J.B. Hawkins, Esq. ’87

Immigration Attorney, Principal, BLACKHAWK Immigration Consulting

“When I first came to Benedict’s, I was all in. It was a big deal for me and for my family because everyone before me went to Malcolm X Shabazz High School.

I was the first in my family to go to private school. I bought into the Overnight and Summer Phase. But then I had to go home. You always have to go home and I was the only kid from my Newark neighborhood going to St. Benedict’s. I lived in two worlds: the Benedict’s world and the street world. Kids would hassle me about Benedict’s like I thought I was better than them. I had to prove to my buddies I was still a punk.

That first year, the street side got the best of me. Even though I fought like hell to get into Benedict’s, now I was saying, ‘How do I get out of here?’ I ended up failing every class on purpose, figuring the School would throw me out. My parents had no idea. I would race home before the mailman when report cards were delivered. When my parents finally learned what was going on and we met with the Headmaster, Fr. Ed said, “You are not going anywhere. You made this bed. You are going to fix it.” My plan to fail out would have worked at any other school. Not at Benedict’s.      

I had to take every freshman year class over during the summer and other breaks. I took Algebra twice. I took Freshman English twice. I even read Shogun twice and still graduated in four years. You talk about resilience, that’s what got me through that hard time. I was resilient before I got to Benedict’s. Being the eighth of nine kids and growing up in Newark, you had to be resilient. I just didn’t know it.

St. Benedict’s packaged resilience. The School coined it…the motto everyone learns, ‘Benedict’s Hates a Quitter,’ is essentially telling kids, ‘You will be resilient.’      

I leaned on that motto to bounce back. Chanting that mantra over and over during freshman Summer Phase, I didn’t know who Benedict was, but I knew he hated a quitter. I doubled up on classes and started running track. What kept me going was the support system and the people who help you. That’s the beauty of St. Benedict’s, the School molds kids into something beautiful.      

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“What St. Benedict’s packaged resilience. The School coined it...the motto everyone learns, ‘Benedict's Hates a Quitter’ is essentially telling kids, ‘You will be resilient.’”

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‘Benedict’s Hates a Quitter’ was always ringing in my ears every level up in my life. At Northfield Mount Hermon, a boarding school in Massachusetts where I spent a post-graduate year between Benedict’s and college. At Temple University, where I ran track all four years. And at Seton Hall Law School, where in the early 1990s I would look around class and think, ‘What? No Black people wanted to come to law school?’      

There were some tough days, especially the first year of law school, but I never wanted to quit. I knew I belonged. and that it was important for me to carve a path, especially as one of the few people of color in my law school class. Even today, as an immigration attorney and principal of BLACKHAWK Immigration Consulting, a company started by Ayesha Blackwell-Hawkins (my wife and the smartest person I know) and myself, nothing comes easy. I still say and use ‘Benedict’s Hates a Quitter.’      

The School means everything to me. When I walk through the doors, I still get the goosebumps I got the first time walking into the place. St. Benedict’s was a safe haven for us, from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Just enough time to get home, go to sleep and start over again. I wouldn’t be anywhere today without that place.”