Brother's support helps one MTSU undergrad

For some students, the decision to go to college comes for their parents encouraging higher education. For some, it comes from wanting a better life for themselves.

Dedrick Antone Mitchell went to college because, believe or not, his brother Corey Mitchell grew up watching "The Cosby Show."

As young boys growing up in the projects of south Memphis, Dedrick and Corey didn't have many privileges. Their father worked as a mechanic and their mother worked in a factory.

The brothers were never really close because they were born seven years apart. So they both went on their separate ways as young boys and "did their own things," Dedrick says.

When Corey began to play basketball as a young adolescent, Dedrick was living the action-figure lifestyle of someone still in the single digits in age. When Corey was finishing up his high school career, Dedrick began to play pee-wee football.

As high school graduation approached for Corey in 1997, he had already made the decision to further his education because of an influential black-American on television.

"My family grew up watching 'The Cosby Show' on T.V.," Corey recalls. "I saw what he had from being a doctor and I wanted that so bad."

Corey says, from his observations, the way black-Americans went to college was from either sports or academics.

"I figured I could do both, so I worked really hard at both," he says.

And with that hard work, Corey was awarded an academic scholarship to Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi, becoming the first member of his family to attend college. He was also a member of the Rust basketball team.

Meanwhile, Dedrick was preparing to start his high school career as well as his high school football career.

"Before high school, I never really took football seriously," Dedrick says. "It was just something to do to get out of the house and exercise."

An unfortunate, life-changing event, though, would lead Dedrick to the award of "Best Offensive Lineman" for the White Haven Tigers.

On June 16, 2000, during the summer before Dedrick's freshman year of high school, his father was robbed and killed while working at his automotive shop, Mobile Klean Rite.

"I had just got done vacuuming the upstairs of my dad's shop, and I walked downstairs and he was laying face down on the ground," Dedrick remembers. "I thought he was just unconscious because there was no blood, so I called 911 and the ambulance came. When they took him away, that's when I knew he was dead."

With his father dead, and his brother - who transferred to UT Martin after a semester at Rust - away at college, Dedrick now had no close male role model in his life.

Corey knew he had to be there for his brother, or he would "end up like 90% of the kids his age in his neighborhood - nowhere."

"With the death of our father, I knew I had to act as Dedrick's guiding light," Corey says. "I started to come home about 5 or 6 times a semester and just hang out with him at home. I saw him going through the same things I went through when I was his age."

And as the bond between the brothers grew with their father's death, so did Dedrick's passion for football.

"When my dad died, I channeled all that frustration into football," Dedrick remembers. "The police were getting nowhere and I knew they weren't going to find the guy. Every time I'd line up on the line, I'd treat the guy opposite me like it was him and put all I had into beating him."

Brian Rosman played football at White Haven with Dedrick.

"Dedrick was a good teammate," Rosman remembers. "We were running partners and really motivated each other."

Rosman says Dedrick rarely talked about his father, and only did when he brought it up.

"When his dad died, his brother had the majority of influence on him," Rosman says.

Dedrick continued to play football, and hoped that he would be offered a scholarship to college for doing so. But it wasn't until one weekend during his junior year of high school that he made the decision to go to college regardless of whether he got a scholarship or not.

"Me and my brother aren't that much different, so I knew he could make it in college," Corey says. "I brought him up to Martin one weekend and showed him the collegiate lifestyle, because I knew the only way that he would be driven to go to college was to see it for himself. "

Corey says the main purpose of the weekend was to talk with Dedrick.

"He hung out with me and my friends and we talked about all the advantages of colleges and getting out on your own and doing things with your life," Corey recalls.

Dedrick says he will never forget that weekend.

"That was my first time really getting away from home," Dedrick remembers. "Just seeing him having his own place and being away from mama was such a rush. I met all his friends and they told me all about college. They all told me how much they wanted me to be successful."

Dedrick was now more driven than he had ever been. He was going to go to college no matter what. Unfortunately, though, he wasn't offered a football scholarship as his football and high school career were coming to an end.

"When I didn't get a scholarship, I wasn't discouraged at all," Dedrick says.

So out went the college applications, and back came the acceptance letter from Memphis, UT Chattanooga, UT Knoxville and UT Martin. One college, though, sent him a letter saying that he would have to be on a waiting list to get in. And that college was Middle Tennessee State University.

"They rejected me and I wanted to find out why," Dedrick says. "I've never really faced rejection like that and I wanted to prove that I belong at that school.

Lynn Palmer explains the process that Dedrick had to go through to get accepted.

"No student is denied initially," Palmer explains. "If they don't meet the guaranteed admissions, they have an opportunity to complete a personal statement that goes before the admissions review board."

Dedrick proved to the student admission board that he deserved acceptance.

"I went to my English teacher, Mrs. Black, and she helped me write a really good paper, because I wasn't too good at English" Dedrick remembers.

And a few weeks later after sending his personal statement back in, he received another letter from MTSU, only this time it was some very good news.

"I got the mail that day and I saw the Middle Tennessee stamp on the envelope," Dedrick recalls. "I wasn't scared at all because I knew I had worked really hard on that paper and done my best. I was just anxious."

The letter was an approval letter. Dedrick was going to MTSU.

Dedrick Mitchell started school at MTSU in the fall 2004 semester. Since then he has been working towards his bachelor's degree in accounting.

Upon graduation, he plans to go into the Navy to pay off his student loans. After he serves, Dedrick plans to go to graduate school, become a certified public accountant, earn his doctorate in accounting and teach at the collegiate level.

"It's been a long journey to the point I'm at right now," Dedrick says. "I've been through countless situations where I should be out of school, but I've always found a way to overcome that and stay in school."

Corey went on to earn his doctorate in pharmacy from Xavier University and now manages the Wal-Mart pharmacy in Carlton, Texas, and Dedrick says that his brother's accomplishments have driven him to do even better.

"It's been tough to follow in his footsteps, but I realize I'm paving my own path and know that I will make him as proud of me as I am of him."