Kenan Moore was named 2023’s Golden Niner at the UNC Charlotte homecoming football game on Oct. 14.
Moore, a fourth-year marketing major and Africana studies minor, is only the third student in UNC Charlotte’s history to claim the title. Despite the award being in its infancy, he has truly embodied the University’s values of empowerment, creativity, connectivity and inclusion during his last three years at Charlotte.
Moore has numerous accomplishments that contributed to his selection as the Golden Niner, but his large presence on campus is a testament to his importance to the Charlotte community. While it may be easier to name which student organizations he is not a part of, Moore is a member of the National Association of Black Accountants, the Black Student Union, the Flag Football Club, Active Minds and the Business Honors program.
“I’ve always just loved doing things and being social,” said Moore. “A lot of my friends are also heavily involved, so it was just kind of like, why not also do this if everyone is doing it as well?”
Moore is no stranger to receiving recognition for his contributions to his academic institution and maintaining a high level of involvement on campus.
“I actually won Mr. Junior in high school,” he said. “I played four years of football, I more than exceeded my requirements for community service hours and I was a member of student government. I was definitely one of those kids who was not leaving school until 8 p.m.”
Despite entering college during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Moore was determined to make the most of his first year in college.
“Obviously, COVID made it really difficult to get involved, but I knew that I really wanted to,” he said. “I remember going on Niner Engage and literally just reading the descriptions for all the different organizations and applying to all of them, and then moving forward with whichever ones accepted me.”
Moore’s contributions to Charlotte’s campus do not stop at being a member of countless organizations. Moore is the acting president of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., and he has served as a senator for the Student Government Association.
Moore is also the founder and president of the Black Organization Alliance Board (BOAB), an organization that helps connect Charlotte’s Black student body through community service projects and other events in the Charlotte community. Under Moore’s leadership, BOAB has won Best New Organization of the Year and Outstanding Online Presence.
While it may seem as though Moore’s background predetermined him to become the Golden Niner before he even stepped foot on campus, he continuously emphasizes that he is a product of his institution and all of the people he has met along the way.
“Charlotte really changed me for the better,” he said. “I was kind of a knucklehead type person, but I have had a great group of friends, mentors and a great relationship with my girlfriend that has very much helped me mature, learn and grow up.”
As he approaches the end of his year at Charlotte, Moore is doing what he can to give back to his community. He volunteers with the University’s Students
Achieving First-Year Excellence program as a mentor to five first-year students.
“Freshman might be anxious or curious about things, but you just have to apply yourself and believe to the best of your abilities that you can accomplish what you want, and never stop trying,” he said. “I’ve had my fair share of denials along the way here at UNC Charlotte, and it just enticed me to achieve more in a way.”
Moore lives by that advice; he was rejected from the Niner Nine application process two years in a row before finally being accepted in 2023. However, now that Niner Nation Week is over and he has accepted his coveted golden Pickaxe, Moore is back to the daily grind of a Charlotte student anticipating graduation in the Spring.
A rapper and musician, Moore plans on using his marketing degree to start his own fashion and media brand to economically empower Black consumers.
“I want to help Black fashion really hit the market and allow Black designers to really create themselves,” he said. “As an Africana studies minor, I really learn a lot about our history, and it really doesn’t get spoken about how much stuff we’ve overcome, and I really want to tell that story.”
Down the line, Moore plans to help invest in Bennett College, the all-girls historically Black college in Greensboro that both his mother and grandmother attended.
Moore firmly believes in the importance of supporting the development of young Black women in academia, due in part to the role models he has found in the women in his family.
“I come from a really good background. I have both parents in my life, and we’re in good financial standing,” he said. “I have just had a lot of great blessings in my life, and that’s the reason I do all of this. I want to make them proud.”