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Financial Motivator: Student Freedom Initiative is helping HBCU STEM Students." · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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  Speaker 1: If you're about to make a change in your life
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and you feel uncomfortable, that's the best feeling you.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Can have.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Because for the first time in your life, you're making
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  Speaker 1: a decision that's going to be best for you and
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: not what somebody told you to do. And that's when
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  Speaker 1: all bets are off. Welcome to Money Making Conversation Master Class.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Rashaan McDonald. Our theme is there's no
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: perfect time to start following your dreams. I recognize that
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: we all have different definitions of success. For you and
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  Speaker 1: maybe decide to your aham, it's time to stop reading
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: other people's success stories to start living your own cap winning.
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  Speaker 1: My guess is the executive director of the Student Freedom
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  Speaker 1: Initiative and this title gets bigger as we go along.
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  Speaker 1: Please welcome the Money Making Conversation Master Class. The President,
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  Speaker 1: Chief Executive Officer of Student Freedom Initiative, Doctor Mark Brown.
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  Speaker 1: How are you doing, shirt?
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing great with you on how are you doing?
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  Speaker 1: First of all, I've been trying to get you for
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  Speaker 1: a while, sir. If some people need your conversations on my.
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  Speaker 2: Airways, well, we're boring, happy to share.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about you. Let's give us some background
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  Speaker 1: on your doctor, Mark Brown.
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  Speaker 2: All right, So I am, as you said right now,
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  Speaker 2: the president's CEO of Student Free am Initiation, which is
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  Speaker 2: a nonprofit based out of Washington that focuses on HBCUs.
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  Speaker 2: But my journey started at at HBCU. I'm a product
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  Speaker 2: of Tuskegee Institute turned Tuskegee University down in Alabama, where
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  Speaker 2: I went through the ROTC program and would go on
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  Speaker 2: to serve thirty two years in the Air Force, retiring
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  Speaker 2: as a Major General. After that, I was appointed by
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  Speaker 2: the Secretary of Education to be the Chief Operating Officer
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  Speaker 2: of Department of Education, which is what controls all the
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  Speaker 2: free application for federal student a for student law and portfolio,
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  Speaker 2: those kinds of things. It was there that I met
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  Speaker 2: Robert F. Smith, who is the chairman and CEO of
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  Speaker 2: Vista Equity but also the chairman of our board Student
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  Speaker 2: Freedom Initiative, and I look forward to talking to you
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  Speaker 2: about that and what we've been doing.
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  Speaker 1: Well, tell us a little bit more about him, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I've read about him and he did some an amazing
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  Speaker 1: academic contribution to Morehouse a couple of years ago. Can
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  Speaker 1: you talk about that.
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  Speaker 2: That's exactly right, that's exactly right. So he was a
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  Speaker 2: graduation speaker at Morehouse College, and Robert during that speech,
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  Speaker 2: I think surprised a lot of folks. He promptly announced
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  Speaker 2: that he was going to put a little bit of
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  Speaker 2: a little bit of help to those students that were
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  Speaker 2: about to graduate by paying off all of their student loans.
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  Speaker 2: When he did that, there were about four hundred young
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  Speaker 2: men in the class of twenty nineteen. It was about
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  Speaker 2: a thirty eight million dollar check. But he did it all.
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  Speaker 2: He paid all of their student loans, their parent plus loans.
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  Speaker 2: There was no student freedom initiative at the time. As
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  Speaker 2: I said, I was over the Department of Education. We
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  Speaker 2: had a one point seven trillion dollars student loan portfolio.
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  Speaker 2: About one third of that was bad debt, delinquent defaulted
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  Speaker 2: overrepresented by people of color. Robert pull the Morehouse College
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  Speaker 2: students out of that group, paid their loans, and he
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  Speaker 2: continued to mentor that class of twenty nineteen to day.
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  Speaker 1: Now, what was that dollar amount again? What was that
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  Speaker 1: dollar amount?
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  Speaker 2: Thirty about thirty eight million?
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  Speaker 1: Yes, sir, just get you know added up right now.
