Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Making A Difference: Empowering women and girls about the advantages of STEM and global opportunities in STEM.

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Making A Difference: Empowering women and girls about the advantages of STEM and global opportunities in STEM. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I'm Rashan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: where we encourage.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: People to stop reading other people's success stories and start
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: planning their own.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: Listen up as.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I interview entrepreneurs from around the country, talk to celebrities
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and ask them how they are running their companies, and
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: speak with dog prophets who are making a difference in
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: their local communities. Now, sit back and listen as we
• 0:29
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• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Money Making Conversations Master Class. I'm your host,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Rashan McDonald. We're down here in Atlanta, Georgia, actually community
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: called Summer Hill, where we're visiting the founder of STEM
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Atlanta Women, doctor Maxine Kane, and we're going to learn
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: the secrets to her success.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: Doctor Maxine Kane, Stem Atlanta Women. How did it get started?
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: That is an awesome question. So let me kind of
• 1:01
  Speaker 5: give you the backstory. So my background, I'm just kick Yeah,
• 1:06
  Speaker 5: I'm gonna tell you a story. So Stem Atlanta Women
• 1:09
  Speaker 5: started back in twenty sixteen. So my background is human
• 1:14
  Speaker 5: resources by trade, and so in the world of hr AT,
• 1:18
  Speaker 5: a fortune five hundred company. We had a really tough
• 1:22
  Speaker 5: time trying to staff and recruit women of color in
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: our innovation space, and so I didn't really think about
• 1:28
  Speaker 5: it at the time, because you know, we're always out
• 1:30
  Speaker 5: in the community, We're doing trade shows, owning college campuses,
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: just really trying to find the right talent. And so
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: it was a time where I had an opportunity to
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: really take advantage of a very rich pension plan at
• 1:43
  Speaker 5: this fortune five hundred company, and I decided to take
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: advantage of that, and I was really going to be
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: doing a different type of career, but God had other plans, absolutely,
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: and he said why not you? And the reason that
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: started was because I was on event planning. I had
• 2:01
  Speaker 5: an event planning company called Maxine Kane Events, and I
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: was working with a lot of high wealth individuals and
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: they were looking for people to sponsor various initiatives. And
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: they would come to me often and they would say, Hey,
• 2:14
  Speaker 5: can you ask this company what they sponsor? Is woul
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: they sponsor that? And so I would ask them, well,
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: what am I selling to them? Because right now, the
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: most important thing that these companies are focused on is science, technology, engineering,
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: and math. Back then, that was really when it was
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: taken off and they were looking for real talent.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Doctor Maxine Kane stem Atlanta Women. I'm in their office space.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: Here is two store office space. Tell me about this
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: location in Summer Hill.
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: Summer Hill, Oh wow, you know so. Summer Hill is
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: the oldest community in Atlanta and one of my corporate partners, Moxie,
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: behind the gathering spot in Atlanta. I had an opportunity
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: to work with them a few years back, and Carter
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: Development was really the organization that's totally redeveloping this community
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: and they knew that I was looking for space to
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: be able to provide some education and training in the city.
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: And they say, hey, we have the great a great
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: space for you. Why don't we introduce you to the
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: vice president of Carter Development so you can go over
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: in the community and see what's happening. And this was
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: nothing but dirt. There was nothing hard ap the hard tours.
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: They walked us through what was what was going to
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: be what you see today, and we were going to
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: have two units that was big, and so because of
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: some construction constraints, we ended up having this two story life,
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: which we love, and they wanted to ensure that as
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: they were redeveloping the community, that we were here to
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: make sure that we were serving and supporting the residents
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: that have been here for over sixty years.
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: Doctor King, I love the colors game pink Green, intentional.
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: Yes, very much. So, so in this community, I think
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: you know that Summer Hill is the oldest community in
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: Atlanta and it's an underserved, underrepresented community for years. When
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: underserved on the ny that there's not a lot of
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: resources that were available in the community, one being that
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: it has been a food desert for over sixty years.
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: They've not had a bank in this community for years,
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: if not longer. So now you're starting to see as
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: a part of the redevelopment, you have banks over here,
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: you have a new grocery store here. But this community
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: has really been underserved, I mean really underserved.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: It's a beautiful community, thank you.
