# Overcoming the Odds: No student loans, secured $8 million dollars in HBCU scholarships.

An episode of [Money Making Conversations Master Class](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1264705641), 28 Oct 2024, 27 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/b1db7263-d1a3-4d00-8976-af62012aab44/31d1237d-708c-479f-bf72-b212016a64f9/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=35a10561-3e1b-4d05-a529-af62012aab6a

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Douglass Fort. He founded The Blerd Academy (Black Nerds). It’s a wealth building program that helps High-Achieving Black-American youth get scholarships to HBCU’s. They have secured over $8 million dollars in scholarships! Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Master Class Douglass Fort. • Why did you start the Academy? • What are some outcomes of the Academy? • Why should the Black-American community highlight our nerds? · Since 2016 Fort has secured $8 million in scholarships for 63 high-achieving Black American students. Full-ride and tuition-only scholarships to HBCUs through graduate school. · PJ’s sister, Marissa, also went through the program. She graduated Cum Laude from Hampton University with a degree in Accounting, earned a Master’s degree from Columbia University all debt-free, and now works for Deloitte in New York City. · Other success stories: A Tennessee State U graduate now works in the front office for the NFL’s Chicago Bears. · Two are Obama-Cheskey Voyager scholars. · Fort says: “We don’t talk enough about Black scientists, mathematicians, and doctors. Only 1% of athletes make it to the NFL. We’re hustling backward having our kids focus on sports over education.” · Criteria for the students he assists: a 3.5 GPA, a 28 ACT score, or a 1300 SAT score for a full-ride scholarship, or a minimum 3.2 GPA, a 23 ACT score, or an 1130 SAT score for tuition-only scholarships. AP and/or Honors classes, community service, and school leadership is also beneficial. · Since the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina struck down Affirmative Action in college admissions Fort has been busy. · Several HBCUs saw a surge in applications, including Washington D.C.’s Howard University, Clark-Atlanta University, which outpaced the University of Georgia, and Florida Agricultural Mechanical University (FAMU). · Fort says: Parents just don’t know there is money and resources at these institutions for their high-achieving students, but they should because their kids have excelled in the classroom, and they deserve it.” MONEY MAKING CONVERSATIONS TALKING POINTS Guest: Douglass J. Fort, Founder, The BLERD Academy · Grew up in East Palo Alto, California · Liked school but got caught up in the streets · Was shot as a teen. · A childhood friend suggested he apply to Jackson State University. When he was accepted, hesitated, but did go. · Graduated from JSU. A Criminal Justice Major/Urban Affairs/Development minor. After graduation, he returned to East Palo Alto where he started the violence prevention program, For Youth By Youth. · Worked with law enforcement to help clean up Black neighborhoods. · His son received a full-ride athletic scholarship to Morehouse College but turned it down to play Division 1 Football at a PWI, and never played. · Doug was heartbroken that his son turned down Morehouse. A close friend told him he had to get over it and focus on kids who wanted the HBCU experience. · Founded The BLERD Academy, a combination of the words Black and Nerd in 2016 in Oakland; a non-profit wealth-building program that assists high-achieving Black American students graduate, debt-free from more than 100 HBCUs. · Found the first BLERD while working at a Bay Area JSU Black College Expo…

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.
[0:06] Speaker 2: I'm Rashaan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
[0:10] Speaker 2: where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
[0:13] Speaker 2: stories and start planning their own. Listen up as I
[0:17] Speaker 2: interview entrepreneurs from around the country, talk to celebrities and
[0:21] Speaker 2: ask them how they are running their companies, and speak
[0:23] Speaker 2: with nonprofits who are making a difference in their local communities. Now,
[0:28] Speaker 2: sit back and listen as we unlock the secrets to
[0:30] Speaker 2: their success on Money Making Conversations Masterclass. The interviews and
[0:35] Speaker 2: information is that this show provides are for everyone. It's
[0:39] Speaker 2: time to stop reading other people's success stories and start
[0:42] Speaker 2: living your own. I'm here to help you reach your
[0:44] Speaker 2: American dream. Just keep listening. If you want to be
[0:47] Speaker 2: a guest on my show, please visit Moneymakingconversations dot com
[0:51] Speaker 2: and click the b A guest button. My guests founded
[0:55] Speaker 2: the Blurred That's b Lerd Academy That's Black Nerds. It's
[1:00] Speaker 2: a wealth building program that helps high achieving Black American
[1:04] Speaker 2: youth get scholarships to attend HBCUs. They have secured over
[1:09] Speaker 2: eight million dollars. That's since twenty sixteen. I believe eight
[1:13] Speaker 2: million dollars in scholarships. Please work with the Money Making
[1:16] Speaker 2: Conversation Masterclass Douglas Fort Douglas.
[1:19] Speaker 1: Is that number correct? I don't want to underserve you
[1:22] Speaker 1: with a number that's incorrect, sir.
