Trenton State College: This Week: April 19, 1993

"Actress to Keynote Minority Awards Dinner "

Lili Bernard, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School graduate cum rising star of theater, film and television - and dedicated minority mentor for inner city youth will speak on "The Values of Mentoring" at Trenton State College's Minority Scholarship Annual Awards Dinner.  The annual dinner will be held, this year in the college's Community Commons, on Wednesday, April 28 at 5 p.m., according to David Morales, coordinator of TSC's Minority Mentoring Program, sponsor of the program. Each year, the mentoring program bestows faculty and staff Minority mentor Awards and student Peer Mentor Awards at the by-invitation program.

Bernard - who is of Cuban-Jamaican, Spanish, Chinese and British descent said in an interview last year that her light mocha skin prevented her from landing roles while she was a student at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School.  Today, her career is flourishing, and her problem has flipped to deciding what roles to accept. In addition to a long list of stage plays, she has been in several movies (the most recent being Tri Star's See No Evil, Hear No Evil) and several television series, including NBC's The Cosby Show and CBS's Stephen King's Golden Years.  A talented vocalist, Bernard has sung with he Abyssinian Baptist Church Gospel Choir, Riverside Choral Society and the Princeton University Chapel Choir.  Further, she plays flute, clarinet, saxophone and guitar.

Give Back to Community

Living in Harlem for the last three years of her theatrical career has brought her into daily contact with African-American and Latino children, as well as other famous minority personalities, she says.  Last year, appearing at a Martin Luther King Day Celebration at Harlem Hospital, numerous children recognized her from a recent appearance on The Cosby Show and began asking for autographs.   From that, she says, came the realization that she is in a unique position to help mentor children even though she is not formally trained to counsel or mentor children.  Bernard, who has a BA in German from City University of New York, spent three years studying biology [sic. and fine arts] at Cornell, and studied method acting under the famed 92 year-old Sonia Moore, a disciple of the world renown actor/director Constantine Stanislavsky.

Using her own money, she began a program to encourage Harlemites to "give back" to heir community simply by speaking at local schools, thus demonstrating that the local famous members of its community care about its children.  She began her program with St. Aloysius School's eighth grade class, meeting with them once or twice a week, inviting speakers such as Deon Richmond or merlin Santana - Kenny and Stanley respectively of The Cosby Show. Other notables such as filmmakers, journalist, lawyers and law students also participate.

"I'm concerned for them, and I commit myself to guiding them, steering them, showing them that the future can be bright, showing them that I care."

"When I first started, they were so skeptical.  They didn't trust me, because a lot of adults will make promises and not keep them."  She encourages them in career goals and towards positive self esteem.  She believes they've been told that they "can't" too often.  "I let them know that they can."

Cheryl Jackson

[Correction by the artist: I attended WWPHS until the beginning of 11th grade, at which point our family moved to Tokyo, where I graduated high school from the American School in Japan.]

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