Wales Brown received a 2018 Student Service Award at the college’s Student Wellness Retreat, April 5-7 in Albany, N.Y.

Brown is on a mission. He seeks, through a variety of means, to show how important fatherhood is in family life. Eschewing the term “deadbeat dad,” he seeks to empower fathers to be the men in their children’s lives that they would like to be, rather than being merely breadwinners, if that. Brown’s personal story is relevant to his later work. After a challenging childhood, instead of letting “the hopelessness, despair and estrangement from these early experiences [embitter him], they left me compelled to always seek justice and kindness.”

Therefore, he became a single father of four intellectually disabled boys at young ages. Diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, Brown describes himself as a gay, disabled single father. His work life dovetails perfectly with his deep interest in fatherhood and his volunteer work.

Brown is pursuing a master’s degree in Adult Learning. He has worked for Northeast Parent and Child Society for 30 years as a parent educator.

Brown is involved with the Community Fathers Program of Schenectady, and is a council member of the National Parent Education Network, as well as the New York State Parent Education Network. As he applied for his graduate program in Adult Learning at the college, he simultaneously applied to become part of the inaugural Leadership Training Initiative, whose goal is to collaborate with a community program and provide support and development in furthering its work. He was stunned to find the lack of resources in the community for fathers raising kids. He urges people in the community (as opposed to the court system) to take up the mantle of training, nurturing and guiding fathers to reconnect with family. That was the reason he became a facilitator in the Nurturing Fathers Program.

Meg Benke, professor and department chair of Education, lauds Brown for becoming an excellent student and scholar, as well as a working father and tireless advocate for fathers, and by extension, children.

Recipients of the Service Award must be a matriculated student at the college and must have a 3.0 or higher cumulative GPA. They also must list up to three organizations with which they have significant service and involvement.