Michael Carter is the Senior Vice President of Student Services and Marketing at Sinclair Community College. He supervises a “tree of services” that ranges from the school’s academic resource center to marketing and pre-college programs.
After graduating with a degree in History from Wittenberg University, Carter worked for three years as a juvenile probation officer. He describes the experience as “the best thing I could have ever done.”
Carter taught social studies and coached basketball in Springfield, teaching middle school students for three years and high school students for three years. In 1991 he was hired as the head coach and social studies teacher at Trotwood Madison High School, and became the unit principle in 1997.
“I didn’t take the typical route when it comes to leadership in higher Ed.,” said Carter. “I’ve spent the majority of my career in K-12.”
Carter first came to work at Sinclair to help run the Fast Forward Center, the county’s school youth initiative to recover drop outs and encourage them to complete their high school diplomas.
“My background has been in working with students who have struggled academically or socially, students who have been in urban environments,” Carter said. “They’re the same struggles, they’re just older, and so I have a pretty good concept of what they need in order to be successful.”
Carter became the program manager of the Fast Forward Center, then the senior director of school linkages. He has worked at Sinclair for 11 years, and has been the Senior Vice President for two years.
“[Sinclair] is a wonderful place to work,” Carter said. “There is a true desire for students to be successful…there are occasions when that’s kind of cliché, but here I think the feeling is genuine.”
Carter will be giving a talk about the old Negro Baseball League and showing students items from his collection of jerseys, bench coats, and hats this week, in celebration of Black History Month.
“You look at these players, they’re wearing wool flannel in August,” he said. “They look good, they’re great conversation pieces, and they’re part of history.”
He says his favorite jersey is his Dayton Marcos 1920 road jersey, which he says is the only Dayton Marcos jersey in the world.
His second favorite is a jersey from the House of David, a team formed by a religious sect with a compound in Michigan. The members didn’t shave or cut their hair, and played with the Negro League teams. They are credited with inventing ‘pepper,’ the tricks that players do before a game.
“It’s an important part of our history, and a lot of history that many people don’t know,” he said. “Segregation, that’s a fairy tale to [young people]. Not to relive it out of anger, but to relive it so you understand it and see it…I think that’s what’s really good.”
Carter will be discussing the Negro League in the stage area in the basement of Building 8 on Feb. 22 from 12 to 1 p.m. His collection will be on display in his office on Feb. 23 and 24 from 12 to 5 p.m., and all students are welcome to visit and take a look.
“I guess the blessing of this job is also its curse,” said Carter. “I’ve been blessed to be in this position, but the curse is you have less hands-on contact with students. I think at this point in my career, anything I can do as far as setting up policies and practices that will assist students, that’s what I need to be doing.”