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  Speaker 1: I always if you had it wrong, I'm gonna have
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  Speaker 1: to correct you because you know, because I'm gonna just
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  Speaker 1: tell you a little bit of background about HBCUs. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you can have academic success, but if you
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  Speaker 1: owe money, you can't walk. You can't walk.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
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  Speaker 1: And I know that in some of these debts are
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  Speaker 1: like very very it could be like one hundred dollars,
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  Speaker 1: five hundred dollars, they could be that low, you know,
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  Speaker 1: but these students are struggling and they need these debts
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  Speaker 1: paid off. And so the fact that he made that moment,
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  Speaker 1: it did change a lot of lives. Because these students
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  Speaker 1: on that twenty and eighteen graduating class it was twenty nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: He changed their lives. And what we need is more
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  Speaker 1: of that happening. Because what's happening, and you can speak
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  Speaker 1: on this, doctor Mark Brown, is that because of DEI,
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  Speaker 1: especially with HBCUs, are on their attack. Correct.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. While we know that the facts show
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  Speaker 2: that HBCUs have contributed more doctors, more military officers, more veterinarians,
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  Speaker 2: more lawyers of color to the nation than all of
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  Speaker 2: the other schools that exist to do those same kinds
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  Speaker 2: of things. So they have done more than carry their
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  Speaker 2: weight as an entity and they've done so in most
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  Speaker 2: cases with less resources. Robert saw that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I would like to, you know, throw
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  Speaker 1: out my information to Dr Mark Brown, sev the dentists
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  Speaker 1: and doctors in the medical field are bl who are
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  Speaker 1: black com from HBCUs. Of the school teachers who are
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  Speaker 1: black come hbc come from HPCC HBCUs. Forty percent of
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  Speaker 1: the members of Congress come from who are black come
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  Speaker 1: from HBCUs. Thirty three percent of the STEM graduates who
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  Speaker 1: are black come from HBCUs. You know, seventy percent of
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  Speaker 1: the judges who are black come from hpc US. So,
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  Speaker 1: like I said, I know when you come on this show,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't graduate from an HBCU, but I'm an advocate
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  Speaker 1: of HBCU. So when I bring a doctor Mark Brown
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  Speaker 1: on the show, you know, that's why I was trying
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  Speaker 1: to hunt him down because he didn't know who I was.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't know he had an advocate here. He know
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  Speaker 1: he had a bullhorn, and that bullhorn is important. So
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  Speaker 1: the information he's telling us on the show today gets out.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, that's right, and you you are so right
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  Speaker 2: now all those statistics that you just called out, isn't
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  Speaker 2: that a that's a national treasure. That's a national treasure.
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  Speaker 2: We would not want to lose the ability of these
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  Speaker 2: schools to be able to do this. And that has
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  Speaker 2: a lot to do with why Robert founded the Student
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  Speaker 2: Freedom Initiative. He didn't just stop at Morehouse. His vision
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  Speaker 2: was far big, far greater than that. He said, no,
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  Speaker 2: we have to do something for all of our HBCUs
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  Speaker 2: so that when a student leaves Cool ready to take
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  Speaker 2: off with that new degree in their hand, that they
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  Speaker 2: are being held down by crushing debt. I'll give you
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  Speaker 2: an example, you know, Let's say that Let's say that
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  Speaker 2: one student goes to Tugaloo College, another student goes to
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  Speaker 2: Brown University. One student has to get a parent plus
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  Speaker 2: loan four years in a row to close the cost
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  Speaker 2: of their cause. The other student gets an endowed scholarship
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  Speaker 2: from the endowment of let's say it's Brown University. Well,
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  Speaker 2: we added up the endowments of all of our HBCUs
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  Speaker 2: and we compared it him to the smallest endowment at
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  Speaker 2: Ivy League school, and the numbers are significantly different. Right
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  Speaker 2: it would if we added up all of the you
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  Speaker 2: wouldn't get two point one billion. And if you added
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  Speaker 2: up just one endowment in an Ivory League school, you
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  Speaker 2: could get that much. So these students could be equally smart,
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  Speaker 2: They could be equally sharp on their academics, they could
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  Speaker 2: both be chemical engineers. One graduates and invest their money
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  Speaker 2: and they grow well the other graduates, and they spend
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  Speaker 2: a good percentage twenty thirty forty percent of their money
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  Speaker 2: servicing the debt they had to take on to get
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  Speaker 2: out of college. That creates what we all called the
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  Speaker 2: wealth gap in America. The wealth gap in America starts
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  Speaker 2: right there and has nothing to do with talent, because
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  Speaker 2: both of these students were equally talented. It had to
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  Speaker 2: go with the position of where they started from. And
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  Speaker 2: so to get to that wealth gap, what we're saying
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  Speaker 2: is we want to reduce the amount of debt that
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  Speaker 2: that student has to pay coming out of college, and
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  Speaker 2: we offer programs to do that. And that's that's the
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  Speaker 2: whole purpose really.
