The spring Elon graduate is honored by the international nonprofit organization for his work to create positive media images of black men and other minority groups.
Echoing Green, an international organization that identifies exceptional emerging leaders and helps them impact the world, has named Tony Weaver Jr. ’16 a 2016 Black Male Achievement Fellow. This year, Echoing Green selected 33 Fellows.
Weaver graduated in May with a bachelor of fine arts degree in theatre arts and a bachelor of arts degree in strategic communication. As an Elon student, Weaver founded Weird Enough Productions, a new media production company dedicated to creating positive media images of black men and other minority groups.
Weaver is among nearly 700 Echoing Green Fellows selected over the past three decades. The organization has provided more than $40 million in unrestricted seed-staged funding and foundational support for those who are working to bring about positive social change. The Black Male Achievement Fellowship supports leaders dedicated to improving the life outcomes of black men and boys in the United States.
In summer 2015, Weaver was selected for the NBCUniversal Fellowship Program, a 10-week program to help students get a jumpstart in their field of interest. In addition to founding Weird Enough Productions, he was active in several on-campus organizations, including “Newsbreakers,” “Elon Tonight” and Lambda Pi Eta, the communications honor society. He was an inaugural recipient of Elon’s Leadership Prize and also received an Elon Black Excellence Award.
In addition to his training in theatre arts at Elon, Weaver studied with the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts and the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta.
Weird Enough Productions creates profitable content with a focus on diversity. Through media literacy education, the company combines artisty with activism to revolutionalize the media industry “with content that’s not normal, but just Weird Enough.”
> Weird Enough Productions YouTube channel
General Atlantic, a private equity firm, created Echoing Green in 1987, naming it after a William Blake poem about creating a better world. The firm supported its first promising young entrepreneur, Diana Propper de Callejon, to create an alternative economic base for Amazonian residents that was not based on deforestation. Today, General Atlantic continues to be one of Echoing Green’s strongest advocates. In 2002, Echoing Green Fellow Cheryl L. Dorsey took over the leadership of Echoing Green and reshaped the organization into a global nonprofit. More than a decade later, the Echoing Green Fellowship Programs continue to be Echoing Green’s cornerstone, providing seed funding to social entrepreneurs launching bold new organizations to generate positive systemic change. Emerging leaders identified by Echoing Green have launched Teach For America, City Year, One Acre Fund, SKS Microfinance, and more.