Speaker 1: Hey you, welcome back for the final episode of the season. Yep,
Speaker 1: we've arrived, and what a great season has been, with
Speaker 1: so many inspiring conversations with pretty dealp people talking about
Speaker 1: everything from climate change in global health to the ever
Speaker 1: present challenge of education access. Through these conversations, one thing
Speaker 1: has become very clear, the importance of togetherness, building spaces
Speaker 1: for our communities by our communities, not by ourselves. I
Speaker 1: want to continue the conversation we began last episode around
Speaker 1: education now. In that episode, our guests touched on the
Speaker 1: importance of collaboration and the well being of our educators,
Speaker 1: creating safe spaces that allow the youth to be completely
Speaker 1: themselves just as they are. In this episode, I'm going
Speaker 1: to focus more on that student experience. In the u US,
Speaker 1: we've grown to accept college as this write of passage
Speaker 1: for so many young people, but for some of them,
Speaker 1: especially students of color, going to college can be a
Speaker 1: very difficult experience. It's another stressor a source of financial
Speaker 1: and social burden that makes for a lonely experience when
Speaker 1: you're the only person in a room that looks like you.
Speaker 1: That's what makes today's guests so special through their resourcefulness
Speaker 1: and collaboration. They've defied the odds, though their actions begin
Speaker 1: with themselves, through longing for something more, they proved that
Speaker 1: no one action is ever too small, and thanks to
Speaker 1: that work and their interests, they've become action leaders in
Speaker 1: their own lives, becoming that force that multiplies beyond themselves.
Speaker 1: Our first guest is a writer, democratic organizer, founder and
Speaker 1: president of She the People, an organization dedicated to increasing
Speaker 1: voter engagement and showing the power of the women of
Speaker 1: color electorate. Amy Allison strongly believes that women of color
Speaker 1: are the saving graces of our American democracy, and her
Speaker 1: work kind of shows it. After we'll hear from Cheyenne Chambler,
Speaker 1: a graduate and first year medical Sciences Master's student at
Speaker 1: the University of Kentucky. Her educational journey wasn't always easy.
Speaker 1: As a young student who had a father with a
Speaker 1: chronic illness and a family stretched financially, she had to
Speaker 1: lean into her university's resources to complete her studies and
Speaker 1: fulfill her dream of helping others. Amy, Welcome to Force Multiplier.
Speaker 1: I want to start with your early years. Where did
Speaker 1: this begin for you? Where did you grow up? And
Speaker 1: what was that life like? I grew up in rural Ohio.
Speaker 1: I'm one of six kids. My parents had met. My
Speaker 1: dad's last couple of years getting his PhD in plant pathology.
Speaker 1: For a black man, that's a very unusual and rare
Speaker 1: profession at the time. His job took him to the
Speaker 1: middle of Ohio and it was a very, very white
Speaker 1: town with a little section of black people, and we
Speaker 1: went to the A. M. E. Church there, so I
Speaker 1: had my dad's teaching me what it was to be black,
Speaker 1: and then a few people at church and otherwise it
Speaker 1: was a lonely, lonely existence. And I remember then thinking
Speaker 1: and always searching for belonging. And I have always been
Speaker 1: attracted to and building community with those of us who
Speaker 1: were on the margins. And it became a foundational value
Speaker 1: of mine, even before I could articulate those words. That's
Speaker 1: where it all started. For young people like Amy, especially
Speaker 1: in smaller working class towns, that sense of belonging mixed
Speaker 1: with a combination and of what comes next is overwhelming.
Speaker 1: But there is an institution ready to catch young minds
Speaker 1: in their formative years. It's the military. So that's what
Speaker 1: Amy did. She enlisted in the U. S. Army in
Speaker 1: search of her own community. We're talking a lot about
Speaker 1: access and the power of access, whether it's too health resources,
Speaker 1: health care essentially to education and your educational journey. It
Speaker 1: sounds to me financial resource was the primary driver of
Speaker 1: your military enlistment, like this just felt like the way
Speaker 1: to pay for school or is there more to it.
Speaker 1: I didn't think it all the way through. Your teenager.