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  Speaker 1: Because those endowments are the key change. You know, the
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  Speaker 1: information is out there. You know some stuff, you can google, somethings,
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  Speaker 1: you do research. For instance, when he was talking about endowment,
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  Speaker 1: we don't even have to go to Ivy League, we
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  Speaker 1: don't have to go there. Let's just choose the University
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  Speaker 1: of Nebraska. We're not university of the football power, maybe
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  Speaker 1: a basketball power. You know, their endowment at the University
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  Speaker 1: of Nebraska is one point seven billion dollars. That's right,
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  Speaker 1: that's the endowment. That's the Howard University. Howard University has
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  Speaker 1: the largest endowment seven hundred million.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. And if that's the if that's the greatest
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  Speaker 2: endowment amongst HBCUs, where do you think the rest of
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  Speaker 2: those one hundred and one fault? Yeah, their numbers are
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  Speaker 2: significantly lower. We have to build up their endowments. We
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  Speaker 2: have a plan for that. Let me tell you this
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  Speaker 2: really quick plan. Part of it.
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  Speaker 1: No, take your time, Brown, you're my show, Okay, take
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  Speaker 1: your time. Don't have to do anything quick. On this show,
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  Speaker 1: we were talking about uplifting young people, educating parents, and
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  Speaker 1: letting other people who are lums, letting them know the
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  Speaker 1: tide is turned learning.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. So what we say is for
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  Speaker 2: a STEM students Science Technology, Engineering, mathematics student, or a
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  Speaker 2: student getting a STEM certification in some other major, if
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  Speaker 2: that student is making satisfactory academic progress and they're in
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  Speaker 2: their rising junior senior year, then we say don't take
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  Speaker 2: the parent plus law. We'll give you up to twenty
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  Speaker 2: thousand dollars in your junior year and up to twenty
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  Speaker 2: thousand dollars in your senior year for valid academic costs
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  Speaker 2: in what we call an income contingent agreement. And here's
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  Speaker 2: how this thing works. First of all, we don't require
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  Speaker 2: your parents to be indebted to do it, because we
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  Speaker 2: believe that that's a problem. My parents are at their
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  Speaker 2: home buying stage and they don't need these large debts
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  Speaker 2: on their on their credit records. So what we say is,
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  Speaker 2: if you take an income contingent agreement, we will fund
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  Speaker 2: it based on the fact that we believe in the
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  Speaker 2: future you're going to be successful and you don't have
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  Speaker 2: to be indebted at the moment with your parents. So
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  Speaker 2: the way that works is you take up to twenty
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  Speaker 2: thousand dollars if you're a junior senior in one of
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  Speaker 2: these categories, and when you graduate, if you decide to
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  Speaker 2: go into public service, like you're going to be a
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  Speaker 2: teacher or you're going to be a policeman or something
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  Speaker 2: like that. If you decide to do one of these
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  Speaker 2: jobs and you're not making more than three hundred percent
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  Speaker 2: of the federal poverty level, which would be about forty
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  Speaker 2: eight to fifty thousand dollars if we use today's numbers.
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  Speaker 2: Then you don't pay us back during that period. If
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  Speaker 2: you decide that you're going to leave Tuskegee and go
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  Speaker 2: to law school at Howard or go to law school
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  Speaker 2: at Cornell, you don't pay us back while you're in
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  Speaker 2: that law school. Let's say that you decide to go
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  Speaker 2: to DuPont. You're going to make ninety thousand dollars a year.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to be two point five percent of your
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: income for every ten thousand you took out. So if
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  Speaker 2: it's if you took out ten thousand, it'll be two
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  Speaker 2: point five percent of income. But you don't pay us back.
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  Speaker 2: We're a nonprofit. You pay into what we call the
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  Speaker 2: Student Freedom Find. We grow that Student Freedom Find through philanthropy,
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  Speaker 2: access to low interest capital, and it reaches the point
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  Speaker 2: of about five hundred million dollars and then it revolves
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  Speaker 2: around and funds itself by payments coming back and by philanthropy.
