Robert Mason, a native of Roanoke, Virginia, was the first in his family to attend college, but he almost didn’t. He had a 1.9 GPA in high school and was ranked 454 out of 457 students in his graduating class. Despite his low-performing record, in 1978, one college — Virginia State University, a historically Black institution (or HBCU) — took a chance on him. Once given that chance, Mason was focused on succeeding.
He credits his mother, Ernestine Mason, for his perseverance and interest in college. Although she was not college educated herself, she knew that it was important to surround her children with books and had them in their home from the time Mason was a small child.
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