Steve Pemberton, BC ’89, the global head of diversity at Walgreens and a member of Boston College’s Board of Trustees, will host a private screening of his new film A Chance in the World on May 1 in Robsham Theater. The event is free, but students have to go to the Robsham ticket office beforehand to get a ticket.
Pemberton spoke to the Class of 2020 at its Convocation ceremony in September. He wrote his memoir, also titled A Chance in the World, about his experiences growing up in an abusive foster home and eventually finding his way to BC and success in the business world. Pemberton was added to the Board in the fall amid requests from the AHANA Alumni Advisory Council that the Board increase its members’ diversity.
Pemberton told The Heights in September that he wanted to go to BC as soon as he saw a BC brochure in the seventh grade. His foster parents prevented him from going to libraries, using computers or participating in extracurriculars. When he was 16 he left the foster system, and was taken in by a teacher, Mr. Sykes, when he was a senior in high school.
“When I am asked about home and what it means to me, I think of Boston College,” Pemberton said in a University press release. “It was a place that fully welcomed and accepted me.”
Pemberton told the Office of Marketing Communications that he was moved to make the movie because of the impact his memoir had on its readers.
“So many others were inheritors of difficulty they never asked for who said to me, ‘Your story is what I needed, and what this country needs to hear,’” he said. “It is a story beyond race and class, a story about the universal power of goodness.”
Featured Image Courtesy of Office of Marketing Communications