Speaker 1: It's your job to not think things through that. Literally,
Speaker 1: you have one job as a teenager, underthink things. But
Speaker 1: I was also one of those kids where he said, oh,
Speaker 1: you can't do it, as I Yes, I can. The
Speaker 1: military recruiters have a lot of access to young people
Speaker 1: for pticularly in a school like mine, whereas a lot
Speaker 1: of working class kids. So when he laid it out, hey,
Speaker 1: here's the economic argument. I didn't know that I could
Speaker 1: have gotten a job at McDonald's and made the same
Speaker 1: or a little bit more. But it was a job
Speaker 1: I could quit. I didn't know I couldn't quit. I
Speaker 1: didn't know. I had no idea that I was committing
Speaker 1: myself for eight years. I wanted to be a doctor
Speaker 1: at that time, and you know, in the subsequent years
Speaker 1: where I would talk to young people who are considering
Speaker 1: the military. So you know why, because service, public service
Speaker 1: is an honorable thing. Why do you want to be
Speaker 1: in the military? And I often will hear I want
Speaker 1: job training, I want to get out of my parents house.
Speaker 1: I want to opportunity to be free. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: let me talk to you about freedom and what freedom
Speaker 1: really is. It's a conversation that I keep having with
Speaker 1: women of color everywhere, like the conversation about freedom. How
Speaker 1: did you end up getting free of the U. S. Military?
Speaker 1: You are no longer a member of the armed forces
Speaker 1: of this country. How did you leave? The first I
Speaker 1: should say this all happened a long time ago, in
Speaker 1: my fifties. I have a chance to think about and
Speaker 1: tell the story with new meaning. What happened for me
Speaker 1: is after four years of being a combat medic. It
Speaker 1: was a reservist, so I was working with vets at
Speaker 1: the Palo Alto v A. I would go to my trainings,
Speaker 1: you know, and qualify for my weapon and we would
Speaker 1: still do MOP training. I was part of a mobile
Speaker 1: hospital unit. Our unit was practicing for war. Was the
Speaker 1: time where I was, you know, going to college classes.
Speaker 1: I was learning about the freedom movement, the black freedom tradition,
Speaker 1: and remember I'm still young. The Black freedom tradition in
Speaker 1: America is the proudest tradition we have, and I started
Speaker 1: to realize I'm part of that. But what does it
Speaker 1: mean for me to study war even though the song
Speaker 1: clearly says war no more so. My unit was starting
Speaker 1: to prepare to deploy, and a lot of us have
Speaker 1: this moment where we have to decide what is right
Speaker 1: for us. We have to make a hard decision and
Speaker 1: we have to have the courage. My dad actually told
Speaker 1: me about a very obscure rule that people in the
Speaker 1: military can pursue an honorable discharge as a conscientious objector,
Speaker 1: which means that a person who wasn't opposed to war
Speaker 1: in any form when they joined, which I wasn't. I
Speaker 1: really hadn't thought of it to a person who based
Speaker 1: on moral, ethical, religious beliefs, could not participate. I had
Speaker 1: become that person, and I pursued one of the most
Speaker 1: difficult discharges. Took me a few years. I still wore
Speaker 1: the uniform, but I did earn that honorable discharge. I'm
Speaker 1: very proud of it, and I know of no other
Speaker 1: black woman who's won this kind of discharge. I did
Speaker 1: it for moral reasons, and I thought so few Americans
Speaker 1: serve in the military. People might say thank you for
Speaker 1: your service, or remember the yellow ribbons which you might
Speaker 1: have been a generation ago, or they have this stickers
Speaker 1: on their car, but they actually don't understand what it
Speaker 1: is to give to your country. And I still believe
Speaker 1: in that, like, let's that's deep for me. It's just
Speaker 1: I want to give to my country. Differently, we are
Speaker 1: at a perfect point to talk about this time in
Speaker 1: this country. You've stated that women of color are the
Speaker 1: saving grace of democracy. It's clear you're doing everything in
Speaker 1: your power to ensure these women have info, have access,
Speaker 1: have tools to exercise this power to save us. All
Speaker 1: I want to talk about democracy and color. I want
Speaker 1: to talk about get information and then the more present
Speaker 1: work of She the People. Can you just give me
Speaker 1: a brief overview and the path of the first two
Speaker 1: and then we'll focus more on She the People. Democracy
Speaker 1: and Color was about supporting courageous leadership that would stand
Speaker 1: up for our issues, justice issues. But the thing that's
Speaker 1: behind the curtain that people don't see often about the
Speaker 1: business of politics is how we get the candidates on
Speaker 1: the ballot that we get and what they stand for.
