VINCENT PENDARVIS

You might ask, how does a school counselor get to this level in his life? Well, after over 17 years of service in the school system, Vincent Pendarvis turned published author and speaker has taken his counseling skills outside the classroom building.

 

As a child growing up in the city of Orangeburg, South Carolina, Vincent saw a number of single parents in his neighborhood, mostly Black moms raising their Black sons. Sadly, he lost his mother at the young age of seven and was reared by his hardworking father who worked 10-hour shifts, six days a week to support him and his siblings. His father was there, but "he wasn’t there," and as a result, Vincent was “taken in” by his neighborhood friends and their mothers as one of their own. 

 

His love for counseling was discovered during the game of basketball. For years, trash-talking on the court turned into hours of counsel off the court. Vincent and his friends would sit around to talk about the unfair situations plaguing their community from not being able to get jobs, being broke, and social issues like coping with being fatherless (or motherless) and just wanting fair opportunities to provide for the families that they would someday have. Counseling came easy, a natural gift if you will, and Vincent was able to listen to, understand and respond to the needs of his classmates and became the go-to problem-solver.

 

He learned about cultural diversity from the local Boys and Girls Club’s leader, who became a surrogate father to most of the kids who attended. Ironically, the leader was a big hearted white man who pursued opportunities for underprivileged boys like Vincent and encouraged them to seek higher education.   

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After graduating from Claflin University with a bachelor’s and later returned to South Carolina State University to obtain his master’s degree in counseling. His breakout children’s book, “Seeing Mommy All Day Long” was inspired by his childhood and follows the footsteps of Alex, a young boy who was raised by a single mother with no father present in his life or daily interactions. He experiences life lessons through women figures that remind him of his mother and the mannerisms and care she provides. (Alex’s father will appear in the sequel that’s in the works, where readers will learn why he wasn’t actively in his son’s life.) 

 

But now as father, educator and father figure to others, Vincent is instilling his personal experiences, best practices and opportunities to all young men from all different cultures. He will be launching The Brother’s Lounge, a podcast all from a Black man’s perspective. The conversations will be centered around providing young boys and men of color the essential tools needed to persevere on an unequal playing field. Vincent strongly believes it’s time to change the narrative of the Black family structure, one book at a time.

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Vincent resides in Orangeburg, South Carolina with his beautiful wife, Beverly.