A year after graduation, Thomas Chatman is still building the communities that once held him up
After leaving VCU, the Dell engineer, CEO, mentor and nonprofit leader is charting his path while starting a new life in Texas.
By Megan Nash
When Thomas Chatman (B.S. ’24) graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, he walked away with a sense of momentum. Eighteen months later, he has not slowed down.
Last spring, VCU profiled Chatman as a senior who had once come close to dropping out, a student who discovered his footing through the Developing Men of Color student organization, launched a multi-continental art exhibition from a promise he made to artists in Senegal and accepted a full-time offer with Dell Technologies before graduation.
“I was ready to leave college,” he reflected last year. “And even through that, I was given an opportunity to figure out who I am.” A year later, he adds, “Now it is about expanding the impact and figuring out how to do that without burning myself out.”
Today, Chatman lives in Austin, Texas, working in data engineering at Dell, writing a book with his father, mentoring a growing roster of students and guiding DMC’s expansion as the newly established nonprofit’s president.
Chatman moved to Texas in August 2024 with a packed rental car and a caravan of friends and mentors. Carlton Goode, Ed.D., the faculty member who once urged him not to leave VCU, came along for the drive. They passed through Atlanta and New Orleans, tried new food, filled a hotel room with suitcases and borrowed time. Then they left him.
“It was tough,” said Chatman. “The highs and the lows were so extreme. One morning I was driving three of them to the airport at five in the morning and then going back to my apartment alone. That is when it hit.”
The solitude pushed him into what he now describes as “a freshman year all over again.”
“I asked a lot of questions, found mentors, looked for community,” he said. “I had to be vulnerable in ways I didn’t expect.”
He joined a run club. He found a church. He started playing basketball at the University of Texas every Saturday morning. He reached out to strangers on LinkedIn, searching for artists, technologists and anyone who shared his interests. “You have to be honest with yourself,” he said. “I was like, I want to meet people, so I have to put myself out there.”
At Dell, his early months brought a series of projects that stretched his technical and interpersonal skills. His first assignment involved coordinating with teams around the world to identify and decommission unused servers. “It was a great learning experience,” he said. “It built trust on both sides that I could do the work and that my manager could trust me with it.”
He now works in data acquisition for marketing campaigns, preparing data sets for global teams. His entire team sits in India, a structure he says has taught him as much about communication as it has about analytics. “I have appreciated the relationship-building part as much as the technical part,” he said.
Still, much of his time outside work mirrors the commitments that defined him at VCU. He mentors roughly 10 young men and regularly takes on more when needed. “Whoever needs it,” he said. “If Dr. Goode calls me and says, hey, can you talk to this person, we get to work.” He also continues to support DMC as it grows beyond VCU, guiding the organization through its recent transition to nonprofit status.
His creative work has expanded as well. When he arrived in Texas, Chatman began writing with no clear plan, a habit that eventually led to a book collaboration with his father. The result, Quotescriptions, is a collection of quotes, reflections and guided prompts intended to help readers navigate change, growth and purpose.
“I used to be a complete sports kid,” said Chatman. “I did not read, did not write, none of that. But when I started writing, I saw the connection to my dad. That was meaningful.”
The book remains one of his proudest accomplishments.
“It helped me understand the why in life,” he said. “Doing something that was not part of my norm, and then being public about it, that mattered.”
Catalyst, the art exhibit he founded after visiting his aunt in Senegal, held its fifth exhibition this fall and partnered with VCU for the first time. The event featured artists from Senegal and Richmond, including VCU alumni.
“It means a lot to come back,” he said. “You do not have that same built-in community after graduation. If I can help bring people together again, that is everything.”
A sense of responsibility continues to guide him, a theme that ran through his 2024 profile and shapes his decisions today. “I want to expand my impact,” he said. “All the things that I am doing, the mentorship, the art, the community work, I want to understand how to do it sustainably.”
He has begun to think more intentionally about life coaching, a path he sees as aligned with the support he has long offered to others. “I enjoy helping people, bringing community closer, creating opportunities,” he said. “Life coaching calls for each of those.”
For Chatman, success is not measured by any single accomplishment. It is the accumulation of small acts.
“It has been a blessed year,” he said. “I am grateful. I am just trying to keep building on what was given to me.”
Preach.
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