On Friday morning, former Ohio State basketball player and current CBS sports analyst Clark Kellogg was announced as chair of the launch campaign for The Masters Preparatory Academy.
The academy is a proposed boarding school to provide educational experience focused on Black male youth. Robert Murphy is the institution's founder. He's a retired Columbus City School principal and has been working on establishing the organization for the last 15 years.
Kellogg said he benefited from his experience at St. Joseph High School, a single-gender Catholic school, growing up in Cleveland.
“There's a value in being connected to, in a cultural environment that's nurturing and understanding and empathetic and demanding and challenging, all of that. And when Dr. Murphy shared his vision, it just resonated in regards to the types of things I want to be able to help,” Kellogg said.
The announcement took place during the 7th annual Ubuntu Leadership Institute, a multi-week educational development program for Black male high schoolers to enhance leadership skills, character development, critical thinking and other traits for positive change.
“If we could make a huge impact in a couple of weeks in the summer on a young man, imagine what we could do over a three or four-year period,” Murphy said. “So, the institute is all about developing them as leaders, helping them to understand the greatness that's in them.”
Murphy expressed the power of place and camaraderie in curating growth after his experience in the Marine Corps in 1968 and his time on the Ohio State football team in the 1970s. He worries that African American young men are encultured into lifestyles meant for destruction. The opportunity of a boarding school, Kellogg explained, allows for the “seeds” of students to be planted in “good soil” so they can prepare them for success.
The school has a planned opening in the fall of 2028. According to Murphy, the school will reserve 30% of its student population of the school for boys who are in the foster care system and the rest will come from across the state.
“My whole life is a stewardship based on what God gives me and using what he gives me in resources, relationships, opportunities, influence to come alongside and partner with the development of young people in general. People in general, our humanity is common. So anytime I can be aligned with education, holistic development, but this had a special resonance,” Kellogg said.
Kellogg is a current CBS sports college basketball and studio analyst.
Kellogg played basketball for Ohio State University from 1979 to 1982 and was a first-round draft pick (8th overall) of the Indiana Pacers in 1982. He earned a marketing degree from Ohio State in 1996. He currently lives with his family in Westerville.
