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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 1: reading other people's success stories and start planning your own. Now,

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Speaker 1: you don't want to miss an episode, so please take

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Speaker 1: a moment right now to follow or subscribe to Money

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Speaker 1: Making Conversations Masterclass. It's free. You can follow me on

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Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

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Speaker 1: to your podcast. New Money Making Conversations Masterclass episodes drop daily.

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Speaker 1: I want to keep you on alert because my guests

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Speaker 1: provide tips on how you can uplift your community, improve

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Speaker 1: your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be

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Speaker 1: a successful entrepreneur. Now, let's get this podcast started.

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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

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Speaker 4: money Making Conversations master Class. No, I need for you

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Speaker 4: to do me a favor right now to follow or

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Speaker 4: subscribe to Money Making Conversation. It's free and you can

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Speaker 4: wherever you get your podcasts. Please do me that favor,

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Speaker 4: follow or subscribe money Making Conversations. Welcome back to Money

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Speaker 4: Making Conversations master Class with me Rashaan McDonald.

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Speaker 2: Hi, this is Raushan McDonald. Yes, you're listening to Money

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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

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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

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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

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Speaker 3: was able to get the attention of my mother, who

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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

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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

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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

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Speaker 3: you just never know what's around the corner. And when

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Speaker 3: I adopted that sense of purpose and drive, it kind

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Speaker 3: of just turned my ambition up a few notches. So

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Speaker 3: not only am I I focused on the foundation, but

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Speaker 3: you know, I'm particular about the things I eat and

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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,

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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

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Speaker 2: hope people hear. High value what you're doing to our

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Speaker 2: youth in America. High value your laser focus. High value

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Speaker 2: your passion because it's something you basically survived stroke, retrained

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Speaker 2: yourself twenty seventeen. You found in an organization as a

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Speaker 2: local cause turning into a national cause. When you started

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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

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Speaker 2: the ward a nearly one hundred million dollars in scholarship.

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Speaker 2: If I can't help toot your horn, who can?

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Speaker 3: Thank you?

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Speaker 2: Asking Chris You're amazing and continue to change lives for

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Speaker 2: our youth because definitely you're a blessing. Thank you for

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Speaker 2: coming on Money Making Conversation Masterclass.

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Speaker 3: Thank you so much for Sean, I appreciate the time.

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Speaker 2: All Right, we talked soon.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to this episode.

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Speaker 4: Now, I need for you to do me a favor

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Speaker 4: right now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversation.

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Speaker 1: Keep winning