[1:24] Speaker 3: No, the number is correct, and I'm proud of Yes, sir.
[1:28] Speaker 1: Well, you know something I'm telling you this week, I
[1:31] Speaker 1: am taking nine students who have a sickle sale trade
[1:36] Speaker 1: or cickle Selle. Disney worked out a deal with them
[1:39] Speaker 1: and they're going to go to a college fair that's
[1:43] Speaker 1: in Orlando. It'll be about forty HBCUs there and it'll
[1:48] Speaker 1: be h All they got to do is bringing their
[1:50] Speaker 1: you know, the rope SAT scores or ACT scores and
[1:54] Speaker 1: high school transcript and they can enroll on the spot
[1:57] Speaker 1: and they can qualify for scholarships full half of tuition.
[2:01] Speaker 1: So I'm a fan of what you're doing. I just
[2:04] Speaker 1: wanted to get that little out the way because that's
[2:06] Speaker 1: a proud moment for me, man, because be able to
[2:09] Speaker 1: playing that out. So tell us how you got involved, sir.
[2:13] Speaker 3: Well, I'm a blurred myself. I'm a black nerd, but
[2:15] Speaker 3: I didn't know no better growing up in the hood.
[2:17] Speaker 3: It was just you know, you had to mask. You know,
[2:20] Speaker 3: you had to compete with tupacs and the snoop dogs
[2:22] Speaker 3: at the time. So, you know, when I got of
[2:25] Speaker 3: age and got into an argument with my actually one
[2:29] Speaker 3: of my best friends about our condition of our community
[2:34] Speaker 3: and what we was talking about. We in our community,
[2:36] Speaker 3: we highlight the entertainer, the athlete, and the misbehaved, but
[2:42] Speaker 3: all of those nerds, they don't pay no attention to us.
[2:46] Speaker 3: And so we was talking amongst ourselves. If we created
[2:48] Speaker 3: we had this type of insight and information, how much
[2:52] Speaker 3: further will be as young men being black nerds in
[2:57] Speaker 3: this environment. So we created it and there are to
[3:00] Speaker 3: both graduates from HBCUs. He went to Howard University. I
[3:03] Speaker 3: graduated from Jackson State University. And we started off just
[3:08] Speaker 3: trying to you know, hey, where is the money at right,
[3:13] Speaker 3: And we went from there and we was able to
[3:17] Speaker 3: build relationships with these sbcus and get these kids in.
[3:20] Speaker 3: So that's how it started.
[3:22] Speaker 1: Well, you know, I want to say I'm a nerd
[3:24] Speaker 1: to my degree is in mathematics. Okay, I'm a black nerd.
[3:27] Speaker 1: So I'm gonna claim it. I'm gonna claim it. Douglas.
[3:30] Speaker 1: I'm claiming it. Douglas with two esses. By the way,
[3:34] Speaker 1: Douglas with two s's Douglas for you know, but the
[3:37] Speaker 1: journey man. You know when I look at the you know,
[3:40] Speaker 1: the creating change in young people. You know, you know,
[3:47] Speaker 1: I think your sister, she's went through this program, correct,
[3:51] Speaker 1: my sister, the relative of yours? Does anybody went through
[3:55] Speaker 1: this program? My niece, your niece, I apologize your niece
[3:57] Speaker 1: went through this program. And when you first started out,
[4:01] Speaker 1: you know, everybody has doubts. Everybody go, how can you
[4:06] Speaker 1: pull this off? I hear your dreams. How did you
[4:09] Speaker 1: overcome that part of a Douglas out comes?
[4:12] Speaker 3: You know what I've learned about working in our community is,
[4:16] Speaker 3: you know, we got to just put out outcomes. So
[4:18] Speaker 3: what we did was have that conversation, an intellectual conversation
[4:23] Speaker 3: with the parent and the child, saying, hey, if you
[4:26] Speaker 3: get these certain numbers, we've got a relationship with Prayer
[4:28] Speaker 3: of You and you can leave you're debt free. Also,
[4:32] Speaker 3: Prayer View offers a one year master's degree in engineering,
[4:36] Speaker 3: so you can leave here debt free with a master's
[4:39] Speaker 3: degree in engineering and going into your industry with noe debt.
[4:43] Speaker 3: By the time you're twenty five, you can buy your
[4:45] Speaker 3: first preb by the time you're twenty seven, you can
[4:47] Speaker 3: buy your second one by twenty eight, you can be
[4:49] Speaker 3: married starting with your children.
[4:52] Speaker 1: And so what we've got some great timelines there, Douglas,
[4:55] Speaker 1: there's a great timelines.