Speaker 1: The ecosystem of donors and packs and party politics even
Speaker 1: at the state level, and campaign committees and influencers who
Speaker 1: say who's electable and not have a very definitive effect
Speaker 1: on who we see on the ballot and what they
Speaker 1: stand for. So the Democrats for many, many years, and
Speaker 1: that's what democracy and Color and ultimately She the People
Speaker 1: continues to push on. I really thought the most important
Speaker 1: voters to win through supporting particular candidates and the money
Speaker 1: that they spend on you know, how they turn out
Speaker 1: votes was white voters. Yeah, and so we made the
Speaker 1: case and I'm still making the case. White voters are
Speaker 1: not the Democrats best hoped for success. They just aren't.
Speaker 1: The majority of white men and women vote for Republicans.
Speaker 1: Those who are standing for abortion rights and climate justice
Speaker 1: and trans rights and economic equality, those are women of color.
Speaker 1: Those are the core. We did that work. Demarks and
Speaker 1: Color made that case. We're continuing to make that case,
Speaker 1: specifically for women of color. Now, what about good information.
Speaker 1: We look at a state like Georgia where you have
Speaker 1: this fantastic candidate named Stacy Abrams, who I've known for
Speaker 1: many years, who was making a run for governor, and
Speaker 1: so here I am in California, knowing that we have
Speaker 1: this remarkable, talented candidate who has a philosophy of building
Speaker 1: a multiracial coalition in order to change the political landscape
Speaker 1: in Georgia to allow a Democrat to win statewide. And
Speaker 1: she had been doing that work for a long time.
Speaker 1: So I founded a campaign called Get Information, explicitly to
Speaker 1: call black women who were outside of Georgia together to focus.
Speaker 1: Now listen. I went to Georgia. I had a friend
Speaker 1: who's to live in California. She moved to Atlanta and uh,
Speaker 1: I said, Hey, I'm here visiting the campaign of who
Speaker 1: I hope is your next governor. She said who's that?
Speaker 1: I said, Stacy Abrahams. And at that time she was like, oh,
Speaker 1: she'll never win. A melanated, natural hair woman democrat had
Speaker 1: no shot in Georgia. Getting formation was about activating the
Speaker 1: power of black women before we were recognized. We are
Speaker 1: the highest vote turnout, most likely to organize. We are
Speaker 1: public servants extraordinary, and we whold division of democracy and justice.
Speaker 1: We are unique, we are special. The country needs us.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just black women who answered Latina's Asian American
Speaker 1: specific Islanders and Native women answer the call. People gave
Speaker 1: small amounts of money, they went to volunteer, and they
Speaker 1: brought us to where we were today. Out of that,
Speaker 1: we saw the potential, even though we were fighting against
Speaker 1: these anti democratic people, both in Georgia and other places
Speaker 1: in these frontline states, that we have tapped something very powerful.
Speaker 1: So she the People was born out of that. It
Speaker 1: was out about a vision. There's a thousand Stacy Abrahams
Speaker 1: in this country, and if we are able to focus
Speaker 1: our resources our attention on those who have the strongest
Speaker 1: vision and are most likely to build multi ritual coalitions,
Speaker 1: we can win. I love the language of Sheeta people.
Speaker 1: You explicitly talk about achieving a multiracial democracy, which is
Speaker 1: something we haven't ever quite had. And I often think
Speaker 1: of this country, which I deeply love and have only
Speaker 1: ever really lived in for the past forty four years,
Speaker 1: as this unfinished journey, laudable goals, questionable execution, and we
Speaker 1: talk about, you know, we're the longest standing democracy and
Speaker 1: like whoa for who? You know, for most of our
Speaker 1: history most of our people couldn't participate. So is it
Speaker 1: really a democracy? You know? Starting what year are recounting
Speaker 1: sixty four sixty never did have that equal rights Amendment
Speaker 1: for women, So maybe we can get to nickel on it.
