Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Uplift: She has registered over 10,000 students to attend HBCUs and generated $100 million in scholarships.

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Uplift: She has registered over 10,000 students to attend HBCUs and generated $100 million in scholarships. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to my show. I'm Rashon McDonald, a host of
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  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to stop
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  Speaker 2: My guests created the HBCU Week Foundation in twenty seventeen
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  Speaker 2: with a mission to promote enrollment and historically Black colleges
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  Speaker 2: and universities, which is HBCUs, provide scholarships, and create pathways
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  Speaker 2: for students from undergrad to corporate America. HBCU Week has
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  Speaker 2: facilitated facilitated over ten thousand listen to y'all, ten thousand
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  Speaker 2: own the Spot, acceptance to HBCUs, and awarded nearly one
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  Speaker 2: hundred million dollars in scholarships to HBCUs. If that's not spectacular,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know what it is. Please work with the
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  Speaker 2: Money Making Conversations Masterclass, the one and only Ashley Christopher.
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  Speaker 1: How you doing, Ashley?
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  Speaker 3: Hey, hey, r Shin good to be here. How are you?
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  Speaker 2: You know, Ashley? I built it up and you say, hey,
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  Speaker 2: hevery shine, how you knowing?
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  Speaker 3: How you doing? I'm doing? What you know?
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  Speaker 2: Come on a ten thousand people, now, young people, you
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  Speaker 2: know that you've owned the spot registration at your event
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  Speaker 2: one hundred million dollars in scholarships, because that's what we
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  Speaker 2: talk about now, getting out of college, not carrying that
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  Speaker 2: debt own for the rest of their life. Talk about uh,
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  Speaker 2: the HBCU week What is it exactly? And I also
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  Speaker 2: explain to my audience what is on the spot acceptance?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? So, I mean our on the spot acceptance process
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  Speaker 3: happens every year at our college fair. So we do
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  Speaker 3: a week long activation which emulates an HBCU homecoming experience.
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  Speaker 3: It's a week long. It's in Wilmington, Delaware. We do
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  Speaker 3: all the exciting things like concerts, comedy shows, the Battle
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  Speaker 3: the Bands panel, discussions, block party. But the cornerstone event
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  Speaker 3: is the college Fair, because that's where students can get
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  Speaker 3: accepted into college on the spot and receive a scholarship award.
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  Speaker 3: So if you come as a graduating senior and you
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  Speaker 3: have the requisite SAT or ACT score and GPA, you
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  Speaker 3: could be admitted right there. And unfortunately, we have been
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  Speaker 3: able to provide that kind of access for ten thousand
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  Speaker 3: students since twenty seventeen.
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  Speaker 2: When did you realize, First of all, let's talk about
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  Speaker 2: your background, your double HBCU are right. Look if everybody
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  Speaker 2: your act and background, and what do you start right?
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  Speaker 2: And why did you choose an HBCU.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the funny thing is I was fortunate enough to
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  Speaker 3: grow up in a household where my parents encouraged me
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  Speaker 3: to choose an HBCU. My high school didn't necessarily do that,
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  Speaker 3: They didn't even discuss or acknowledge HBCUs, But because of
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  Speaker 3: my parents, I already knew in my mind that that
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  Speaker 3: was the direction I wanted to go. I did go
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  Speaker 3: to an all girls Catholic high school, so even though
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  Speaker 3: I really did want to go to Spelman at first,
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  Speaker 3: that quickly became a non negotiable for me. I didn't
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  Speaker 3: want to do the all girls thing again. So after that,
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  Speaker 3: Howard Howard became my first choice, and it was the
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  Speaker 3: best decision I could have ever made. So I went
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  Speaker 3: to Howard University for undergraduate school, and then I went
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  Speaker 3: to the University of DC Law School, finishing up there
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  Speaker 3: in twenty thirteen.
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  Speaker 2: Now, when you talk about these different scholarships that you
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  Speaker 2: are dealing with and putting out there, how did you
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  Speaker 2: start the HBCU week and what was the both to
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  Speaker 2: the original goal? Because now it's huge, you know, but
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  Speaker 2: you have to start somewhere in here, usually by yourself
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  Speaker 2: when you starting out so and you have this insane
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  Speaker 2: idea to change the world. Talk about those early days
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  Speaker 2: before before it was ten thousand on the spot bresident acceptance,
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  Speaker 2: and before there was one hundred million dollars in scholarships
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  Speaker 2: to attend HBCUs.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, you know, I think the stars kind of aligned.