[4:56] Speaker 3: But what it is is that if you have the plan,
[4:59] Speaker 3: if you have the schedule in place, instead of we
[5:02] Speaker 3: put this out there and we see all these outcomes,
[5:04] Speaker 3: you know. So the way what the way it works
[5:07] Speaker 3: is when you start seeing the success of all our blurs,
[5:11] Speaker 3: then you'll be like, oh, okay, that's how you beat
[5:14] Speaker 3: the next Sayers was the outcomes, you know. So for us,
[5:19] Speaker 3: we really don't do a lot of talking. It's like
[5:20] Speaker 3: you want to go talk to a blur then they
[5:22] Speaker 3: could tell you what's going on, so stuff like that.
[5:24] Speaker 3: So that's how I got rid of them, got rid
[5:25] Speaker 3: of the next sairers were it's simply putting out great outcomes.
[5:29] Speaker 1: And that's really important because they sayers, you know, they
[5:31] Speaker 1: want to win, man, they want to win they and
[5:33] Speaker 1: they have no plan, brother, They says don't have plans, man,
[5:36] Speaker 1: they just have negative They have negativity rules, you know,
[5:39] Speaker 1: and their fingerpoinners. And I told you so that's their quote.
[5:42] Speaker 1: I told you so. And uh, when I look at
[5:45] Speaker 1: organizations like yours, you know, because their bootstep organizations, you know,
[5:49] Speaker 1: they're they're start with an idea, you have a vision,
[5:52] Speaker 1: and then but then you when you start seeing results
[5:56] Speaker 1: and your wow. You know, I think about it, man,
[5:59] Speaker 1: I think about my life, man when I look back
[6:01] Speaker 1: on you know, started the Mentoring cap with Steve Harvey
[6:05] Speaker 1: way back in two thousand and seven. You know what
[6:07] Speaker 1: I'm saying, and and and and and and and then
[6:10] Speaker 1: doing these HBCUs and working with Steven A. Smith with
[6:13] Speaker 1: his uh HBCU week, you know, you know what I'm saying,
[6:16] Speaker 1: so so and realizing the amount of scholarship dollars that
[6:20] Speaker 1: are out there available to students and parents and they
[6:23] Speaker 1: don't know how can we can we help them because
[6:26] Speaker 1: they don't know, you know. And but these HBCUs are
[6:29] Speaker 1: sitting there, they kind of like aren't promoted, they're underfunded,
[6:33] Speaker 1: they don't have the endowments. And then they turn around
[6:36] Speaker 1: and basically the government, whether it's a president, my fund
[6:41] Speaker 1: and I look at the fund they give the government,
[6:43] Speaker 1: like I think that the funds they gave HBCUs were
[6:46] Speaker 1: like one point three billion dollars or something like that.
[6:49] Speaker 1: And you look over the University of Nebraska, their endowment
[6:52] Speaker 1: along is one billion dollars. Yeah, you know, and and
[6:57] Speaker 1: and so and so when I went so, I get
[6:59] Speaker 1: frustrated a little bit. And so when.
[7:00] Speaker 3: I've heard about it, naturally, when I heard.
[7:02] Speaker 1: About your program, you know, I want to be able
[7:05] Speaker 1: to help you have a voice. And so let's talk
[7:07] Speaker 1: about how can people get in touch with your organization.
[7:10] Speaker 1: And then we're gonna talk about the qualification because everybody goes,
[7:13] Speaker 1: I got a kid with.
[7:14] Speaker 3: Every kid Camp, Yeah, everybody.
[7:16] Speaker 1: Yeah, we talk aboutainst college, trying to get your kid
[7:19] Speaker 1: to finish there.
[7:21] Speaker 3: So there's two things. I'm glad you spoke about all that,
[7:23] Speaker 3: the funding and all the organizations and all that. So
[7:25] Speaker 3: let's break it down in all those categories. So first off,
[7:28] Speaker 3: you can reach us at you can see all the
[7:30] Speaker 3: work really in two different places. One is our Instagram
[7:33] Speaker 3: page and that's just the blurd Academy or Black Nerds,
[7:37] Speaker 3: and you'll see all the work there. All are blurts there.
[7:39] Speaker 3: You can need to follow us follow us on LinkedIn
[7:41] Speaker 3: as well. So those are kind of our two points
[7:43] Speaker 3: that you can see the work being done there all right. Now,
[7:48] Speaker 3: when it comes to funding, we don't We're not an
[7:50] Speaker 3: organization like that where me and my friend kind of
[7:53] Speaker 3: did this in the front of a philanthropist standpoint because
[7:56] Speaker 3: we wanted to be underni I will leave and unequivocally
[8:02] Speaker 3: black empowered, you know. So we wanted to not be
[8:08] Speaker 3: someone telling us what we can and cannot do by
[8:10] Speaker 3: just because they want to give us some dollars, not
[8:13] Speaker 3: saying we don't take any. But that was one of
[8:15] Speaker 3: our original things. So we created this, uh hall.
[8:20] Speaker 1: This is what we're going to do it this way, right.