Speaker 1: But I appreciate the explicit nature of multi racial democracy
Speaker 1: and the terms of love, justice, and belonging as kind
Speaker 1: of the spirit that moves this whole operation. So here's
Speaker 1: the picture I want to paint. Abortion rights are being dissolved,
Speaker 1: economic crises are emerging. Yet again, both of these land
Speaker 1: disproportionately on women of color on the saving grace of democracy.
Speaker 1: This current US administration, the Biden administration, has a woman
Speaker 1: of color right there next to the president. He's only
Speaker 1: there because a lot of folks got information and turned
Speaker 1: up and turned out for him. It feels too many
Speaker 1: like we're losing. How do you handle what feels like
Speaker 1: a moment of regression for so many of us? Do
Speaker 1: you see it? Is that? Remember when I told you,
Speaker 1: m I grew up in this black church in this
Speaker 1: really white area. Yeah, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and
Speaker 1: Amy Church. The pastor used to talk about a scripture
Speaker 1: that called standing in the Gap. Do you ever hear
Speaker 1: about that? Hm? Standing in the gap refers to the
Speaker 1: difficult ability to see what is like the truth of
Speaker 1: what is at the same time hold what could be
Speaker 1: the greatest people who have ever lived had an extraordinary
Speaker 1: capacity to stand in the gap. This is what we
Speaker 1: have to do right now. Everything you said is true,
Speaker 1: and the power and the possibility of justice can come.
Speaker 1: The reason why we organize are found our values is
Speaker 1: I deeply believe and am committed to gathering our people
Speaker 1: based on a fundamental belief of who we are with
Speaker 1: each other, to love our own and each other, to
Speaker 1: make justice the law of the land, to make this
Speaker 1: country a place where everyone belongs. If we can hold
Speaker 1: that vision while seeing that, then we're doing something that
Speaker 1: is remarkably difficult and needed. In this moment, I tell
Speaker 1: people to be encouraged. Remember when I started this work,
Speaker 1: the term women of color was never used in politics.
Speaker 1: Women of color, including black women. Everyone talks about black
Speaker 1: women now. That didn't happen until and beyond Latino's huge,
Speaker 1: fastest growing part of the women of color population, Asian
Speaker 1: Americans was always white voters until now. So what I
Speaker 1: got to see, a witness and really be part of
Speaker 1: is a changing of the culture that we are now
Speaker 1: seen and we are heard. Yeah, right now, we have
Speaker 1: all of these challenges that really come down to how
Speaker 1: strongly can we gather power? How nuanced can we think
Speaker 1: about power? Is it just about representation? It isn't. So
Speaker 1: representation is not the answer. Values are the answer and
Speaker 1: building power. So when we look at what's happening now,
Speaker 1: we have to both prepare for the threat that is
Speaker 1: and strategize deeply about using our power, grounded in love,
Speaker 1: to overcome these elements in this country because they are
Speaker 1: What are some of the specific ways that you've learned
Speaker 1: to build this power and to mobilize communities? What does
Speaker 1: that look like on the ground. Is it that use
Speaker 1: of technology is a type of messaging and their unique
Speaker 1: forms of other ring where people are feeling this potential,
Speaker 1: this possibility of what can be and not just what
Speaker 1: is well to the last thing, you know, and it
Speaker 1: seems like ancient history. But in twenty nineteen, when we
Speaker 1: had this historically diverse set of presidential hopefuls, I said,
Speaker 1: you know, what would be the power move to put
Speaker 1: women of color in a power position is to have
Speaker 1: the first presidential forum focused on women of color. And
Speaker 1: that's what we did at Texas Southern, which is one
Speaker 1: of the largest hbc U s in Houston and we
Speaker 1: got it like over a thousand women of color from
Speaker 1: thirty states, and we had a presidential candidates and we
Speaker 1: were up there asking them questions that had never been
Speaker 1: asked to presidential hopeful. A lot of what we like
Speaker 1: to talk about on this show is collaboration. We have
Speaker 1: folks on taken on big enough problems like of pandemic,
Speaker 1: like rebirth of democracy that no one person, no one
Speaker 1: organization could pull it off. How has collaboration Asian affected
Speaker 1: your work in particularly was She the People? Are there
Speaker 1: different types of partnerships and linkage. Is that you've been
Speaker 1: able to build and benefit from that help you see
Speaker 1: the clearer picture and help you achieve some of the
Speaker 1: goals you set for. She the People is a network
Speaker 1: women of color are the movers where the organizers were
Speaker 1: the most effective on the ground, holders of the vision
Speaker 1: and actual turnout of voters. We just do all that.
