CSUSB alumnus Lawrence Hardy ’08, B.A., mathematics, was honored with the San Bernardino Black Culture Foundation’s Black Rose Award during an awards celebration held Feb. 1 on the Cal State San Bernardino campus. Hardy was one of 10 outstanding community leaders recognized with lifetime achievement honors during the 32nd annual Black Rose Awards ceremony. 

At age 40, Hardy may seem relatively young to receive accolades for a lifetime of achievements, but he has accomplished more than many people twice his age. “I'm so honored to receive my first lifetime achievement award,” he said. “There is a lot of work to be done ahead.” 

Hardy is the equity and targeted student achievement program specialist with the San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD). Born and raised in San Bernardino, he graduated from San Gorgonio High School and was uncertain about his career path. “The only thing I did know is that I wanted to go to college,” he said. In high school, one of his teachers suggested he study math in college, but “I knew it would be a challenge. I wasn’t great at math. But I was always the type of student who wanted to challenge myself.” He was accepted at Tuskegee University and Cal Poly Pomona but chose CSUSB because it was close to home.

Hardy’s mother, Lanell, was a single parent, and Hardy said, “She was always my safety net, and I didn’t want to go too far.” She was also a source of inspiration to her son, the youngest of her three children. 

When she was in her 40s, she returned to school after a 14-year break, earned her bachelor’s degree at CSUSB and later became a teacher. “She taught middle school for 15 years before she eventually became a vice principal,” he said. “It definitely had an impact on me, seeing her come home from work, make us dinner and then go to class at night. Seeing just how driven and how focused she was really inspired me.”  

At CSUSB, Hardy chose math as his major for a very specific reason. “For me, representation was always important. I wanted to pick an area where you didn't see too much representation of African Americans, in particular, the field of mathematics,” he said. During his time in the program, he remembers only two other African American math majors.  

As a college student, he began a student internship teaching math and working with various schools and administrators throughout SBCUSD. Other teachers took note of his ability to connect with students who had previously struggled with math concepts and encouraged him to apply for a full-time teaching position. After he graduated, he was later hired as a math teacher at Pacific High School. 

After several years, he transferred to Arroyo Valley High School, where he continued to teach math. While he enjoyed teaching, he said he was ready for a change, and in 2016, he enrolled at the University of Redlands, earning a master’s degree in special education and a multiple-subject teaching credential.      

He became a resource specialist program teacher and individual education plan (IEP) case carrier at Curtis Middle School, working with students who had learning disabilities. He managed a caseload of students each day to ensure they were getting the support and services they needed.

“I loved that position, being able to help give each student individual support and tutoring and not being confined to one classroom,” he said.    

It was there that he became aware of his ability to connect with parents, particularly during IEP meetings. “Some parents would come in really frustrated about student performance or different things regarding their child. I noticed no matter how mad or upset they were when they came in, by the time they got done meeting with me, they would feel like they were heard,” he said. “I just really took the time to hear them out. I was really good at building those relationships with our students and our parents.” 

And once again, other teachers took note of his ability to connect with students and families and encouraged him to use his talents “on a bigger scale” in a district-wide position. 

In early 2020, Hardy landed an interview and was then hired as a program specialist in Continuous Improvement to support math teachers throughout the school district through an initiative called Teacher Clarity. His role was “to help math teachers with backwards mapping their standards and break the standards down in a way to create learning intentions,” he said. But post-COVID, the program was derailed and dissolved before it had a chance to take off.    

Hardy, however, had made a strong and positive impression on Will Greer, Ph.D., who was on the interview panel and had observed Hardy’s teaching demonstration for the Teacher Clarity position. Greer is the director of SBCUSD’s Department of Equity and Targeted Student Achievement (ETSA). “He met with me and asked if I would be interested in working for ETSA as the family engagement specialist. He said, ‘I think you’d be phenomenal,’” Hardy recalled.

Today, Hardy’s role is to engage and increase the involvement of African American students, parents and the community with the school district, to help facilitate district-wide parent committee meetings and help school sites develop their African American parent advisory committees. 