[8:22] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah yeah. Because then then then we created something
[8:25] Speaker 3: where we always tell our blurs, just create a small
[8:28] Speaker 3: business to help fund your other business. So we create
[8:30] Speaker 3: a small business called Proud Black Nerds where you can
[8:35] Speaker 3: buy our shirts, our mugs, and that's how you give
[8:39] Speaker 3: to us. It's through creating companies and small businesses, and
[8:44] Speaker 3: then we're showing our blurs. We're not talking about it,
[8:46] Speaker 3: we're being abided by creating a small business. So that's
[8:49] Speaker 3: how your listeners anybody else can support the BLURD Academy
[8:52] Speaker 3: is through the Proud Black Dirts ww dot, Proud Black
[8:56] Speaker 3: Dierts dot com and just get our merch and that's
[8:59] Speaker 3: how you help us. And so just to just to
[9:04] Speaker 3: go right into what you're saying about getting them qualified.
[9:08] Speaker 3: So let's use an example. I'm gonna give you primise.
[9:10] Speaker 3: I'm gonna use my alma mater for an example. Is
[9:11] Speaker 3: that Okay University State right? Yes? Jackson State?
[9:16] Speaker 1: Yes?
[9:16] Speaker 3: Uh so at Jackson State University, your baby, I'm talking
[9:21] Speaker 3: to the kids. Where the kids need to have a
[9:23] Speaker 3: three point two five eleven thirty SAT or twenty three
[9:29] Speaker 3: ACT and that would get you a full tuition scholarship.
[9:35] Speaker 3: So that's number, that's stage one, Stage two. If you
[9:40] Speaker 3: got a three point two five with a twelve hundred SAT,
[9:47] Speaker 3: that's a full ride scholarship, room board to you know
[9:52] Speaker 3: all that. Then if you got a three point five
[9:56] Speaker 3: with a twenty eight ACT or a thirteen hundred SAT,
[10:00] Speaker 3: it's a presidential scholarship. That's room boards, books, fees, everything.
[10:06] Speaker 3: So these are things that when you partnership with these
[10:08] Speaker 3: types of schools, they saying, hey, Dougie or Dougie, that's
[10:11] Speaker 3: my name, doug go get go get If you got
[10:15] Speaker 3: some babies like this, we got the brand form because
[10:18] Speaker 3: those type of kids literally would go in especially be
[10:21] Speaker 3: in Georgia. They say, Okay, I'd rather go to University
[10:23] Speaker 3: of Georgia or right, that's fine, that makes sense. I'm
[10:25] Speaker 3: not mad at you going to those what they would
[10:27] Speaker 3: call the higher branded schools. But I'm just saying, look
[10:30] Speaker 3: at our schools as an option, because I'd rather you
[10:35] Speaker 3: leave debt free at Jackson State than being debt at
[10:37] Speaker 3: Georgia University of Georgia, because it just stops you from
[10:42] Speaker 3: and now stops you It just slows you down from
[10:44] Speaker 3: the economic sides, buying the home, all these other things,
[10:47] Speaker 3: starting a small business and all that. So that is
[10:50] Speaker 3: kind of the matrix on is in one institution as
[10:53] Speaker 3: an example of how do you get money at HBCUs.
[10:55] Speaker 1: You know, it's really interesting now, Douglas, you got it
[10:59] Speaker 1: called with that? Dougie, Hey, Dougie, what's up?
[11:01] Speaker 4: What's that? What's that?
[11:02] Speaker 1: What's up? Now? You know you man, your your your story,
[11:06] Speaker 1: your backstory? Now you was you got the streets won
[11:09] Speaker 1: the streets one when you know the team. You know,
[11:12] Speaker 1: I look back on my life and uh, I grew
[11:14] Speaker 1: up in Fifth Ward in Houston, Texas. So when you
[11:16] Speaker 1: say prayer View, there's just wrong hold. You know that
[11:18] Speaker 1: bail boy, he all in my neighborhood preview in Houston, Texas.
[11:23] Speaker 3: And and I, you.
[11:25] Speaker 1: Know, my school, and and I didn't get the HBCUs
[11:28] Speaker 1: coming out of college. You know how the high school,
[11:31] Speaker 1: you know they were they're recruiting me. And I wound
[11:33] Speaker 1: up going to I went to enrolled in the Southern
[11:36] Speaker 1: University in Baton Rouge, and then at the last minute
[11:38] Speaker 1: opted out and eventually got my degree at the University
[11:41] Speaker 1: of Houston in Houston, Texas. But because I didn't understand,
[11:45] Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I didn't value what an HBCU was and
[11:50] Speaker 1: didn't understand what it brought to the table. And you're
[11:55] Speaker 1: talking about tier one students, and that is the most
[11:58] Speaker 1: value student that every college wants in this situation. That
[12:04] Speaker 1: doesn't mean you're a tier one student at a predominant
[12:07] Speaker 1: white institution. You're going to get a scholarship, that doesn't
[12:10] Speaker 1: mean you're going to get a full ride. And I
[12:12] Speaker 1: was talking to a good friend of mine, doctor Sonya Lewis,
[12:14] Speaker 1: out of Philadelphia. She said, reach out, I'm gonna tell
[12:16] Speaker 1: you something. Student loans are the only thing in college now.
