Being homegrown is defined as belonging to one’s own locality or country. For Mayor Johnathan McCollar, Statesboro is the soil where he has both been rooted and sprouted, to serve the community. 

“If you’re not invested in young people, or the future, it can’t work,” McCollar told a group of 8th-grade students at Langston Chapel Middle School last week.

“We’re grooming and developing the leaders of tomorrow. Education is the pursuit of truth – I want y’all to let that sink in,” he said. “You get a lot of information from social media. The problem with that is that a lot of information on social media is not the truth.”

Yet, for a mayor in McCollar’s position, he said he still understands the importance of communication, by being able to familiarize himself with the youth and how they communicate via social media. During his three terms, he established initiatives and programs that help students learn, grow and become leaders themselves. 

During his conversation at Langston Chapel, he discussed how his career took shape, his influences while growing up, including being taken aback by his own 8th-grade experience.

Jalen Cross: What does education mean to you?

McCollar: My first thought about education is that it is always about the pursuit of truth. You want to know what’s real, what’s accurate, because that’s how you make your best decisions. I think of education as a threefold aspect. One, how do I understand the truth of things? Two, how can I use it to take care of myself and my family? And three, how can I use education to improve the world?

Jaliyah Maynor: How does education directly or indirectly affect the community?

McCollar: It is a huge impact in our community, especially when it comes to our young people. If I could leave you with anything, finish what you start. When you were in pre-k and kindergarten, you worked your way all the way up to where you are today. You’re preparing to go to Statesboro High School or whatever high school you’re going to end up at. Finish your education. That’s the biggest thing. Work to finish your education because that’s where your opportunities come.

Cross: What person in the community impacted your life the most growing up?

McCollar: In my lifetime, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of legends within this community. Members of your family who were great mentors and guides along my journey. But the person that I reflect on, who had the greatest impact on my life and the person that I find myself quoting the most, is my great-grandmother. My great-grandmother was a true servant leader. She led by helping people, and one of the mottos that she had was very simple. She said If you want to get ahead in life, help somebody.

Maynor: What was your 8th-grade experience like?

McCollar: I had a nice 8th grade. 8th grade was a lot of fun for me. I had great teachers. One of my favorite teachers was Ms. Edenfield, and I still see Ms. Edenfield from time to time. She was a history teacher. When I went to Albany State, my undergraduate degree was in history. She was very impactful to me. I was also in the band, so Kathy Fry was another individual who was extremely impactful to me. In math, I had Mr. Freeman. Mr. Freeman was the first African American teacher that I had who was not a p.e teacher. He was very impactful to me, learning how to love mathematics. 

Cross: At what age did you know that you wanted to get into politics?

McCollar: I was a full-grown man! I say it like that because politics has a bad rap. If you had asked me about politics before getting involved, I would’ve said that the system doesn’t work, all politicians are corrupt, and they only think about themselves. I would have given the typical jargon that you hear from everyone. But it was students, much like y’all, who changed my perspective on politics. I used to be the former director of the alternative school here in Bulloch County. I served in that role for about three to four years. What I realized from working with those young people is that there are a lot of resources that our community did not have to make their lives a little bit better. It was in that space that I decided to get involved in the political process.

Maynor: What are some of the pressures of being the first African American mayor of Statesboro?

McCollar: It’s a big responsibility, especially when I first got elected. I think it was a novelty for Statesboro to say that it’s got its first African American mayor. There’s been another barrier that’s been broken, so forth and so on. But being the first African American mayor was not at the forefront of my mind. What was at the forefront was how I could help these people in this community. Now going into my third term, my goal is to be the best mayor the city has ever had, and I want that to show in the number of people we can help.

Cross: Why is it important that the youth (us) get into politics or even know who the mayor of our city is?

McCollar: I’m going to spin that question just a little bit. Young people, know how powerful you are first of all. The conscious is always embedded in its young people. For young people, things are very clear. It’s either right or it’s wrong. As you get older, things get convoluted. It’s like mixing vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream; you get a swirl situation. But when you are young, and people ask you what flavor you like, you’re very specific. It’s important for young people because when you begin to study history, and I know that history may not be the favorite subject of a lot of people, but there’s a lot of information there, and it’s very telling. It is always the young people who change the trajectory of nations. It’s always the young people and never the old, because you get it.

Maynor: What are some programs that Statesboro offers for the youth?

McCollar: That’s interesting. We have a product right here with Jalen. Being a part of the Statesboro Youth Council is powerful because this allows young people to be a part of the decision-making process for our community. One project they did was the chess park that’s on the Willie McTell Trail. If you’re in downtown Statesboro and you ever decide to walk down the Willie McTell Trail, there’s this huge chess park that’s there, and that was done by our young people right here within our community. They raised the money for it. They put everything you see out there. From where the benches are placed, they help orchestrate all of that, and these are young people within our community. Not only do we have the Youth Council, but we also have Village Builders. Another thing that we have done is offer summer employment via our Youth Connect Program. 

Cross: With so many things going on in Statesboro, where do you see this city in the future?

McCollar: The city of Statesboro right now probably in the top five cities in the state of Georgia. What I mean by that is this: our city is growing tremendously, and it’s growing fast. You guys are old enough to remember when there was no Publix here, but now it’s a whole shopping center. You have a whole area of businesses that have opened. What we are seeing is the population of our community growing fast. The city of Statesboro was at one point the thirty-sixth largest city in the state of Georgia. Today, it’s the twenty-seventh largest city in the state of Georgia. So, we’re growing tremendously. We’re growing because we have a lot of jobs coming to the community, and with these jobs, there’s opportunity. The goal is to ultimately keep young people like you in our community because you have opportunities.