Student spotlight: Jehron Pura-Bryant

From chess master to fraternity president to undergraduate program assistant, Jehron Pura-Bryant has a knack for rising to the top

“I feel like everyone has their own version of what it means to be a leader,” said Pura-Bryant, a junior integrative neuroscience major from Valley Stream, N.Y. “Sometimes I’m the person who goes to Wal-Mart and picks something up, and that’s being a leader in its own way.”

Pura-Bryant earned his formal title when he reached the rank of national chess master. When a person wins a chess tournament, the player acquires points. To become a national master, the player must earn 2,200 points. Pura-Bryant reached this goal at age 15, which makes him one of the youngest African-American and Filipino-American national chess masters. Now that he is in college, he said that he does not have time to play competitively, but chess is still a part of his life.

“When I go home and am not doing anything over break I like to go into New York City public schools and teach kids how to play,” he said.

Pura-Bryant has been a leader on Binghamton University’s campus since his freshman year. Before he began college, he applied and was accepted to the Emerging Leaders Program, a mentor-based program that prepares first year-students to be active players on campus through interest-based Knowledge Communities.

As a mentee, he was assigned to the Public Service Knowledge Community, which partnered with Rise, a local shelter for women who have been victims of domestic violence. He said that his time volunteering broadened his perspective of the Binghamton area.

“I describe Binghamton University as a bubble,” Pura-Bryant said. “Outside of the University, the area is not pristine – it’s impoverished. It’s nice to give back and really do something.”

Pura-Bryant was an ELP mentor his sophomore year and an undergraduate program assistant his junior year. As a program assistant, he helps organize workshops and panels for the mentees. He organized a student leadership panel that brought together presidents from different student groups to talk about their experiences on executive boards. Pura-Bryant believes that it’s inspiring for young people to learn from each other.

“The mentees really enjoyed asking questions,” he said. “Sometimes it’s better to look at your peers and see how they got involved on campus because everyone in the program is a leader.”

As a mentor, Pura-Bryant is most proud of the fact that he has been able to expand his relationship with many of his mentees beyond ELP. They still look at Pura-Bryant as both a friend and a source of knowledge.

“Even to this day some of my (former) mentees text me asking advice about different aspects of their Binghamton experience,” he said.

Pura-Bryant’s extracurricular involvement does not end with ELP. He is also the president of his fraternity, Pi Delta Psi, and a general body member and former Academic Vice President of the Philippine-American League, also known as PAL. Pura-Bryant has been a member of PAL since his freshman year and has used it as a stepping stone for further campus engagement.

“They were really one of the first groups that I connected with—what got me involved on campus,” he said.

In fact, members of PAL helped him find his fraternity, which is specifically aimed at Asian-Americans.

“There were a lot of executive board members of my fraternity in PAL,” Pura-Bryant said. “They had me think, ‘OK, they do more than just hang out and have fun. [The fraternity] actually cares.’”

Pura-Bryant is confident that, like the people he has met through ELP, his fraternity brothers are also leaders on campus. Specifically, they are pioneers of cultural competency.

“Our founding principle is culture awareness,” he said, “so that’s something that we’re very involved with.”

When Pura-Bryant has time to spare between clubs, he said he can be found in the Science Library, working on his pre-med coursework. Preparing to be a doctor is a difficult undertaking and at points he doubted his path, he said. During moments of indecisiveness, however, he is able to look to his long-time interest – chess—for inspiration.

“In chess, like in life, there are always different obstacles in the way,” Pura-Bryant said. “You need to take time to reflect and figure out what’s the best move.”