[12:23] Speaker 1: If you try to get a student loan, and you
[12:26] Speaker 1: and look at for a house, you have nothing to
[12:30] Speaker 1: offer for a student loan. They don't really check your credit.
[12:34] Speaker 1: They don't ask you do you have any equity, They
[12:37] Speaker 1: don't ask you're gonna put up any collateral. They just
[12:40] Speaker 1: give you the money. She said, when you look at
[12:43] Speaker 1: the hides works out. It is the craziest system in
[12:46] Speaker 1: the world. And people are driving up forty thousand and
[12:51] Speaker 1: fifty half a million dollars worth of student loans.
[12:55] Speaker 3: Yes, sir, insane. And we use that matrix too. We
[13:00] Speaker 3: use the d the debt to income racio analogy when
[13:05] Speaker 3: we say, yeah, you graduated from Stanford with four hundred
[13:10] Speaker 3: thousand in debt, but I graduated from Jackson State. But
[13:13] Speaker 3: you go into the bank, your debt to income ratio matters,
[13:17] Speaker 3: your credit matters, the amount of money that you get
[13:21] Speaker 3: from your house. So I'm not knocking those branded schools,
[13:24] Speaker 3: of course, but if you can't get in and leave
[13:26] Speaker 3: your undergrad but little to no debt, that's the go
[13:29] Speaker 3: for all the institutions, especially for Black Americans. So we
[13:33] Speaker 3: created this well building conversation to have with those kids
[13:37] Speaker 3: that actually qualified for the Yales. The Princeton's the staffords
[13:40] Speaker 3: to say, hey, yeah you got in the Stanford, you
[13:42] Speaker 3: got any Yale. But those same numbers are full rides
[13:46] Speaker 3: at our institutions, the Tuskegees, the Tennessee States. So just
[13:50] Speaker 3: consider these as an option and then whenever the financial
[13:53] Speaker 3: aid come out, you can determine as a family what
[13:56] Speaker 3: is best and also tell parents, hey, that same amount
[13:59] Speaker 3: of money you to pay for that brand, you can
[14:01] Speaker 3: use it on the back end to cover either graduate
[14:03] Speaker 3: school or get them a their startup condo or house.
[14:07] Speaker 3: So let's use our money efficiently as we're trying to
[14:10] Speaker 3: make long term economic gains for our children. I'd rather
[14:14] Speaker 3: you spend that one hundred thousand going to spend at
[14:17] Speaker 3: these other institutions on the back end, at for his
[14:21] Speaker 3: starter home in roll Up, North Carolina, or outside of Atlanta,
[14:24] Speaker 3: or somewhere you know in Houston, outside of Houston where
[14:27] Speaker 3: he can buy and own. Those are life changing things.
[14:31] Speaker 3: And so that's what we leveraging our conversations, and we're
[14:33] Speaker 3: talking about money. At the end of the day. Let's
[14:35] Speaker 3: get this.
[14:36] Speaker 1: Money and throw some facts at the Douglas. Okay, this
[14:39] Speaker 1: is blacks who attend HBCUs.
[14:43] Speaker 3: Come on.
[14:44] Speaker 1: Of the people who are black that are as they
[14:48] Speaker 1: say is in stem come from HBCUs. Seventy percent of
[14:52] Speaker 1: the doctors who are black come from HBCUs. Seventy of
[14:56] Speaker 1: the dentists who are black con from HBCUs. The lawyers
[15:00] Speaker 1: who are black come from HBCUs. Seventy percent of the
[15:03] Speaker 1: judges who are black come from HBCUs. Do you see
[15:07] Speaker 1: where I'm going? Educational system sixty percent of the black
[15:10] Speaker 1: teachers come from HBCUs. So in this conversation, what I'm
[15:15] Speaker 1: just trying to tell everybody, we're not just hyping. And
[15:18] Speaker 1: I didn't go to an HBCU, but I gotta talk.
[15:20] Speaker 1: I gotta state the facts when I start seeing the facts.
[15:23] Speaker 1: And the facts is that your child can go to
[15:27] Speaker 1: an HPCU. Your child can walk out of there with
[15:30] Speaker 1: a degree and get hired, and you'll be competitive, you
[15:34] Speaker 1: get hired and also debt free. Come on that. When
[15:40] Speaker 1: we get back, we're gonna talk to some more with
[15:41] Speaker 1: Douglas with two S is a dougie. Like he likes
[15:43] Speaker 1: to say it, it broke me down with the dougie.
[15:45] Speaker 1: Na Douglas Fort come back, man, this is great. The
[15:48] Speaker 1: black nerd I got them on my show money Making
[15:50] Speaker 1: Conversations Master Class.
