Sammie Robinson was a child of the 1950s. "I come from a background," she explains, "where the best that could be hoped of me was that I would attend a small Black college and maybe be a teacher."

But business appealed to the young woman, and although she did attend college, "it was a vocational experience." A few years later, now divorced and raising a small child alone, "I went home to Texas, where my intent was to go to the phone company and get a position I could stay in until I retired. I worked there for 12 years. I made nice money, but I was a captive. I didn't like the job. So I decided to get my MBA and find a job I enjoyed more, with better pay.

"In my second semester at Southern Methodist University, I took a course in Organizational Behavior and my eyes just opened. I started paying attention to what the professors were doing, and their lifestyle. I said, 'I want to do this.' I went to all my professors and asked them about their lives. I cold-called African-American professors."

"There were so many things I didn't know. Publishing, research methodology - I didn't understand anything about it. This whole idea of a life of the mind -- it's a concept that I got only in the last ten years. I was always so vocationally and practically-oriented. I gave up my house and my car, and I entered a whole new world after age 40.

Now on faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University, Dr. Robinson believes her "mission" is to serve as a role model and mentor for minority students in predominantly white universities. "People who are somehow marginalized or disenfranchised gravitate to me. I will get involved in your life."

Her involvement has often been extraordinary. "There have been students whom people said were worthless, but if I saw something in then, I would give them a second chance. One girl was about to flunk out, but I said, 'I will give you a chance to take the class over without having to fail it first. Your end of the bargain is that you must meet with me once a week.' She got a 4.0 and she graduated."

As a doctoral student, Dr. Robinson won top honors for dissertation research, and a best teaching assistant award. "I save every e-mail I get from a student thanking me. They see the value of what I've given them a year to two years out. When a student tells me I made a difference, that's it for me."

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