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: It is beautiful. Cardial Development has done a phenomenal job
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: in redeveloping, but we still know that the legacy community
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: is still here. And so when they brought us into
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: and they really embraced us with open arms and make
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: sure that we had everything we need to provide the
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: services to the community. So the reason we were very
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: intentional about the colors is because I wanted to create
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: a space that was welcoming, that was safe, where the
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: girls can come in and feel like, this is a
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: place that they can relax and feel good. And colors
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: create it brings about creativity and so and we're all
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: about girls, and we wanted it to be beautiful. I
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: wanted it to feel luxurious, and I wanted them to
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: know that, yes, you can have a high end creative
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: space where you can come and feel good. I would
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: not dare deliver anything to them that was not as
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: exquisite as this place is.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: It's beautiful.
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: Now, let's talk about the community academics in this community
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: of what schools are you are you are you serving
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: schools within the Summer Hill community?
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: Yes, give us absolutely. So we have Key Middle School,
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: which is the first middle school that was created by
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: doctor Martin Luther King right in this community. We have
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: Carver Early College High School, we have Maynard Jackson High School,
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: we have Georgia State University, we have Parkside Elementary School,
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: and then we also have Michelle and Barack Obama in
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: the community too. So it is a historic community with
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: a lot of historic names and schools because we're right
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: in the heart of downtown, but it's the Summer Hill community,
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: which we're very proud of, and we wanted to create
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: this urban creative oasis that are girls, not only the girls,
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: but their moms, their grandmoms that can come in this
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: community and use this center as a space for them
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: to learn and to develop and to feel safe.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: No lose STEM, which is Science, Technology, Engineering math Atlanta women.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: Yes to me.
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: When I were talking to you twenty sixteen, Yes, very
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: important year for you, when we were talking about secrets
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: to success.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: What was the inspiration for you in starting this foundation?
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So my background is human resources. I was an
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: HR leader with one of the Fortune five hundred companies
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: around the country and during that time, I had a
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: very tough time and my team, of course, trying to
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: staff and recruit women of color in science technology there
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: sixteen in twenty sixteen, Yes, and it's still the same today,
• 7:31
  Speaker 5: but we were having a tough time. And when I
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: say tough, we were out in the community, we were
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: at trade shows, we were owning the college campuses. But
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: women of color were not embracing technology and innovation and
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: a lot of that was due to the lack of representation.
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: They didn't see people that looked like them. They felt
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: that the culture was not welcoming, They felt like they
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: were not smart enough, and that they didn't feel like
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: that was a career path. Maybe it was too hard
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: or whatever. And so my focus was to change that
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: because I've been in the industry for so long and
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: we had a culture and an environment where it was
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: all about leaders first, where we would learn all the
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: things that we needed to learn about the telecommunications industry,
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: and then we would cascade that information down to our
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: frontline employees. And I wanted women and girls to understand
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: that technology was the number one industry in the world
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: and they needed to have a space there. So my
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: purpose of starting STEM Atlant of Women was because I
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: was too one of those little girls.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: I was born and.
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: Raised in Decatur, Georgia. My mother didn't have a whole
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: lot of resources. She was in an underserved community, and
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: we didn't have a lot of money, and I didn't
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: have a lot of resources. And I thought, because I've
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: been able to be successful today, I wanted to be
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  Speaker 5: one of those leaders that reached back in the community
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  Speaker 5: and bring up other young women to say you can
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: do it too. And because I was so passionate about
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: technology and science technology entered in the math. I knew
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: that if we didn't try to close that divide and
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  Speaker 5: create a pathway for young women coming up behind me
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  Speaker 5: to pursue careers in STEM, we were going to still
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: be in trouble. And it's the same today. So a
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: whole lot has not changed. We've made some impact, but
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: we still have so much more work to do.
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: I know, we go see the rest of the building
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: because I want to go upstairs, and that's where we're
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: going to leave.
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  Speaker 3: One of your foundation members, the head of your foundation.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: Correct, she's a board chair, board chair. And so the
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: whole thing about this is, you know, the hard hat,
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: the dream.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: It's work, it's work.
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: It has worked. Oh my god, it's worked. People.
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: How do you get because you know, everybody has a dream,
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: everybody has a passion to desire to pursue something that's different,
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: and this is different.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: It is not a forty all week job.