Speaker 1: So She the People is a network of women all
Speaker 1: over the country that do that. There are really exceptional
Speaker 1: organizing like Florida Rising, which is a statewide organizations actually
Speaker 1: themselves comprised of community and other groups that focuses on
Speaker 1: speaking to voters of color, doing political education, listening to them,
Speaker 1: getting people registered, turning people out to vote, building power
Speaker 1: from the ground up, a Virginia Majority one, Arizona, Texas
Speaker 1: organizing project, and the list goes on and on. These
Speaker 1: are our partners. So I want to I want to
Speaker 1: bring it back as we started to close to the
Speaker 1: initiating theme of this episode, which is about education access
Speaker 1: and getting a little bit of that from your own
Speaker 1: story and thinking about the power that women of color
Speaker 1: have and the connection of that power to education. You know,
Speaker 1: if there's a young woman considering her path the higher education,
Speaker 1: if there's someone considering a life in politics, do you
Speaker 1: have advice to folks in terms of how to get
Speaker 1: that education and that access to unlock you know, the
Speaker 1: power to govern ourselves. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: there's so much to that question. It's a it's a
Speaker 1: great question. I will just focus on the aspect of
Speaker 1: the third part of power is data. It's not just stories,
Speaker 1: it's not just knowing who our network is. It's data
Speaker 1: about ourselves. No one knows what we think or want.
Speaker 1: The education part goes on really figuring out who we are,
Speaker 1: how many of us there are. It's astounding, you know,
Speaker 1: in the last ten years, our vote share increased ten percent,
Speaker 1: white women's increase six where the majority of women in
Speaker 1: eight states. Now we are the majority of Democratic voters.
Speaker 1: So to me, understanding our power and educating is important
Speaker 1: in our contribution achieve the people. Is we're doing a
Speaker 1: listening session across ten states and listening to women I
Speaker 1: think will help to contribute. Is My dream is to
Speaker 1: retell the American story with us in it and so
Speaker 1: understanding and almost refounding, getting an education to understand who
Speaker 1: America is with us in it, being powerful entities that
Speaker 1: shape this country, that served this country and continue to
Speaker 1: fight for ideals even if they weren't realized. That's the educationation.
Speaker 1: Now would we go, look, there aren't the books, but
Speaker 1: we got to write the books. We have to write
Speaker 1: the books and have the data to have that kind
Speaker 1: of education, and once we do, we can understand and
Speaker 1: really embrace our power. We're far more powerful than anyone
Speaker 1: ever told us we were, and we're powerful together. That's
Speaker 1: holding the vision. That's the vision I got. I got
Speaker 1: one more for you, And it's the flip side of
Speaker 1: everything you've been describing. Writing women of color into the
Speaker 1: story is often perceived and certainly weaponized by folks as
Speaker 1: being written out of the story. How do you think
Speaker 1: about the fear and backlash generated by the shifting narrative
Speaker 1: that you're promoting. Here's what I say. There are more
Speaker 1: people then we know and recognize that share our values,
Speaker 1: that we have the power to overcome those who would
Speaker 1: say the future is this dim, violent, vile, white supremacist future. No,
Speaker 1: that is our past. We're building something new. So you
Speaker 1: have to ask yourself both how do you want to
Speaker 1: play in history? I decided I'm part of the black
Speaker 1: freedom tradition, and it's a tradition that's actually open to everyone.