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  Speaker 3: And I was, you know, trying to figure out what
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  Speaker 3: my thing was at the moment. I had recently finished.
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  Speaker 1: To AW school.
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  Speaker 3: I was successful with the bar exam, so I was
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  Speaker 3: licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and I'm
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  Speaker 3: trying to figure out what my next step is going
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  Speaker 3: to be. So I ended up meeting the newly elected
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  Speaker 3: mayor in the city of Wilmington, and we struck a
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  Speaker 3: really good relationship very quickly. So what we did was
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  Speaker 3: we ended up working together and as an employee of IS,
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  Speaker 3: he asked me to come up with some programming that
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  Speaker 3: was pointed directly at some of Wilmington's most underserved communities.
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  Speaker 3: So I wanted to lean into education, and in doing that,
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  Speaker 3: I came up with this concept of HBCU Week. As
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  Speaker 3: a former chairman or chairwoman of Howard University Homecoming, that
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  Speaker 3: gave me a clear backdrop for large scale event planning,
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  Speaker 3: and that coupled with my love for HBCUs and wanted
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  Speaker 3: to just expose students to the same experience I had.
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  Speaker 3: That's what led me to create this foundation.
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  Speaker 2: Now, this foundation initially started. Now this is what I
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  Speaker 2: always love people. You know, when you hear something that
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  Speaker 2: you're accomplishing. You're doing this in Wilmington, Delaware. Okay, that's
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  Speaker 2: not a major city, as we all know, just not
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  Speaker 2: at all the Philadelphia, you know, and right there along
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  Speaker 2: you go, did you see it getting this big? Oh,
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  Speaker 2: you were just starting an initiative that you dreamed of,
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  Speaker 2: and you felt that you could impact just the community locally,
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  Speaker 2: because you're impacting the country now, not just the community
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  Speaker 2: of Delaware, Wilmington, Delaware.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And to be honest with you, I had no idea,
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  Speaker 3: And honestly, the goal wasn't even for this to be
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  Speaker 3: a national event. The goal was to take care of
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  Speaker 3: the students in my hometown, to get them the exposure
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  Speaker 3: that they needed because I knew, you know, a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people where I grew up don't even think college
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  Speaker 3: is an option. So I wanted to make sure that
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  Speaker 3: they were taken care of. And doing that, it was
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  Speaker 3: very easy to show or demonstrate the passion and authenticity
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  Speaker 3: behind the mission and getting the students involved and excited
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  Speaker 3: about it, and it just kind of caught on to
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  Speaker 3: all the surrounding areas, students from different schools. Our college
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  Speaker 3: fairs started to attract everyone from the Delaware Valley, not
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  Speaker 3: just Wilmington, but Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, even as
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  Speaker 3: far as Connecticut and as far south as Kentucky. We
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  Speaker 3: had a bus from Kentucky drive up to the college fair.
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  Speaker 3: So I mean, I think that it speaks volumes when
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  Speaker 3: you love what you do and you have a real
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  Speaker 3: passion that drives behind just the impact it catches on
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  Speaker 3: and people just I think naturally get excited about it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm talking to Ashley Christopher her HBCU foundation that
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  Speaker 2: she started in twenty seventeen. Passion is to grow the
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  Speaker 2: brand awareness of HBCUs, but more importantly than attendance, and
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  Speaker 2: also to put students in a position where Tier one
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  Speaker 2: students in particular, they can go to school via scholarships.
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  Speaker 2: So far is twenty seventeen, ten thousand on the spot acceptance.
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  Speaker 2: That means when these students bring their act SAT and
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  Speaker 2: they transcript to the college fair, they'll meet with a
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  Speaker 2: counselor at this particular HBCU and they can be accepted
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  Speaker 2: on this. I've seen it with my own Aydes. I've
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  Speaker 2: seen these kids walk away with a number of four
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  Speaker 2: rides partial scholarship offers right there. I've seen long lines.
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  Speaker 2: I've seen it so many times and one hundred million
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  Speaker 2: dollars in scholarships. Can you tell people basically you have
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  Speaker 2: other scholarships that you are making available, especially in the
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  Speaker 2: STEM area. Can you discuss that with us on air?