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  Speaker 2: And what we tell all of the schools that are
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  Speaker 2: a part of our organization. We have sixty three schools
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  Speaker 2: in our organization today. What we tell them, is you
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  Speaker 2: use that fund as your collective endowment, your endowment without walls,
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  Speaker 2: and you don't send those students back to the parent
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  Speaker 2: plus loans system. You send them to this fund, and
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  Speaker 2: therefore we fund ourselves. Does that make sense? We begin
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  Speaker 2: we build our own collective endowment, which allows us to
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  Speaker 2: keep students out of what we believe is a debt
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  Speaker 2: trap loans like the parent plus loan, and there's some
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  Speaker 2: commercial private loans that do the same thing and put
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  Speaker 2: them in one where if they do pay it back,
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  Speaker 2: they're paying it back into their own endowment.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think that, I think I hear it is
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  Speaker 1: really clear. And this is what schools, especially HBCUs have
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  Speaker 1: been you know, complaining about, you know, graduates investing back
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  Speaker 1: into schools and helping build the endowment. And so what
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  Speaker 1: you're saying, if I'm here is Gregor, We're gonna help
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  Speaker 1: you get through school, okay, if you qualify, and then
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  Speaker 1: when you but we don't want the money back. The
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  Speaker 1: nonprofit don't want the money back. We want you to
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  Speaker 1: take that money because now you're successful, as you pay
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  Speaker 1: it back, we want you to pay it back in
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  Speaker 1: the endowment. And that becomes a pay it forward opportunities,
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  Speaker 1: because that's what that's what's really hurting HBCUs because of
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  Speaker 1: the fact that all these individuals graduate. They may be
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  Speaker 1: and I'm not saying anything negative to anybody, but I'm
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  Speaker 1: just talking about the facts of why endowment opportunities aren't
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  Speaker 1: growing at various HBCUs. When I say that, the one
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  Speaker 1: may call Howard the most prestigious college and most well
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  Speaker 1: known HBCU out there, and they're only at seven hundred
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  Speaker 1: million as an endowment, we have a problem.
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  Speaker 2: We have a problem. It's it's an inequity and it's
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  Speaker 2: a gap, and it leads to an income gap as
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  Speaker 2: well because of how you have to pay back these loans.
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  Speaker 2: So everything that we do we do through an economic
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  Speaker 2: leans economic lens. I'll give you I'll give you another example.
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  Speaker 2: Most of our hbcuses, as you know, I've heard you
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  Speaker 2: cite the history here. Most a lot of them are
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  Speaker 2: land grant universities, right. They came around eighteen eighty one.
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  Speaker 2: They were given land, right, and this was everybody wanted
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  Speaker 2: them to have land because they wanted they wanted segregation.
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  Speaker 2: They didn't want them going to college with others. So
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  Speaker 2: they were given lots of land. Our ancestors built these schools.
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  Speaker 2: They now have lots of land. In fact, they are
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  Speaker 2: what I would call in many cases land rich and
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  Speaker 2: cash poor. But they have challenges with infrastructure, buildings maintenance
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  Speaker 2: because of the things that are old. And do they
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  Speaker 2: take on long term debt to repair those things making
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  Speaker 2: themselves still attractive to students or what do they do?
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  Speaker 3: We have a.
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  Speaker 2: Program with a company called Steinbridge that we could talk about.
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  Speaker 1: Now, OK, let's hold that thought for the break. I'm
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: gonna go to the break. I want to bring that
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: back because I still want to get more clarity. Let
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: everybody know how that program works, the payback program, because
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: they really need to hear that. Because also you have
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: another nice program if you get your job in the
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: underserved community. Because he didn't bring that up. When we
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: come back, you're gonna hear that's another outstanding program. They're
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: doing it right at the Student Freedom Initiative. Don't go
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: nowhere talking to doctor Mark Brown. You're listening to the host,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Rashawn McDonald.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: with Rashawn McDonald. Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: Masterclass hosted by Rashawn McDonald.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I'm interviewing the
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: president and chief and taking the officer of Student Freedom Initiative,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: doctor Mark Brown. Now doctor Mark Brown. As we were,
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  Speaker 1: as we were closing that the interviews, you're about to
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  Speaker 1: bring up the Steinbridge. But before we go into detail there,
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  Speaker 1: it also is about uh if students who take jobs
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: and underserved community, underserved communities. There's also a benefit that
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: you guys provide as well.