“Dr. Greer told me when I started, ‘Hey, in this position, I want you to be yourself. I'm not going to put limitations on you,’” he said. “‘This is what I want and would like to see, but I'm going to give you the freedom to create and be yourself within this position.’ That was the first time I actually had a leader who said something like that.” 

Lawrence Hardy
Lawrence Hardy

Hardy attended his first African American Parent Advisory Committee meeting to observe and get a sense of what the meetings were like. And, while disappointing because of the low attendance, it was also eye opening. “There were only three parents and the rest of the attendees were district personnel. I thought to myself, ‘Well, all right. Dr. Greer said I can try new stuff.’” 

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Hardy came up with the concept of a Mother’s Appreciation Family Paint Night to encourage attendance for the next meeting. He designed a flyer with a QR code to spread the word, created a brief video, enlisted an art teacher who would guide the group, asked a vocalist to open the event with a song and invited a spoken word artist to recite poetry. Once the flyer was distributed, RSVPs began to trickle in: three the first day, 55 on the third day, until there were more than 100 signed up.

“It was amazing,” Hardy said. “I told everyone that night, ‘This is how our meetings are going to be moving forward. We want to do more stuff like this. When you come out, we’re going to give you valuable information and resources for your families and let you know about different opportunities we’ve got going on, and it's going to be fun.’ To be able to say the school district was the first to be able to provide that experience for our families, it was powerful to see.”  

A key, Hardy added, is for people to have ownership of ideas. “If they were part of the creation of it, they're gonna be more excited about it and show up and be a part of it,” he said. “We just help them bring it to life.”  

Since the first meeting, Hardy has overseen Family Movie Nights at a local theatre, building community and engagement through entertainment, with more than 150 attending. Most recently, he orchestrated Natural Hair Day, empowering young and old alike to embrace their identity, which grew from 50 RSVPs to more than 200 in attendance.

And he continues to empower students through a number of newly created programs. He is piloting a program called Kings on Campus, a youth mentorship program designed to broaden students' perspectives by providing them with meaningful experiences and exposure to new opportunities. He recently arranged for 100 students to learn about entrepreneurship firsthand from business owner and CSUSB alumnus Edward Lockridge ’09, economics, CEO and founder of My Freight Staff. Students gained valuable insights from his staff and engaged with professionals in marketing and recruitment to understand different aspects of running a business. 

Afterward, students visited Topgolf, where they had the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of swinging a golf club. 

A component of Kings on Campus is an initiative called Dad Mobs, created to engage fathers in the community with the schools. “Since I began teaching, I’ve seen there's always a need for male representation — people of color at these different school sites working with students,” he said. “We'll go to a school campus, and we'll welcome kids to school in the morning as they come to class, give them high fives and encourage them just to be the best that they can be during that day. We'll go during lunchtime and hang out with students and talk to them about life stuff.” 

Hardy also launched a six-week program to teach middle- and high school students the history and art of Step Dancing, a percussive dance style with roots in African culture that he learned as a member of CSUSB’s Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.   

Hardy sees only opportunity on the horizon, personally and professionally. “Right now, I'm busy with family engagement, and I love it,” he said. “Other school districts are seeing my work and invite me to come do work in their districts now. It’s kind of like my entrepreneurship pathway. I do see myself eventually getting my doctorate and writing a book on engaging families.”  

As he reflects on the Black Rose Award, Hardy said he was honored to be included among “so many phenomenal individuals. It’s so affirming to be acknowledged for the work that I'm so passionate about,” he said. “I'm not the type of person that needs acknowledgements, but it does feel good to be in a space of giving back to my community and being in a position to inspire and uplift those around me.” He dedicated the award to his wife, Brittney Hardy, and kids Jaydin, Landen and Brielle for continuously supporting him in following his dreams. 

He noted that as a child in San Bernardino without a father, there were not many positive male mentors, with the exception of his uncle and cousin. “I was a young African American boy growing up with just my mom and siblings, Mia and Tara,” he said. “I feel like it's important, when you get to a place where you can give back, to continue to inspire and motivate the next generation.”