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  Speaker 3: Ashal Oh, Yeah, yeah, I would say that my most
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  Speaker 3: popular scholarship is the STEM Scholarship. It's the future of
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  Speaker 3: STEM scholars initiatives, and it is a forty thousand dollars
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  Speaker 3: award available to students that are committed to attending HBCU
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  Speaker 3: and declare a STEM major. So it's able to broker
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  Speaker 3: a forty million dollar partnership with the American Chemistry Council,
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  Speaker 3: so that forty thousand dollars scholarship is available to one
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  Speaker 3: thousand students. We've given away just under six hundred of
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  Speaker 3: those awards so far, with North Carolina and t being
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  Speaker 3: the premier HBCU STEM school. We have about one hundred
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  Speaker 3: and twenty five C scholars there, followed by seventy eight
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  Speaker 3: at Howard University, and there are forty six HBCUs that
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  Speaker 3: have FIVEC scholars enrolled. So that's our most popular one,
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  Speaker 3: the forty thousand dollars STEM Scholarship, and that application goes
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  Speaker 3: live every September on hbcwek dot org.
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  Speaker 1: You know Mislayser focus.
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  Speaker 2: I have so many people contacting me, Rashank, Can you
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  Speaker 2: help me with a grant? Can your grant does grant writing? Rashan?
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  Speaker 2: How do you Ashley Christopher get a forty million dollar
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  Speaker 2: opportunity out of a company that benefits all youth today
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  Speaker 2: and then convince that same company that there is better
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  Speaker 2: served they that that money goes to students who go
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  Speaker 2: to attend HBCUs.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it all worked to my benefit somehow. I
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  Speaker 3: really just being in a that I'm in and experiencing
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  Speaker 3: the success that I have in such a short period
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  Speaker 3: of time. I can't take credit for it. I'm a
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  Speaker 3: person of strong face and I know that. But for
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  Speaker 3: you know, my relationship with God, this wouldn't be a thing.
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  Speaker 3: But specifically the forty million dollar partnership. While I was
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  Speaker 3: in Wilmington and figuring out how we were going to
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  Speaker 3: activate HBCU week, there were some company Wilmington based companies
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  Speaker 3: that were excited about my idea that wanted to jump
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  Speaker 3: in and participate. One of those companies was the Coomores Company.
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  Speaker 3: My dear friend who is the former president and CEO,
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  Speaker 3: Mark Ernano, wanted to jump in and help with scholarships
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  Speaker 3: because he told me personally that the STEM industry is
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  Speaker 3: experiencing a serious deficit with jobs and by twenty twenty
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  Speaker 3: five they were facing a deficit of a million jobs,
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  Speaker 3: and he wanted to do what he could to fill
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  Speaker 3: those spaces with diverse candidates because he knows STEM makes
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  Speaker 3: the world go around. There's questions and problems that needs
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  Speaker 3: to be solved. If everybody around that table looks the same,
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  Speaker 3: we're in trouble. So Mark Vergnano was actually on a
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  Speaker 3: mission to diversify the field of STEM. So he jumped
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  Speaker 3: in initially with seven forty thousand dollars scholarship. That's how
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  Speaker 3: this this scholarship started. It started with seven and it
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  Speaker 3: grew to one thousand. After Mark told his colleagues in
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  Speaker 3: the American Chemistry Council what we were doing, and we
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  Speaker 3: had a few meetings, told them, you know how impactful
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  Speaker 3: that this this scholarship opportunity would be, and sold the
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  Speaker 3: idea to get the American Chemistry Council to participate. So
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  Speaker 3: it was just kind of a waiting game, and then
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  Speaker 3: they came back and said, hey, we're in for forty million.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I don't I don't even have the words
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  Speaker 3: for how I felt when that happened to grow from
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  Speaker 3: seven forty thousand dollars scholarships to one thousand after just
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  Speaker 3: a few conversations. It's divine there's really no other explanation.
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  Speaker 2: Let's give me a website out right now, because I
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  Speaker 2: know a lot of people are excited they hear me
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  Speaker 2: mention your name, but they need to know now how
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  Speaker 2: they can participate because this is real money, this is
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  Speaker 2: real opportunities. This I have known her since twenty and
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  Speaker 2: eighteen and everything she says is happening. We'll be right
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  Speaker 2: back with more money Making Conversation with Ashley Christopher, the
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  Speaker 2: one hundred million Dollar Lady.