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  Speaker 2: Correct, that's correct. But if a if a student decides
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: that they want to teach chemistry, Let's say they decided
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: they wanted to teach chemistry, and what we would call
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: like a Title I school in a program of a
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: school of low income students, and their and their teacher
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: salary only reaches a certain level if they have a
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: a income contingent agreement from us, they don't pay it
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  Speaker 2: during that period of time. They don't pay it back.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, we'll like and if they stayed there
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: long enough, it would end up being just eliminated altogether.
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  Speaker 2: But while they are there and while their income is
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  Speaker 2: at that level, they are not required to pay us.
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  Speaker 2: And and and the reason being is we understand, right,
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  Speaker 2: we understand that that's a that is a public service
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: where it's for the greater good and the person at
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  Speaker 2: the time is not in the position to make those payments.
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  Speaker 2: And that's why it's income contention. In other words, we
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  Speaker 2: are we are we are valuing the service that they're
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: going to go during that time and not strapping them
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: without additional debt, which is.
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  Speaker 1: Really important because of the fact that you getting a
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  Speaker 1: person who's giving back by serving the community that normally
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: doesn't get talent like them who have co academic success
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  Speaker 1: in these communities. And if you don't, if we don't
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: straighten up our communities ourselves, then there won't be a
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: community to fix us right now.
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  Speaker 2: And and we know the value of teachers for example,
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  Speaker 2: we know the value of the color in front of
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  Speaker 2: these communities that are talented. Uh. And it makes it
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  Speaker 2: makes service sense for the name SHO. It makes perfect
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: sense for everybody. And I want to cent advise and
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: go to go do.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Those and I want to bring up a little, little
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: little levity, little uplift a different world. The nbc HO
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: is doing HBCU tour. They were recently on the campus
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  Speaker 1: of Clark I think they kicked it off on the
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  Speaker 1: campus of Clark Atlanta University.
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  Speaker 2: Uh.
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  Speaker 1: Student Fund Initiative is tied to that.
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  Speaker 2: Correct, that's right. We're parted with them as well as
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Cisco and others where we are uh bringing back and
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: depending on your your time frame, many people were introduced
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: to HBCU life through It's a Different World. Uh. Many
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: people saw this life for the first time. UH. And
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: now while we want to encourage enrollment to go up,
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: we want to encourage philanthropy to go up. We want
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: to encourage investment to go up. Because of that. Uh,
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: we're we're on a tour with the characters, the original
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: characters on a different world and they are business.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: I'm a Jasmine guy. You're talking about Darryl Bell, that's
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: my boy. You talk a cadeen. I know, I know
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: they zoomed in. It'sen bad at the last at the session,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: it's all your favorites are going to be there. It's
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: really was. I went to it. It was packed. It
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: was packed, so a lot of love. There's a lot
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: of love. And so I know they have an event
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: coming up next month on the campus of Howard University.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: So if you're in the area, I know, I got
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: a lot of listeners in the DC area. A different
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: world tour will be HBCU tour will be on the
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: campus of Howard University.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: It's being funded an additional asset that you guys are
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: bringing to the table by the Student Fund Initiative, Freedom
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Fund Initiative, and so and so when we look at
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: all these things that you guys are trying to do,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: what is thevision before we get to Steinbridge? What is
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: thevision that.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: Can I just add to you that just so your
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: viewers will know. It's April ninth. Okay, April Howard, April
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: ninth at Howard and in the fall we'll be down
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: in Montgomery doing it with Alabama State and Tuskegee as well.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, so yeah, you know you had to get down
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: to tuske you know, the CEO and president. You know
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: you've been thrown out at Tuskegee if the two didn't
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: come down. That problem was the first one book we
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: got to go down to TUSKEI I got all that
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: other I got Howard, I got Clark, but you got
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: to make it down to my scow and.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: I do want to make sure I say that Cisco
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: and Wells Fargo are all are all combining with us
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: as well as Student Preme Initiative. We are all partners
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: and trying to bring this to our HBCU campus and
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: re awakening that spirit and that that spirit and experience
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: that we all love so much that you can find
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: uniquely on an AHC.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: You know, one of one of the driving things that
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: when I think about HBCUs is and one of the
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: things that where I'm advocated because I have a special
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: gift I feel in marketing and branding and and I
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: always feel that, you know, I've used it to build
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: a lot of careers and sold a lot of products
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: for Fortune five in the companies, and that's one of
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: my missions, you know, to take my gifts and and
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: and and and allow individuals like you a platform like