[15:52] Speaker 3: Go.
[15:52] Speaker 1: Hear about how those streets almost swallow them up, but
[15:55] Speaker 1: he fall back and he created this organization, this academy
[15:57] Speaker 1: to day with his boy.
[15:59] Speaker 4: Please go anywhere. We'll be right back with more money
[16:02] Speaker 4: Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
[16:15] Speaker 4: hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass continues online
[16:20] Speaker 4: at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making Conversations Masterclass
[16:25] Speaker 4: on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
[16:28] Speaker 1: I am a black nerd. I am not a member
[16:30] Speaker 1: of the Blurred Academy because it was founded after I
[16:34] Speaker 1: went to college Douglas. After I went to college, it
[16:39] Speaker 1: was good. I'm going to tell you some way after
[16:42] Speaker 1: because I graduated seventy six. So you you you have
[16:46] Speaker 1: a long time ago, brother. But along the way, man,
[16:49] Speaker 1: I understood the value of HBCUs and I'm an advocate.
[16:53] Speaker 1: I am an ambassador. One could say that, you know,
[16:55] Speaker 1: because of the fact that I see the value as
[16:58] Speaker 1: Hee Tier one students see the quality of it. Do
[17:03] Speaker 1: my research, like you said, do your research. A lot
[17:05] Speaker 1: of people don't do the research. Now and when I
[17:08] Speaker 1: was interviewing doctor Sony Lewis when she really broke it
[17:11] Speaker 1: down about how they just be passing out these student
[17:14] Speaker 1: loans and these people just be just accepting and guess
[17:17] Speaker 1: what you need them. But then you don't know the
[17:20] Speaker 1: consequences because they do impact your lifestyle. When you try
[17:24] Speaker 1: to move on, you can't. True, it's true, and you know,
[17:29] Speaker 1: but you came from California and the streets almost swallowed
[17:34] Speaker 1: you up. And help us understand what mentor saved you
[17:38] Speaker 1: and how did you make it to Jackson State.
[17:41] Speaker 3: Well, two things. I'm born and raised in the city
[17:45] Speaker 3: of East Palazzo, California, predominantly black institution right on the
[17:50] Speaker 3: South Plinch was right in the heart of Silicon Valley.
[17:54] Speaker 3: And at the time I grew up, it was the
[17:55] Speaker 3: middle of the crack apademic And in nineteen ninety one
[17:59] Speaker 3: I got shot in the face twice. The bullet is
[18:01] Speaker 3: still in my neck by well, one of the bullets
[18:02] Speaker 3: is still in my neck. And how I transitioned. I
[18:07] Speaker 3: was always a nerd. It was just that environment turns.
[18:10] Speaker 3: You have to become something to defend it, to make
[18:12] Speaker 3: it in that environment. Did a lot of fighting growing
[18:16] Speaker 3: up and doing these things, and so how I got
[18:20] Speaker 3: to the journey. How I got to Jackson State is
[18:22] Speaker 3: very interesting because I remember in nineteen ninety five, our
[18:26] Speaker 3: crack house got raided. It is a true story, y'all.
[18:29] Speaker 3: This is what happened. And I remember one of the
[18:32] Speaker 3: homies that one of the homies that was one of
[18:35] Speaker 3: my big homies at the time, he went to the penitentiary,
[18:38] Speaker 3: so that house was shut down. And I'm walking down
[18:42] Speaker 3: the street and I ran into another big homye of mine.
[18:44] Speaker 3: He like, my nickname from the neighborhood is called Fresh.
[18:46] Speaker 3: If they call me Fresh. Fred's getting the car and
[18:50] Speaker 3: he like, what you up to? And I'm like nothing, man,
[18:51] Speaker 3: I'm just trying to get this money because I was
[18:53] Speaker 3: rocked in my pocket. I'm about to go hustle at
[18:54] Speaker 3: the park at Jackville Park at the time. And he's like, hey, man,
[18:57] Speaker 3: what you got going. I'm like, noney, Like you think
[19:00] Speaker 3: you think about going to school. I'm like, nah, bro,
[19:03] Speaker 3: I'm making too much money out here. And my old
[19:05] Speaker 3: g told me this. He said this, and he said, look,
[19:08] Speaker 3: promise me this. You go off to college and you
[19:11] Speaker 3: put the same energy putting into this block, and if
[19:14] Speaker 3: it don't work out, you can come home. It is
[19:17] Speaker 3: what it is. So my old gene told me, you
[19:22] Speaker 3: need to go off to college, and that's when I met.
[19:24] Speaker 3: I went, I went, and I never looked back because
[19:26] Speaker 3: I put the same energy I put in the hustling
[19:29] Speaker 3: into into college and I became an honor student. I'm
[19:32] Speaker 3: an honors college graduate from jack State Magnan Cumlati. Uh
[19:36] Speaker 3: and uh that's how I got to jack State University.
