N.C. A&T Alumnus Cozart Receives Whitney M. Young Jr. Service Award
Ulysses J. Cozart, Jr. ‘77 has dedicated more than 30 years of his life to being a leader in his community and to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. On Aug. 17, 2021, he received the Whitney M. Young Jr. Service Award from Boys Scout of America’s Old North State Council.
The award recognizes outstanding service by an adult or an organization that has demonstrated and implemented programs benefitting youth from rural or low-income urban backgrounds.
“I am honored to receive this award and I appreciate the recognition of my service to the community,” said Cozart. “I am a big believer in less talking, getting my hands dirty, and completing the work to make a difference.”
Cozart’s passion for giving back stems from his roots of growing up in East Greensboro, North Carolina. Since childhood, he participated in Boy Scouts of America from a Cub Scout to Eagle Scout. Also, he was active in youth sports such as Little League baseball.
“I grew up in a time when everyone in the community was connected to each other and it took a village to raise children,” said Cozart.
“I remember as a child attending a national Boy Scout Jamboree and my scoutmaster in the community took a group of boys across 20 states to Idaho,” he said. “It was an awesome experience because I was able to learn new things and explore the United States.”
While attending North Carolina A&T, Cozart was the president and vice president of the Business Administration Club, pledged Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., and was recruited to join the Cooperative Education Program.
“The co-op program afforded me the opportunity to become more serious about my academics and helped me to focus on my career after college,” said Cozart.
“During my time with my classmates, we established a competition amongst ourselves to see how many interviews, trips, and job offers we could accumulate. This fun, competitive energy helped me to land a job before I graduated.”
In 1977, Cozart secured a position with General Motors in Pontiac, Michigan in the sales and service division. Within 11 years with Pontiac Motor Division, he was promoted several times to work in Houston, Texas, Parsippany, New Jersey, and White Plains, New York to support dealers in the automobile industry with sales, marketing, and franchise development. His time with the automobile industry spanned over 17 years.
“Everywhere I went, I always connected with Aggies in the area and joined the nearest alumni chapters. Also, I met my wife, Monica Foster Cozart, while living in New Jersey,” he said.
In 1994, Cozart moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to be closer to his wife and joined the Charlotte-Queen City Alumni Chapter. Also, he became a consultant with the Small Business Technology Development Center under the Small Business Administration. In this role, he tapped into his entrepreneurial skills and started training business owners on how to grow and scale their businesses.
“I took 17 years of training automobile dealers and turned it into a passion to support small businesses on their journey,” he said.
In 2003, Cozart’s wife received a major promotion with her job, United Parcel Service (UPS) that required the couple to move from Charlotte to San Francisco, California.
“It was honestly a ‘walk by faith’ moment in my career; I loved what I did in North Carolina, and I was blessed to maintain my position as an independent consultant for the SBA in California,” he said.
For 13 years, the Cozarts would move three times from the West Coast to East Coast for career promotions in San Francisco, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Greensboro. During this time, Ulysses started Fosco Resources, a consulting company that provides services to small businesses.
For 30 years, Cozart worked as a volunteer with the North Carolina A&T State University Alumni Association Inc. as a board member, regional director, and chapter president, and re-established chapters in Los Angeles and San Diego. Also, he served as a member of the Board of Visitors for A&T.
“I learned how to be actively engaged with A&T through my mentors, Dr. Velma Speight and Barbara Bell Jones, who were instrumental with the alumni association,” he said.
In 2016, the Cozarts moved back to Greensboro to retire and to be closer to family. In that same year, Ulysses started mentoring with the African American Male Initiative and became the program coordinator at Jackson Middle School, a Title I school in Greensboro.
“As a mentor, I made it my business to speak to the kids in the program, the teachers and parents,” he said. “I believe as a mentor, especially to young men, you have to be consistent in your actions and allow them to see that you see them.”
Within the program, Ulysses was responsible for matching more than 25 youth with mentors and evaluating each participant’s progress.
“I have been fortunate to mentor a young man for four years, who now attends Guilford College,” he said. “One day I took him to a robotics program, and afterward at dinner I gave him a gift, and he turned to me and said, ‘I love you.’ Right there in that moment, I knew mentoring was all worth it,” he said.
Ulysses continues to remain active with A&T as a member of the Advisory Council for Alumni Relations, Aggie Athletic Foundation, and the Gate City Alumni Chapter.