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: So how do you get how do you go through
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: the process of You've always said this was the location
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: you were in used to be a food desert. Twenty sixteen,
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: you couldn't even find women of color in this STEM field.
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: Even today, there's a lot of that their availability. Where
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: does the future hold for this organization or foundation and
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: how do you continue to make a difference along with
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: your board members.
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: Well, because we're very clear about our mission. We're very
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: clear about our mission. We're very clear that we want
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: to see equality with women and girls, that whole gender equality.
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: Were very clear. But our focus is to enhance and
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: increase the talent pipeline or pathway for women and girls
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: in STEM more specifically black and brown girls and underserved
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: and underrepresented communities. Because these babies are brilliant. They are brilliant.
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: We have a Steminus Ball that we do every year
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: or the end of the.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: Year, and so quickly, as you said quickly, it is our.
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: Steminus Ball, steminist yes, and our Steminus Ball. We highlight
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: beautiful black and brown girls and underserved communities who have
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: done phenomenal work in their grade levels of achieving high
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: scores in science, technology, engineering, and math. And at the
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: end of every year we do a Steminus Ball, which
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: is the schools love it because it's their celebration and
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: we honor them by giving them cords, certificates, and awards.
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: They get a beautiful crystal award for their accomplishments in
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: their school. Wow, And they come to a black tie
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: event they get their awards. They are just beautiful and
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: they're brilliant. And so I want the world to know
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: that there are beautiful little girls who are pursuing these
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: careers and they are smart, they are strong, they are creative,
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: and they love stem. Believe it or not, they do.
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: So we're not unicorns. We do exist, but you just
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: have to nurture it. You have to nurture that. We
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: and by design, we serve middle schoolers, high schoolers, college students,
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: and recent college grads between the ages of nineteen and
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: thirty five. And you may think, wow, that's a big spread,
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: but it's by design because you need to create the
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: pathways and it starts early. So one of the programs
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: that we put into middle schools build on the programs
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: that go into high school. The high school builds on
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: the programs going into college. And then when you're in college,
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: we've helped you navigate from middle school to college, so
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: now it's time for you to prepare for that career.
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: We made sure that we've created that bench or that pathway,
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: so that now they're.
• 12:46
  Speaker 6: Ready, Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with
• 12:50
  Speaker 6: more Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money
• 13:01
  Speaker 6: Making Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations
• 13:07
  Speaker 6: Masterclass continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and full of
• 13:12
  Speaker 6: Money Making Conversations master Class on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: Dud said there was a love for.
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: There's not just a business side, because there's business because
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: you got to counter number.
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: Takeet the doors of corporation.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: You got to get sponsors to come in and buy
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: into this.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: When I, when I, when I go through the calendar
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: event because that's what that's what sponsor dollars do.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: This is a nonprofit of Steming the City.
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: What is that STEM in the City is our after
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: school program. And it was really interesting when I created
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: that program because it started way before we moved into
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: the Summer Hill community.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: I used to.
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: Work do work in a school called the Atlanta Girls School,
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: and one program that they have that I found fascinating
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: was that they travel around the world to different locations
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: and it's required for those girls to experience an international city.
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: And I thought Wow, that would be really cool if
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: our girls had that same type of resource to be
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: able to travel abroad to experience international culture. But as
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: you know, in these underserved communities, they don't have that resource.
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: So we during COVID, we created a program called STEM
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: in the City, and we wanted to be able to
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: bridge the gap between like a Coretta Scott King Young
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: Women's Leadership Academy and an Atlanta girls school, so they
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: get to know each other, right, they get to experience
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: each other. So we created an international virtual international trip
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: to Paris, France. I partnered with one of my partners
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: in Paris and we took them on a journey and
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: they it was all on a Goal Pro, So the
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: go Pro leaders were in Paris, we were on a
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: zoom and we had the entire school, the Correta Scott
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: Young Women's Leadership Academy School go on a trip. And
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: we also had girls from virtually virtually We had girls
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: from the Global Village Project in downtown Decatur. We had
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: girls in Nigeria, we had girls in Spain and Japan
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: and everywhere from all over the world. They logged in
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: and they were able to take this journey to Paris.