[19:39] Speaker 1: You know. The sad part of that story is he knew.
[19:42] Speaker 1: He knew what he was doing was a dead end.
[19:47] Speaker 1: And I always talk about people get to a point
[19:49] Speaker 1: in life where they think that's all they can do,
[19:52] Speaker 1: or they go, this is me, and that's not true.
[19:55] Speaker 1: I don't care what you do. We're getting out of jail.
[19:57] Speaker 1: That does to mean that it's the end of the
[19:59] Speaker 1: row when you get in jail, or living it, because dude,
[20:02] Speaker 1: I lived. I look at it my life today and
[20:06] Speaker 1: I go, yeah, it was probably three times in my life.
[20:08] Speaker 1: I honestly couldn't tell you. I probably should be dead
[20:12] Speaker 1: at least three times. Yeh, at least three times. And
[20:15] Speaker 1: I think about it and I tell people when I
[20:19] Speaker 1: wake up in the morning. You know, there's an earnest
[20:22] Speaker 1: to me waking up because I have to accomplish something,
[20:25] Speaker 1: to have to do something, Douglas. And when I heard
[20:28] Speaker 1: that you was coming on my show and I heard
[20:30] Speaker 1: your backstory, you know, it almost brought me to tears
[20:34] Speaker 1: because I knew somebody pushed you out the door, but
[20:38] Speaker 1: didn't pushed himself out the door. Yeah, and his story
[20:43] Speaker 1: is a sad story because it ain't gonna aat good
[20:45] Speaker 1: because he stayed. Yeah.
[20:48] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think that if you add it,
[20:51] Speaker 3: you know, coming back and forth to school and just growing,
[20:54] Speaker 3: you know, when it would really changed the whole thing.
[20:56] Speaker 3: When I started my first company when I was twenty
[20:58] Speaker 3: years old, when I got to that was one of
[21:00] Speaker 3: the things that really changed my life. When I gave
[21:02] Speaker 3: my life over to Jesus Christ in nineteen ninety eight
[21:05] Speaker 3: and I created a nonprofit Call for Youth by Youth
[21:08] Speaker 3: that was a reentry in youth development and healing traumas
[21:11] Speaker 3: and trauma program in the city of East Palalato. And
[21:14] Speaker 3: I ran that for twelve years and I've done so
[21:16] Speaker 3: much great work in that thing. So it was more
[21:18] Speaker 3: or less Jackson State allowed me to be in a
[21:22] Speaker 3: safe place to grow my spirituality and my friendships and
[21:25] Speaker 3: my black love, and it allowed me to go back.
[21:28] Speaker 3: It's like an incuebaker that they created them in there
[21:31] Speaker 3: where I could be completely myself there and I was
[21:35] Speaker 3: able to take that those teachings and those friendships and
[21:37] Speaker 3: all that do Christians cruse safe for Christ and come
[21:40] Speaker 3: on back home and really trying to rebuild my whole community,
[21:44] Speaker 3: like you know I created. I helped launch a program
[21:46] Speaker 3: called Living Peace. I helped launch another program called the
[21:49] Speaker 3: East Palato Greyhounds that got a bunch of NFL players.
[21:52] Speaker 3: I even helped through one of the peace treaties I
[21:54] Speaker 3: did in the neighborhood. The director of the US Marshals
[21:58] Speaker 3: right now, doctor RONA. Davis, we did some work together
[22:04] Speaker 3: in the neighborhood and he's where he's acted some of
[22:06] Speaker 3: the work we did in the neighborhood. So God has
[22:08] Speaker 3: put our hands on all these people I just named
[22:10] Speaker 3: through the Worker for Youth by Youth and what I
[22:13] Speaker 3: did in our neighborhood. So I'm excited about all the
[22:17] Speaker 3: things that I was able to put my hands on.
[22:19] Speaker 3: And it's pretty much leave it back to what God
[22:21] Speaker 3: has put on my heart to do. Right.
[22:23] Speaker 1: I want to have a quote that I have of yours, Douglas,
[22:27] Speaker 1: this is a spiritual calling. My mission is to rebuild
[22:30] Speaker 1: our community and then start with young men because they're
[22:34] Speaker 1: the ones who will be the providers for their families.
[22:37] Speaker 1: We exist as an organization to build a healthy community
[22:40] Speaker 1: that is black, educated, resourceful, and determined. And we're doing
[22:45] Speaker 1: it as black nerds are blurred at a time.
[22:51] Speaker 3: That's my quote.
[22:53] Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you something, brother. I don't get too
[22:56] Speaker 1: emotional on this show, but you get me there because
[23:01] Speaker 1: it almost makes me feel like I'm not doing enough.
