Drew Johnson, M.Ed

Mr. Drew Johnson is a 2008 graduate of NCCU where he received his Bachelors of Arts degree in Psychology. In 2017 he obtained his Master of Arts degree in Higher Education from Lincoln University. He is originally from Raleigh, NC and is a former member of the North Carolina Central University (NCCU) basketball team who, like many others, envisioned success only through becoming a professional athlete. Having knowledge of the expectations that come with being a student athlete from the intense practice schedule, the pressure to succeed, and the amount of time you allocate for your sport is what made him want to help student athletes navigate life after their eligibility is up. Being a student athlete at NCCU helped him see the importance of building and developing one’s self - identity outside of their prospective sport, but it wasn’t until he joined Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity inc. that he started to see the importance of building relationships in the campus community to help find success after college. His quest to see athletes succeed  off the field has been driven by his own experience not only from being a student athlete but also from working directly with them.

After graduating from NCCU, Mr. Johnson was an academic advisor at North Carolina State University (NCSU) where he worked directly with student athletes to show them the different areas of study that were available to them (i.e. choosing a major or minor) and how to go about the career decision-making processes. He was primarily tasked with helping student-athletes develop and improve their time-management skills as well as foster productive study habits. He was able to excel in this position because of his ability to relate to students of diverse backgrounds. Mr. Johnson is someone who knows the hardships that a lot of student athletes come from, being that he came from a low-income neighborhood where substance-abuse was more common than academic success. He used his platform as an advisor to show athletes that you they too can find success outside of sports. The same ability to relate and connect to student athletes is what allows him to speak comfortably to a multitude of audiences. For example, his seminars on professional and career development, along with those on the impacts of social media have allowed him to be a part of many panels on college campuses. While at NCSU, he was also a Co-Instructor for USC, a freshman seminar course in which he taught lower-income students from under-represented populations how to better transition between high school and college.

Mr. Johnson is currently the Program Coordinator for the McNair Scholars Program at a Historically Black College/University (HBCU) where he designs, coordinates, and implements recruitment strategies for potential students. He also collects assessments of students' interests, needs, and goals to develop meaningful programs to help prepare students for graduate school. He implements workshops and individual counseling in areas such as GRE preparation, financial aid, and fellowship applications to help students with graduate school exploration.