Roberts Pushed Himself to Grow at Webster

“I lost every D1 basketball offer I’d received due to my injury,” he explained. “But I wasn’t ready to stop playing.” Then, during his recovery period, he found an overlooked letter from Webster that convinced him to tour the campus. 

While the sport brought him to the university – and led to many other opportunities (including coaching the Gorloks), it was the vast and beautifully diverse community on campus and throughout St. Louis, Roberts said, that convinced him to stay. In fact, when asked about anyone from Webster he’d like to mention specifically, Roberts named more than 30 individual names, plus student groups, “the entire undergrad admissions crew” and many, many more people he was grateful for — all who he said came into his life “for specific seasons, for deeper reasons, or for a lifetime.” 

Today, the St. Paul, Minnesota-area native and Webster alumnus is Vice President of Urban Ventures, a Minneapolis-based community non-profit that serves nearly a thousand local youth every day through various holistic programs and opportunities — no small feat for someone who said he chose his Sociology major, in large part, because of “survivor’s remorse.”

“I wanted to go to school out of state because some of the folks in my circle back home were getting in trouble, and I really wanted more for my life than what I was seeing around me,” Roberts said. “I wanted to understand the world around me and why I was able to have successes in life when it felt rare in my community.”

Roberts has spent his entire career since in youth empowerment, community engagement and human development.  

Now a philanthropic business owner, as well as a respected leader within his church and his daughter’s school, Roberts said his professional goals include being “a modern-day professional Harriet Tubman,” who just wants to “love on people until they believe it.”

He also would like to create his own scholarship, so that he can “walk with students in their journey of life.”

“Connecting with people gives me life,” he said. “Faith in Jesus is central to my being, and it is that conviction that centers the way I show up and am able to love on people, especially those from the margins.”

Since leaving Webster, Roberts said he feels more centered in his faith and able to show up, unapologetically, as himself.

“I am more curious to continue to learn about other people,” he said. “I am still hopeful but not naïve. I feel more whole.”

When asked for any advice for future Gorloks – or any youth, really, still navigating their way to adulthood – he had plenty.

“Take the time to question everything and push yourself to grow.  Grow for yourself, not your parents, not your faith leaders,” he said.  “Don't live out of your hurts. If something hurt you or someone, don't use that as an excuse to completely cut things off or out.  Curiosity will take you further than criticism.  You have permission to change your mind. Also, always find a friend with a meal plan.”