[23:03] Speaker 1: And you know, you know what I'm saying. You know,
[23:07] Speaker 1: you know it. You've seen it, man, You know when
[23:09] Speaker 1: you grew because a lot of people don't know when
[23:11] Speaker 1: you grow up in the hood. Man, you go back, brother,
[23:14] Speaker 1: it ain't it ain't got it hadn't gotten better, It
[23:16] Speaker 1: hadn't gotten better. You know, it might be Hispanic now,
[23:19] Speaker 1: it might be Hispanic, Like my hood is e Hispanic now.
[23:22] Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You know what I'm talking about.
[23:26] Speaker 1: It's like they moved out and I don't know where
[23:27] Speaker 1: the black people went. But they ain't in my hood
[23:29] Speaker 1: no more. Okay, you know, and uh and so but
[23:35] Speaker 1: but I but I won't stop, man, I won't stop, Dougs,
[23:38] Speaker 1: I can't stop. But I love the fact that you
[23:40] Speaker 1: encourage your students to buy property. I love the fact
[23:45] Speaker 1: that you tell them to secure that bag of money
[23:47] Speaker 1: through graduate school. There's not there's more to your academy
[23:51] Speaker 1: than just education. It's a story about life. As we
[23:54] Speaker 1: wrap up, just tell everybody what drives you. What's your
[23:58] Speaker 1: vision for the future for the blur to cad me.
[24:04] Speaker 3: Calling, you know, to rebuild our community, one blurred at
[24:06] Speaker 3: a time. And my goal is to make all these
[24:11] Speaker 3: blurres be happily married and wealthy. To build each black family.
[24:15] Speaker 3: I've seen it growing up in these palanza before crack hit.
[24:18] Speaker 3: I've seen a vision of a healthy black family. And
[24:21] Speaker 3: so for me, that's my mission is to see black
[24:24] Speaker 3: men be provider males so they can leave their families,
[24:30] Speaker 3: uh to the next next to the next day. So
[24:33] Speaker 3: that's my mission.
[24:34] Speaker 1: Well, bro, brother, if you don't have my cell numb,
[24:37] Speaker 1: I'm gonna give it to you. And if you ever
[24:39] Speaker 1: need me, uh, you know, to say, Rashaan, could you
[24:42] Speaker 1: you know, break me off some of I'll go talk
[24:44] Speaker 1: to the wife's and wife uh the nerds. The black
[24:47] Speaker 1: nerds need me, baby, they need to.
[24:49] Speaker 3: Proud black Just go to Look you can, like I said,
[24:52] Speaker 3: proud of your crew. Look, go to the w W dot.
[24:55] Speaker 2: Buy some of that, Buy some of that swag, some
[24:57] Speaker 2: of that some cups and T shirts, you know.
[25:00] Speaker 1: And also, man, I want to sit down. Man if
[25:02] Speaker 1: I can help you with a sponsor, you know that
[25:05] Speaker 1: understands what you're trying to do, because you got history,
[25:08] Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And uh, there are a
[25:10] Speaker 1: lot of corporations out there, you know, despite their rhetoric
[25:13] Speaker 1: out there, by diversity, equity, inclusion, understand the value of diversity,
[25:19] Speaker 1: understand the value of educating, and understanding by creating qualified
[25:24] Speaker 1: student citizens who want to vote, they'll pay these taxes.
[25:27] Speaker 1: And so I want to sit down and talk to
[25:29] Speaker 1: you about it. So yeah, you know what I'm saying,
[25:31] Speaker 1: that's the game. But more importantly, Man, I'm glad you
[25:35] Speaker 1: took the time to call in my show so we
[25:38] Speaker 1: can hear the story of Douglas Ford. Man, you're a
[25:40] Speaker 1: powerful brother, and I'm happy I'm able to share my
[25:44] Speaker 1: story over my airways and it's pretty big airways, my brother, and.
[25:48] Speaker 3: Uh, I appreciate it.
[25:49] Speaker 1: And again thank you for calling money Making Conversations massic class.
[25:52] Speaker 1: My brother, We talked soon, all right. This has been
[25:56] Speaker 1: another edition of money Making Conversations Master Class hosted by
[25:59] Speaker 1: me rashand thank you to our guest on the show
[26:02] Speaker 1: today and thank you our listening audience now. If you
[26:05] Speaker 1: want to listen to any episode or want to be
[26:07] Speaker 1: a guest on the show, visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our
[26:12] Speaker 1: social media handle is money Making Conversations. Join us next
[26:15] Speaker 1: week and remember to always leave with your gifts. Keep winning.
[26:19] Speaker 1: Their American Dream is available to you, just keep listening.
[26:23] Speaker 2: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
[26:27] Speaker 2: posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
[26:30] Speaker 2: on the show today and thank you our listening to
[26:32] Speaker 2: audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
[26:35] Speaker 2: I want to be a guest on the show, visit
[26:37] Speaker 2: Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversations.
[26:42] Speaker 2: Join us next week and remember to always leave with
[26:45] Speaker 2: your gifts.
[26:46] Speaker 1: Keep winning.

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