The Measure of Awareness

It isn’t until recently that I’ve come to understand this truth: people do not act from malice alone, but from limitation. For years I believed it was my duty to teach and awaken — yet the person who taught me the hardest lesson did so not through wisdom, but through their blindness. They wounded without remorse and blamed without reflection.

True freedom begins when you stop defending your innocence and start examining your fault. Every act of humility sharpens awareness; every admission of wrong polishes the soul. As Paul wrote, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” (1 Corinthians 13:12, ESV)

I no longer call people evil — I call them limited. And I no longer call myself a victim. I call myself awake.

In the Rooms Where Possibility Waits

A Collage of Influence & Impact Top left: Courtney Jordan in the Oval Office with President Barack Obama (2009), receiving recognition for educational innovation. Top right: Official commendation letter from U.S. Congressman G.K. Butterfield (2014), honoring Courtney’s curriculum work. Bottom left: Courtney Jordan and Congressman G.K. Butterfield at a local education and equity roundtable. Bottom center: Courtney Jordan with LaManda Chestnut-Pryor and Secretary Larry Hall — a moment of shared strategy, service, and commitment to North Carolina’s future. Each photo represents a different chapter—but together, they tell one story: when young people are given access, mentorship, and the belief that they belong, transformation becomes inevitable.

June 2025 — Durham, North Carolina There is a photograph—a collage, rather—that I return to often. Not for vanity’s sake, but for calibration. It is a composition of epochs, of collisions. A handshake with a president. A letter from a statesman. A quiet moment beside a warrior-scholar. And within each frame: not mere recognition, but … Read moreIn the Rooms Where Possibility Waits

From Conviction to Collaboration: A Journey Remembered

Courtney Jordan with Bev Perdue in 2018

In the fall of 2008, I was a campus leader at North Carolina Central University — ambitious, outspoken, and unapologetically conservative. While most students around me were galvanized by Barack Obama’s historic candidacy, I found myself fervently campaigning for the McCain-Palin ticket. I was young, principled, and resolute in my beliefs. What I didn’t yet … Read moreFrom Conviction to Collaboration: A Journey Remembered