Speaker 1: We can be part of that. I have seen the
Speaker 1: political power of black women, Asian American women, Latina's I
Speaker 1: have seen it grow in the time that I have
Speaker 1: started this work till now. We're just getting started. And
Speaker 1: the movement that She the people is part of building
Speaker 1: is for us not to give up on the country.
Speaker 1: It is to create our own future and to create
Speaker 1: a new language and thinking about where we're going. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Amy Alison, thank you for everything you're doing. It's an
Speaker 1: honor to spend this time with you. I appreciate you
Speaker 1: and the work that you are part of so so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I feel the same appreciate you having me
Speaker 1: on stand in the gap. You're listening to a podcast
Speaker 1: called Force Multiplier. Action meets Impact Now. I'm sure you've
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Speaker 1: gonna do something a little different to walk the walk.
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Speaker 1: most organizations directly tackling today's greatest challenges. Be right back.
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Speaker 1: become a force multiplier in the fight against pandemics. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm still Baritune Day, your host for Force Multiplier, but
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Speaker 1: because if you're listening, you like the show, and if
Speaker 1: you like the show, you might like my other show,
Speaker 1: How to Citizen, where we take citizen as a verb
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Speaker 1: shape our community by showing up, investing in relationships, understanding power,
Speaker 1: and valuing our collective selves. Check it out at how
Speaker 1: to Citizen dot com or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1: The more I think about Amy's story, the more impressive
Speaker 1: it gets. She's someone who challenges herself, doesn't take the
Speaker 1: common road from her honorable discharge, which is pretty hard
Speaker 1: to obtain to uplifting the voices of marginalized women in
Speaker 1: places that can be so incredibly unwelcome to them. She
Speaker 1: is a manifestation of what we can accomplish when we
Speaker 1: move as one. She also shows us that before helping others,
Speaker 1: sometimes we've got to help ourselves be kind and true
Speaker 1: to ourselves, even if the choices we make go against
Speaker 1: our initial plans. Much like Amy, our next guests also
Speaker 1: didn't allow circumstances to define the outcome of her life.
Speaker 1: As a recent graduate of the University of Kentucky, Cheyenne
Speaker 1: Chandler had to quickly learn how to leverage resources from
Speaker 1: the institution to complete her studies. Check it out. Hi,
Speaker 1: my name is Cheyenne Chandler. I am a recent graduate
Speaker 1: from the University Kentucky. So I have always really been
Speaker 1: interested in oncology and cancer therapies. I have a personal experience.
Speaker 1: My dad is a cancer survivor and he's also going
Speaker 1: through treatments. Currently he has a jenetic cancer and so
Speaker 1: it's just going to be continuous for the rest of
Speaker 1: his life. I have seen and witnessed a bunch of
Speaker 1: oncologists and munologists actually create therapy specifically for him, and
Speaker 1: that's how I really figured out that that's actually what
Speaker 1: I want to do. I really want to just honestly
Speaker 1: help people. But before helping people, had to learn how
Speaker 1: to help a person, namely herself. She had made the
Speaker 1: first step, she got herself into the school, but once
Speaker 1: she got there, she had to learn how to stay there.
Speaker 1: That's a whole another game, that's a whole another class.
Speaker 1: And when you're in one of these big universities, it's
Speaker 1: already hard. When you're bearing the pressures from home, that
Speaker 1: can be a lot. This is the point where we
Speaker 1: lose a lot of our young people especially women of color,
Speaker 1: because financial challenges coupled with the lack of representation can
Speaker 1: leads to this feeling helpless and alone. Lucky for Cheyenne,
Speaker 1: she stumbled upon our University's LEADS program, which is short
Speaker 1: for Leveraging Economic Affordability for Developing Success. This is her
Speaker 1: school scholarship program set in place to ensure that every
Speaker 1: student who needs an education can actually afford one. First,
Speaker 1: when I was accepted into UK, the first thing that
Speaker 1: they normally do is send you a bill, and I
Speaker 1: remember when I opened the mail and I saw fifty
Speaker 1: dollars and I screened, that's it. I can't do this.
Speaker 1: It's just just a lot of money. And I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna figure out how to do it, and went
Speaker 1: through the Financial Aid Office website where I was able
Speaker 1: to get instate tuition. But for me to get into LEADS,
Speaker 1: it was actually a really bad circumstance that I was in.