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: They were able to see the Eiffel Tower. They went
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: on a black cultural tour of Paris, and so that's
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: where it all started because we wanted to give access,
• 15:32
  Speaker 5: opportunity and exposure to international experiences. So we decided to
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: do it through a virtual experience first, and I said,
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: you know, let's create a program called STEM in the City.
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: We're in the city and we want to be able
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: to bring STEM education and training through an after school
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: program so that we can teach them all of the
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: emergent tech. And that's one thing that we specialize in
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: is emerging technologies. So it's all about advanced tech worth
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: industrial revolution, so that means artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, the hybrid cloud, drones.
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: We do a lot of drone technology, business and tech,
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: cosmetic science. Coca Cola teaches our flavor science, so they
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: learn what it's like to be a flavor scientist. So
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: we exposed them the things that they would never really
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: have access to. So that's what STEM in the City
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: after school program is.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: All back now.
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: Now, he was in the Super Bowl this year performing
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: at halftime. Just recently got honored at NAACP in the rewards.
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: His name is Usher Yes and you did a big
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: event with Usher.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: Tell us about that.
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So Usher's new Luk Foundation, their leader, Krisha Moore,
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: and I are colleagues and they do a Disruptivator summit
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: every year, and she asked me to come in and
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: do a STEM activation and so with me and my
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: partners at IBM, we went in and we taught an
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: artificial intelligence course. So that was we created, and well,
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: she created these various excursions to different corporations and we
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: invited the Usher's group. We probably had about seventy five
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: students that travel to IBM in their Sandy Springs corporate office,
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: and we taught them about the new Watson X IBM
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: orchestrates software and we centered it around creativity and so
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: IBM is really strong about let's create or what if?
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: And so we told the children, if you had the
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: opportunity to create or disrupt something in the industry leveraging
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: artificial intelligence, what would it be. So we broke them
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: up into groups. So we had retail, we had shoes,
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: we had the beauty industry, the car industry, we gave them,
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: we had sports, and so we gave them opportunities to
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: come up with creative ideas that they can disrupt that
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: industry by leveraging artificial intelligence. And when I tell you
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: they brought brought it, they brought it. And so the
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: winning team got five hundred dollars gift cards and I
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: mean fifty dollars gift cards for their entire team for
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: a total of five hundred dollars. And the winning team
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: also came up with this idea to serve and support
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: the blind by putting artificial soft artificial intelligence software and
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: sensors in their shoes, so they understood how to walk
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: around and get information feeding into them. And we're like, wow,
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: that's crazy. But I tell you, if you give them
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: the opportunity to utilize their creativity and imagination, you'll be
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: surprised what our young people can do.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: You know, we're always surprised because you know, this is
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: really it. Hit told me. I grew up with six
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: sisters and so.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: But in the African American community, we're always stereotyped, yes,
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: and we always last. You know, we're not stereotype when
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: it comes to entertainment, not stereotype when it comes to athleticism,
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: but when it comes to education, we always steer a type.
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: You know, we've heard people say, like you said earlier,
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: we can't find that it's not available. Right, HBCUs out there,
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: you know, delivering thirty three percent of overall STEM graduates
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: who are black are coming from HBCUs. Now, are you
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: creating college pathways let's go through. No, are you creating
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: college pathways in your relationship that you have with your foundation.
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah. So one of the things that we've done is
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: I work with Emory University and Clark Atlanta University, which
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: is an HBCU, working with doctor George French over there.
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: And so we put a workforce development Center at Clark
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: Atlanta University because we wanted to be able to reach
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: into the community, not just on the campus, but also
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: in the community. There are people who want to learn
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: and get certifications, and the students also want to get
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: certifications and emerging technology. So we created a program. It
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: was called Business Intelligence, and we set it up what
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: it can be virtual, so anybody that's interested in learning
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: business intelligence can come through the clock and Lanta University program.
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: And so our whole goal is to expose even though
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: you know that most of the HBCUs or literal art schools, right,
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: and this particular program was giving them the opportunity to
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: get a certification so they can immediately go and apply
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: that to a job, versus having to get a four
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: year degree, which we think is important to do. That
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: doesn't get me wrong, but there are some people in
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: a community that need additional skill sets and so we
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: were able to do that through Clock Atlanta and Memory together.
