Khari Willis Feature: A Shining Light in the Community

Khari Willis wears number 27 for the Spartans, but there's much more to his story than just being a football player at Michigan State – and it's a story that's still being written.

Growing up in Jackson, Michigan, Willis, a senior safety for the Spartans, faced a different reality during his adolescent years, but it is those roots that has helped fuel his passion for community outreach.

"The biggest thing I try to do is just try to be a light to heal, not everybody can control their circumstances," said Willis, who was the male recipient of the Harold & Raynor Shnider Office of the Provost Award in 2017. "We're not all born with the same hand and that's something that I understand, so I try to fill in the gaps for maybe just a minute or two and give them something they can remember."

Through his family, mentors and football, Willis has extended his platform to reach children and friends in need in his Jackson community and the one he has come to be a part of during the past three years in the East Lansing area.

Like any city, Jackson has both positive and negative aspects, but what stuck out the most to the Willis family was the sense of community and how the people there rallied together through harsh times. Willis experienced things that helped him mature a lot faster than most children his age, such as seeing friends go to prison and shootings, that enabled him to become a mentor to children his age and even older than himself.

"I want any kid that's doing something positive or even negative and want a way out of it, I want them to have a personal relationship with me. Jackson is small enough to where I feel like it wouldn't be overwhelming, so I want to be able to make that happen as much as possible," said Willis.

The Spartan safety is not only a member of the team's Eagles leadership council, but was voted as one of the Spartans' three captains in a team vote.

"I definitely wanted to be a leader, but I'll just say first and foremost it's just an honor," Willis said. "It's more than a dream come true. I think this is probably my best accomplishment so far being able to represent such a great group of guys, being able to represent my brothers. For them to have their trust in me to represent them in the right way, not only one but off the field, I think it's a tremendous honor and it's a blessing that I'm definitely not going to take for granted."

It was through his father, John Willis, who is the director of the Martin Luther King Community Center in Jackson, that his passion for the community started and where he found his first mentor that would encourage him to always be there for people and help others in any way that he can.

"You come here with Coach D, who's all about business, who's all about making the right decisions, and it's like what my community was trying to teach me back then," Willis said. "As you get older, you fall back on your foundation, so having that foundation already coming here and having Coach D mix it in and just being able to take back what he gives me is a blessing."

When Willis entered the Spartan football program, the culture that Coach Dantonio created in East Lansing extended upon all the ideals he had learned growing up in the Jackson community from his family and mentors, which revolved around being a light to people.

"I think the biggest thing is he spoke the same verbiage that my parents and my high school coaches were speaking, which was to just be a light," said Willis, who started all 13 games at boundary safety and recorded a career-high 71 tackles last season. "Shed a light. Do something positive. Use your platform. Go outside yourself. Don't be selfish. Those little sayings of his registered with me right away and then not only did he say it, he encouraged us to do it."

Willis quickly discovered that Coach Dantonio's messages were not just words and were instilled in each member of the football team. As a freshman, he was welcomed by leaders who helped promote Dantonio's commitment to community involvement – which provided him with another platform with which he could make a difference.

An opportunity for another platform arose for Willis when he was selected to be the keynote speaker at the Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon. Speaking as the Big Ten player representative, Willis took the stage before a crowd of more than 1,300 at the Chicago Marriott Downtown on July 24, delivering an inspirational speech calling on his fellow Big Ten players to make a difference in their communities. Willis received a standing ovation, and video of his speech went viral across social media, extending his message, his story and his light to an even broader audience.

"Coach D told me it would be an opportunity for me to tell my story, so I wanted to tell my story, but I also knew that there's a message or a story within not only myself, but other student-athletes, as far as what we've been through in our lives, with a lot of people growing up in inner cities or suburban areas, just different backgrounds all coming together," Willis said. "I wanted to tell what the game of football has done for me and what I think I can do and what we can do collectively as student-athletes to better our lives using the game of football."

While at Michigan State, Willis takes full advantage of every opportunity to take part in community outreach activities through the football team, particularly with visiting local schools, shelters and volunteering with the Lansing Promise.

Whether it's being a mentor to his younger teammates, to children at the local elementary schools or friends that he visits in prisons back home, Willis' focus is on creating positive experiences and showing people that there are resources available for them.

"In my early life, I grew up in a similar environment as them, but the difference is I have two parents," Willis said. "Obviously I can't substitute someone who doesn't have that, but one thing that I can try to do is just try to get them to use their assets because you have resources, you have people that are willing to help you, you have tools with athletic ability, you have tools in education that can take you. I try to get them to see the big picture that just because you're here, doesn't mean you have to stay here."

Since he has been in the same shoes as the people he is mentoring and comes from a similar background, Willis uses experiences to show them that good can come out of harsh times.

"I feel that what keeps me going is just knowing that what God had for me to do was help anybody that I can and they are my own kind and my own people," Willis said. "People that I've been like, people that I can share stories with and I feel like most of them resonate with me because they know me as not just as Khari the football player, not Khari the Spartan, but they just know me for who I am."

From East Lansing and Jackson, there is a constant light that is giving people hope and is helping to transform communities. Willis is that light – and just like the amount of people that he hopes to make an impact on, his reach is limitless.

Players Mentioned

Khari Willis

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