Speaker 1: I was not a part of my LEADS program my
Speaker 1: first year in college, and so my family really forked
Speaker 1: out the I think it's around like dollars that we
Speaker 1: had to pay for in state and that didn't account food,
Speaker 1: and that an account the required meal plan that you
Speaker 1: had to be on as a freshman in the building.
Speaker 1: So I think it was like dollars total, which is
Speaker 1: better than some people, but it was still very high.
Speaker 1: I made it through my first fall semester and I
Speaker 1: just couldn't afford it. Classes were registering again and I
Speaker 1: just couldn't get my account opens register at all because
Speaker 1: you have to pay your balance off. And I remember
Speaker 1: going to the Financial aid office and they recommended for
Speaker 1: me for getting a loan, and I said, I already
Speaker 1: have some loans. I can't afford that. And at that
Speaker 1: point my mom had gotten laid off, and also my
Speaker 1: dad a lot of a cancer treatment that he was doing.
Speaker 1: It was just really difficult for all of us to pay.
Speaker 1: And this is when Leeds really was starting to get bigger,
Speaker 1: and I think they had just started and they were
Speaker 1: still collecting money to start the program, and they were like, actually,
Speaker 1: we're gonna put you in contact with the people who
Speaker 1: can really help you, and that was LEADS. So it
Speaker 1: was sort of just a blessing. And I remember I
Speaker 1: was walking back to my dorm and I was on
Speaker 1: the side of the the road and that's when Miss will Gis,
Speaker 1: who is the advisor over me for LEADS. She called
Speaker 1: me and she was like, Hi, Cheyenne, I know you
Speaker 1: just talked with someone from the Financial aid office and
Speaker 1: we heard about your story and we really just want
Speaker 1: to help you continue scholarship journey and continue academically. And
Speaker 1: I was like what, I was on the side of
Speaker 1: the road crying because that one phone call really changed everything,
Speaker 1: because they truly let me get to the point where
Speaker 1: I was able to graduate. And it was just an
Speaker 1: honest question. So here Cheyenne going through this difficult moment
Speaker 1: in her life, and even in this very stressful time,
Speaker 1: she is still helping others. She's still thinking of ways
Speaker 1: she can do more. I think programs like leads are essential,
Speaker 1: not just for what they provide on the surface. As
Speaker 1: a scholarship kid, myself, I believe in the value helping
Speaker 1: kids pay for tuition and books. That is practical, that
Speaker 1: is necessary, greatly appreciated. Thanks for all the folks who
Speaker 1: helped me out. But programs like this do more than
Speaker 1: just provide the money. They are providing a service to
Speaker 1: students and even hold communities. That's hard to measure. Here's
Speaker 1: what happens when we help students like Cheyenne, We're telling them,
Speaker 1: we believe in you, believing in yourself, We believe that
Speaker 1: you matter just the way you are right now. That
Speaker 1: sort of investment beyond the money, but just caring about
Speaker 1: people's well being. That investment pays dividends for communities that
Speaker 1: needed most because it turns people like Cheyenne into leaders
Speaker 1: who can go back and pave the way and advise
Speaker 1: others and create more people like Cheyenne who can go
Speaker 1: back and pave the way and advise others and create
Speaker 1: this really virtuous cycle. So I actually agreed to a
Speaker 1: mentor a couple of students and help a couple of
Speaker 1: organizations that I was still a part of. So like
Speaker 1: one of them is he's in Medicine, which is an
Speaker 1: organization for health care really directed towards minority students, and
Speaker 1: so I'm actually the social media manager and so I'll
Speaker 1: be doing that while I'm in my maths program. But
Speaker 1: my advice for any student that is really participating in STEM,
Speaker 1: anything from engineering to science to medicine to even math,
Speaker 1: really is if you do not see representation, then say
Speaker 1: something about it first, because there really are a lot
Speaker 1: of people who may not be actually at your university,
Speaker 1: but in the community who would love to come. Secondly,
Speaker 1: never give up on yourself. That's one of the biggest
Speaker 1: things that I told myself when I was crying because
Speaker 1: I just felt so alone in some of my classes,
Speaker 1: and I really just told myself, you got this. You
Speaker 1: are capable, and you are extremely intelligent, and you will
Speaker 1: make it through. And third really would be if you
Speaker 1: see lack of representation then started and that was the
Speaker 1: biggest one for me is when I went back to
Speaker 1: several organizations that I was a part of our other
Speaker 1: classes and I said, I don't see anybody that looks
Speaker 1: like me, and that's a problem. And if so, if
Speaker 1: you need that person, then I would be that person
Speaker 1: so that the next person we'll see someone that I needed. Financially,
Speaker 1: my advice would definitely be asked as many people as possible.