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  Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: money Making Conversations master Class. No, I need for you
• 12:32
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  Speaker 4: follow or subscribe money Making Conversations. Welcome back to Money
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: Making Conversations master Class with me Rashaan McDonald.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Hi, this is Raushan McDonald. Yes, you're listening to Money
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Making Conversation Masterclass and my interview interview that I'm having
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  Speaker 2: right now is with Ashley Christopher, a background HBCU Week Foundation.
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  Speaker 2: She started in twenty seventeen. I'm just getting everybody popped
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  Speaker 2: up because for a person to do in less than
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  Speaker 2: eighty years to have registered ten thousand students on the
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  Speaker 2: spot at her career fairs and awarded these individuals over
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  Speaker 2: one hundred million dollars nearly one hundred million dollars of scholarships,
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  Speaker 2: got a forty million dollars STEM program where they have
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  Speaker 2: for one thousand, forty thousand dollars scholarships, where over six
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  Speaker 2: hundred students have fulfilled those. It means that they have
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  Speaker 2: students and they have slots right now. For your child
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  Speaker 2: is interested in STEM that wanted to attend an HBCU,
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  Speaker 2: this is the person you need to be talking to.
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  Speaker 2: She's providing real opportunity tier one students and your child
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: is going to be taken care of. Now, that dream
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  Speaker 2: you almost didn't see because you came across a physical
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: obstacle came about in your life you didn't see coming.
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  Speaker 2: Tell us about that and how you was able to
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  Speaker 2: overcome that, and we understand even more so the value
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  Speaker 2: of having you in our life today and what you've
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  Speaker 2: accomplished and will continue to accomplish in the future. Talk
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  Speaker 2: about that moment in your life where you didn't see
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  Speaker 2: that coming.
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  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it was a little more than ten years ago.
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  Speaker 3: I woke up one Sunday morning and I could not
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  Speaker 3: feel the right side of my body after you know,
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  Speaker 3: looking at my hand or my arm and my leg
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  Speaker 3: and like my brain telling it to move, but it wouldn't.
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  Speaker 3: I knew that there was something serious happening. So I
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: was able to get the attention of my mother, who
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: came to my side and put over her hands on
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  Speaker 3: my face, told me to smile, and I couldn't, So
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  Speaker 3: she knew what was happening and called the ambulance. And
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  Speaker 3: I was having a stroke at twenty nine, and it
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  Speaker 3: was due to birth control use. I had to learn
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  Speaker 3: to write again. I had to go through physical therapy
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  Speaker 3: to get on blood dinners to get my you know,
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  Speaker 3: blood back to a normal level, and obviously eliminate the
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: use of hormonal birth control altogether. But it did. It
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  Speaker 3: did create a different sense of drive and purpose in
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  Speaker 3: me because there were some moments that you know, in
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  Speaker 3: that space for anybody that's listening that has experienced something
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: like that, where you question whether or not you'll survive,
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  Speaker 3: and then if you do, what's next, and you want
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  Speaker 3: to make it, you know, the best of it, because
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: you just never know what's around the corner. And when
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: I adopted that sense of purpose and drive, it kind
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: of just turned my ambition up a few notches. So
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: not only am I I focused on the foundation, but
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm particular about the things I eat and
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: making sure I maintain a healthy, active lifestyle. Of anything
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  Speaker 3: I can do to slow the clock down, that's what
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  Speaker 3: I'm doing.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Ashley, thank you, you know, with your subdued self,
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: you know your focus self.
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  Speaker 3: No, thank you for having me. Thank you taking the
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  Speaker 3: time I really do.
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  Speaker 2: No, You're fantastic, and I thank you, And now I
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: hope people hear. High value what you're doing to our
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: youth in America. High value your laser focus. High value
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: your passion because it's something you basically survived stroke, retrained
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: yourself twenty seventeen. You found in an organization as a
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: local cause turning into a national cause. When you started
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: with seven forty thousand dollars scholarships, now it is one thousand. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you now have registered over ten thousand on the spot
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  Speaker 2: students at your career fairs to go to HBCUs and
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: the ward a nearly one hundred million dollars in scholarship.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: If I can't help toot your horn, who can?
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Thank you?
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: Asking Chris You're amazing and continue to change lives for
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: our youth because definitely you're a blessing. Thank you for
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: coming on Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for Sean, I appreciate the time.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: All Right, we talked soon.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to this episode.
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: Now, I need for you to do me a favor
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: right now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversation.
• 17:32
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• 17:37
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• 17:41
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• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Keep winning