and mental health.
Miolan, a certified health and wellness coach, nutrition coach and movement coach, will speak from 1 to 2:15 p.m.
“I believe that addressing the soul and emotional wounds is the key to our true transformation,” Miolan said, noting that many leaders have consulted him to help solve their sleep, anxiety and weight challenges.
“I also believe that as our Black community heals, so will the world,” Miolan said. “Our Black and brown leaders transmuting generational traumas while remembering and activating their genius is the way to get there.”
Miolan, who describes himself as “a consistently humbled father of two,” completed his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology at Cortland and spent more than a decade fostering fitness and nutrition by working one on one with individuals.
"I’ve seen how the health field neglects to address the soul, how the mindset and spirituality fields neglect the body, and how all of these neglect to address our emotions,” Miolan said. “This often leaves people feeling like they aren’t good enough or broken, and that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“It’s time for a new and integrative approach to accessing our divine health that is through accessing both the body and the soul,” Miolan said.
In 2017, he opened Thrive212 with the vision of helping others empower their lives. Miolan explained that 212 is the degree in Fahrenheit where water transforms into its highest state.
“It is the next level and represents expansion, and I believe that many people are just one degree away from tapping into their next level of greatness,” Miolan said.
From 2:25 to 3:25 p.m., Fitzjohn will speak during the first Breakout Session.
Fitzjohn on Dec. 9 began in the newly created position of assistant chief diversity and inclusion officer, fostering campus-wide leadership and support on matters relating to diversity, equity and inclusion for all members of the SUNY Cortland Community.
In July 2021, he became the acting assistant director to multicultural life and diversity, filling a vacancy within the Division of Student Affairs’ Multicultural Life and Diversity Office, which coordinates and facilitates student programming, leadership development and education related to multicultural life, diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice and community building.
Fitzjohn previously had served the university as a residence hall director after he graduated from SUNY Cortland in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in English.
A panel presentation, with panelists to be announced, will take place during the second Breakout Session from 3:35 to 4:45 p.m.
Afterward, Fitzjohn will deliver the closing remarks.
“It’s my hope that all who attend and participate in this year’s summit will feel they have learned something valuable that they are able to use to enrich the experience of those around them,” Fitzjohn said.
The summit is sponsored by the Institutional Equity and Inclusion Office (IEIO), Men of Value and Excellence (MOVE), Multicultural Life and Diversity Office (MLDO) and Tompkins Cortland Community College Office of Diversity Education and Support Services.
For more information, contact Fitzjohn at 607-753-4352.