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: So are you kind of just throwing out titles a
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: your doctor of an academia, vaxine kine. But I talk
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: about talent acquisition. I think that's why I'm really here
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: to understand. Can people come to you for a resource
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: or your resource when it comes to talent acquisition? Yes,
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: talk about that aspect of what you're doing at Still
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: Atlanta Women.
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: So yes, still a lot of women works with a
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: lot of organizations in the city to provide access to talent,
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: more specifically black talent. Okay, And as you know, I
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: think it's about seventy eight percent of the nation and
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: I may not have that exact number, but some large
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: population that do not have four year degrees. And so
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: when you think about the African American community, that's probably
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: about sixty seven percent or more don't have college degrees.
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: And so my job in the city is to work
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: with major organizations to help find talent to give them
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: a family sustaining wage. So we give them the skills
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: that they need. We work with several talent developers, and
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: we work with colleges and universities and just in the
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: community alone to help them get these certifications that they
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: need so that they are equipped to be able to
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: go and have job interviews and go into these organizations,
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: which now I think you know most of them are
• 22:18
  Speaker 5: saying that we don't require a four year degree as
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: long as you have the skills. And it's all about
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: skills first and making sure that you are able to
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: get certifications and the appropriate training and make sure you
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: have the development that you can go in there and
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: be successful. You can still get a family sustaining job
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: of at least sixty thousand or more to be able
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: to to be able to take care of your family.
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: I know that before you started this foundation, you was
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: an event planner. Yeah, and so in twenty sixteen, a
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: shift in you. You know, we always talk about mentorship,
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: We always talk about faith.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: What drove that shift?
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: So that's interesting that you used to say that. So
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: when I was at this fortune five hundred company. I
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: did corporate event planning for them, training and setting up
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: training and development for our metal managers to have company training,
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: and so we would do that quarterly and I loved it.
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: I loved it, and so when I left an organization,
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: I started my own event planning company called Maxine Kane Events.
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: I love doing that, and a lot of the leaders
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: in the city knew that I was working with a
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: lot of high wealth individuals and companies and they would
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: come to me from a business development perspective and say, hey,
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: can you help us get connected to this company or
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: this athlete or this leader, and we would love to
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: know if they would sponsor us. And I'm like, okay,
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: so what am I going to sell to these individuals
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: to make them say, hey, we're interested in sponsoring you.
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: What are you focused on? Are you focused on technology
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: and innovation? Because that was on the minds of many
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: leaders and most of them were not. And so I said,
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: you know, you're making my job harder because I know
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: what's important to the companies and so when they give money,
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: they're expecting a return and they're expecting to make sure
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: that they can see impact. And if you're not aligning
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: to what their given criteria is more than likely you're
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: not going to be successful with that sponsorship. And so
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: I remember one morning and I'm a person of faith.
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: I'm a person of faith and I believe in God,
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: and I was praying and I said, you know, Lord,
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: I wonder why. I wonder why that is that so
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: many of us are just not really focused on STEM
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: education and training because it's so needed. And I heard
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: a still small voice say why not you? Why not you?
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: And I paused and I thought, that's not that's I'm
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: planning company. This is what I'm doing. And I really
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: had to think about that. I had to really think
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: about that, because you know, when you.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: Responded, why didn't you go how about you?
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: And I thought, and so I really had to do
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: a lot.
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: Of I was just talking.
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: I was just talking.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: I was really talking that loud.
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: And so I had to really think about it. And
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: so I started doing some research around that, like is
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: this something that I can really do? And I just
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: really kind of resonated on my experience, my background, and
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: the whole purpose of it. But more importantly, it just
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: took me back to when I was a little girl,
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: and I'm that little girl that needed that support, and
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: I wish that I had organizations like Stement Line of
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: Women that will really reach out and develop and mold
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: and show us the way, tell us the unwritten rules,
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: help us figure out the pathway. So I want to
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: give a big thank you to you Money Making Conversations
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: Masterclass for selecting us to be highlighted in this way
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: to tell our story, because by doing that it really
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: continues to help us further our mission and impact the community.
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: So thank you, Wow, thank you.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: posted by me Rushawn McDonald. Thank you to our guests
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: on the show today, and thank you listening to your
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: I want to be a guest on the show, visit
• 26:32
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• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Join us next week and remember to always leave with
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: your gifts.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: Keep winning.