Speaker 1: It was really me just walking around campus for an
Speaker 1: hour and a half in the blistering he just going
Speaker 1: around and not taking another loan. So go to your
Speaker 1: financial aid office, asked them if it is there any
Speaker 1: other programs, Are there any grants, any fellowships, any work
Speaker 1: studies that I could possibly do. Additionally, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of scholarships that are available, especially if you are
Speaker 1: a person of color. There's just so many opportunities. My
Speaker 1: advice for any business audience would truly be to actually asked,
Speaker 1: is there any small initiatives that can really help? Or
Speaker 1: can I start an initiative that can help students and
Speaker 1: helping financially, You're really helping someone complete their life. It's
Speaker 1: just it's just that's I feel like that's an honor.
Speaker 1: Over the years, higher education has become synonymous with this
Speaker 1: ritual symbolizing the ultimate American dream and freedom. As we've
Speaker 1: learned from our two guests, the path to education isn't
Speaker 1: always linear. In fact, it's sometimes lonely, terrifying, expensive and wobbly.
Speaker 1: But sometimes these are the experiences that allow us to
Speaker 1: help others. When we find these hidden gems, the people
Speaker 1: that believe and invest in our potential, then we can
Speaker 1: finally start to believe in some of the promise that
Speaker 1: this country offers up, that we can be anything we
Speaker 1: want to be. That's a big promise, you know. And
Speaker 1: there's definitely these moments when I feel like it's just marketing,
Speaker 1: and then I meet people like Amy, I meet people
Speaker 1: like Cheyenne, I remember finding these moments of belief in myself, myself,
Speaker 1: that little motor in me that kept me going, and
Speaker 1: I love seeing that in others. So folks can go
Speaker 1: and share that wealth with all of our communities and
Speaker 1: uplifting empower us all, especially when we're not feeling so empowered.
Speaker 1: These ideas don't have to be grand, over the top huge,
Speaker 1: as we've seen time and again throughout this season, our
Speaker 1: guests proved that being yourself is sometimes the most radical
Speaker 1: thing you can do, the most profound action you can take.
Speaker 1: And whether it's through their lines of work lending an
Speaker 1: air offering practical advice to building communities during difficult times,
Speaker 1: I guess I've never up in their pursuit of making
Speaker 1: a difference, of bridging the divide and solving some of
Speaker 1: today's greatest challenges. It's in the small lack sometimes, like
Speaker 1: seeing a face that's willing to help you in a
Speaker 1: classroom setting, or the acknowledgment of your wants and needs
Speaker 1: by a political figure. It's those moments that help teach
Speaker 1: us to learn to bet on ourselves, to take risk
Speaker 1: for ourselves, and to take our community along for the right.
Speaker 1: Are you feeling inspired and want to check out more
Speaker 1: information about the organizations we talked about in this episode.
Speaker 1: Learn more about our guests and how you can support
Speaker 1: their work by going to Salesforce dot org slash Force Multiplier.
Speaker 1: Force Multiplier's production of I Heart Radio and Salesforce dot Org.
Speaker 1: Hosted by me Barrett tune Day Thurston. It's executive produced
Speaker 1: by Elizabeth Stewart, produced by Vane Chien, edited and mixed
Speaker 1: by James Foster, and written by Yvette Lopez. A special
Speaker 1: thanks to our guests Amy Allison and Cheyenne Chandler. Listen
Speaker 1: to Force Multiplier on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts. M