YOUNGSTOWN — C.J. Hall fondly recalled having been in a recent youth production at the Youngstown Playhouse and helping a young fellow cast member who was struggling with her microphone pack.

The two were among those in a production called HONK! Jr., and he took it upon himself to give the girl a hand.

“I had to do it for myself, so I helped her for the one scene,” C.J., a Youngstown Virtual Academy sophomore, said.

The teen’s example of being selfless taps directly into part of what he sees as necessary to exude leadership — a theme that wound through an empowerment workshop he and about a dozen other students attended Saturday morning in a building that houses United Returning Citizens and other businesses at 611 Belmont Ave., near downtown.

Hosting the two-hour program was the Kool Boiz Foundation, which recently celebrated its 10-year partnership with the Youngstown City Schools. KBF works mainly with boys and young men of color to train them for success in life.

Suffice it to say C.J., who also attends Youngstown State University, already has carved a pair of niches for success in his life: He’s working to grow 3P Pain, Purpose, Passion, a lifestyle clothing business he launched in 2024, and he aspires to be a stage or theater actor. Along the latter lines, C.J., who also is part of Inspiring Minds Youngstown, has his eyes on attending Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania for its acting program, and where many freshmen land roles rather quickly, he said.

Conducting the empowerment program, which also was part of Black History Month, was Scott Washington, Kool Boiz’s vice president, who provided narratives on three black Americans he said exemplify leadership and success.

Washington also sought to stretch knowledge of black history beyond household names such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass, as well as oft-repeated captions and soundbites of King espousing he had a dream.

Those who were highlighted were Tristan Walker, a black entrepreneur; the late John Lewis, a civil rights icon and Georgia congressman; and Mark E. Dean, who’s perhaps best known for being a key architect of the IBM personal computer. Washington also stressed to the middle and high school students that they too have the capacity to achieve greatness and success.

Walker founded Walker & Co. Brands, which Procter & Gamble acquired in 2018. He became the first black chief executive officer under that umbrella in P&G’s 180-year history.

For his work in the corporate world, Walker was named USA Today’s Person of the Year, Ebony magazine’s “100 Most Powerful People” and Fortune magazine’s “40 Under 40.”

In addition, he founded CODE2040, which matches high performing black and Latino undergraduates and graduates coders and software engineering students with Silicon Valley startup businesses for summer internships.

“As a student at Fisk University, John Lewis organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee,” Washington told the students. “In 1961, he volunteered to participate in the Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation at interstate bus terminals across the South. Lewis risked his life on those rides many times by simply sitting in seats reserved for white patrons.”

Lewis, who gained national recognition as a civil rights leader in his early 20s, also chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a key civil rights organization and, at age 23, was one of the speakers before hundreds of thousands of people at the Aug. 28, 1963, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Up to his death July 17, 2020, at age 80, Lewis espoused the philosophy of nonviolence and often urged those fighting injustices to “get into good trouble, necessary trouble” when called upon.

During his time in politics, Lewis was elected in 1981 to the Atlanta City Council, where he advocated for ethics in government as well as neighborhood preservation, Washington said, adding that the famed civil rights icon and humanitarian also served several terms representing Georgia’s 5th congressional district.

“This guy is one of the key architects of what we use today,” Washington said about Dean, who also holds three of the original nine IBM patents that opened the door for modern computing, and made him a major player in the history of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Dean’s work also entailed leading teams that developed gigahertz microprocessors and supercomputers, with more than 20 patents. In addition, he graduated at the top of his class after having studied electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee.

A gigahertz microprocessor is a central processing unit that operates at a clock speed of at least 1 billion cycles per second, allowing it to perform billions of calculations in that short time.

“These three guys show what’s possible,” Washington said.

He added that it’s crucial for the students to start figuring out positive plans for their futures, whether they entail going to college or a trade school, entering the military or choosing other paths. Washington’s parents continually reinforced to him that getting a good education was pivotal and directly connected to a more solid future.

He also stressed that Dean, Walker and Lewis began their journeys to better society while in their 20s – not far removed age wise from the students, who he said may just need “proper validation” and guidance from positive people in their orbits.

“I believe in them, because I was that kid,” Washington said about the students at Saturday’s workshop.

Kenny Boone, United Returning Citizens’ program director, said it’s important for young people to learn about black people who may not be household names, but who have achieved greatness in their own right — and who “follow the footsteps of great people who came before them in real time.”

Perhaps the most formidable barrier for young people to attain a high level of success is themselves, as well as buying into negative messages, intentional or not, from those who may have failed to achieve success themselves, Boone explained.

For C.J. Hall, that message likely has found its target.

“Leadership is being honest and willing to help others. That’s also being selfless,” he said.

In its early days, the Kool Boiz Foundation was a social club. Today, KBF also offers scholarships, mentoring and presenters who, among other things, discuss with the students job possibilities in a variety of industries.