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: this was a very honest, open, and a highly successful
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: platform where you can like come on here. And so
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: just always know, doctor Brown, this is your home, this
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: is your voice. This is an advocacy I broadcast on
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: an HBCU campus, and so it's it's a place where
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: you can grow your message.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: Well, we appreciate that we need, we need our voice
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: to get out there, and we appreciate platforms like yours
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: where we're allowed to speak freely about these matters that
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: are so important to us, and we believe to.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Everyone, Well, you're one of the things that has always
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: been a talk is about new housing around HBCU campuses.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: And let's talk about now we're going to slide over
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: to the Steinbridge group tell us about that.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: So, as I was saying earlier, if we took a survey,
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: did a study of about fifty eight HBCU presidents, and
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: one of the questions that we ask those presidents what's
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: your number one concern? And more times than not they
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: said infrastructure aging, infrastructure facilities, in other words, bringing their
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: beautiful campuses up to par with others. And the challenge
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: is to do that, sometimes you have to take on
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: long term debt as a university, which is not good
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: for the university. So this vision that we're talking about
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: with Steinbridge is what we would call kind of impact investing.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: So if you're in and I'll use Virginia Union as
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: our first example, so they own property outside of the
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: actual campus property, they own property, and they also have
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: a housing shortage. Their ability to recruit premier faculty and
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: folks like that who want to live where they work,
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: and this is an Richmond area. It's really dependent on
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: affordable housing, and we know that affordable housing is a
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: challenge across the country. So Steinbridge provides the capital to
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: build the affordable housing and the university then leases the
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: land to Steinbridge. So what has happened, that's what's different
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: about that. Instead of the university going and getting a
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: loan and making loan payments each month to get this
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: what we would call a capital asset that's needed, they
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: get the capital asset and they turn that land into
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: revenue generating land. So not only do they now have
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: a place or they will when these houses are built
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: for their faculty and others to live in and affordable housing,
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: they also have revenue coming in to their school. And
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: where does that revenue go or where can it go?
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: That revenue can go into the same thing that we
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: just got to talk about, which is the endowment of
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: the school, to continue to grow the endowment, and at
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: the same time they get the benefit of having affordable houses.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: We're taking that model across the country to various schools.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: There are two versions of it. One is which Steinbridge,
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: which is the housing for a faculty in others that
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: is right outside the campus, but perhaps the land is
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: owned by the campus. The other is to take a
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: dormitory facility or living space on campus and do the
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: same thing and lease the land, but then get a
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: new dormitory for the students that's modern and allow the
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: school to get payments into their from that least. This
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: new model is exciting. I think we've had a meaning
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: with many universities. Many are going in giving us their
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: data when it's economically feasible, We're going to look to
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: do it, and a lot of schools will be able
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: to now get their capital asset without going into long
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: term debt.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Very powerful, very understanding about how are you trying to
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: make a difference. Robert Smith is making a difference with
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: this fun Again, I want to thank you, doctor Mark Brown.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: It was worth the effort, It's worth the wait to
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: get you on the show, and any website we can
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: drive them to you can tell us about this interview.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: Absolutely to all your viewers listeners. Let me say Student
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: Freedom Initiative dot org. You go to Student Freedom Initiative
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: dot org. You can learn about everything that we just
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: talked about today, plus many more that we did not
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: talk about in this series, and I would encourage a
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: couple of things. One, go out to that website. If
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: you have a a junior or senior in high school.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: Now let's make an HBCU one of their options. They
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: may have many options, but let's make an HBCE you
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: at least one of their options. Because there we know
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: what they'll be loved taking care of, and we know
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: they'll be and they will do what many schools do
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: not do. They'll create the social and economic mobility for
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: that student that we know that will be generationally different
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: for them and their families as they go out and
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: do great things in the country.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Doctor Marc Brown, thank you for coming on Money Making
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Conversation Masterclass.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: It's great talking to you. Thank you very much for
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: having me appreciate again.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to my show every week. Again.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: I'll be back next week. And in closing, keep winning
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: and always leave with your gifts.
• 25:37
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• 25:40
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• 25:45
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