Speaker 1: At a dp we work with more than eight hundred
Speaker 1: sixty thousand companies worldwide. That gives us a pretty good
Speaker 1: idea of how to help businesses grow stronger, whether it's
Speaker 1: through data insights that help you make informed decisions about
Speaker 1: building a team that works better as a team, or
Speaker 1: by keeping you ahead of thousands of changing regulations so
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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the United States for Service and
Speaker 1: the AD Council, a man called Los Miller of The
Speaker 1: five South Show and do Me Favors. Make sure you
Speaker 1: check out The Black Market, hostly by me only on
Speaker 1: the eighty five South Show. Fee Subscribe to the eighty
Speaker 1: five South Show to hear until into the Black Market.
Speaker 1: Here amazing interviews with entrepreneurs, creatives and thought leaders, people
Speaker 1: who are doing amazing things in the black community. Listen
Speaker 1: to The Black Market on my Heart Radio, app, Apple podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to podcasts. My next guest is
Speaker 1: truly an industry to decision maker. He's Dr George T. French, Jr.
Speaker 1: In twent and nteen, he became the fifth president of
Speaker 1: Clark Atlantic University, the largest United Negro College Fund member
Speaker 1: institution in the country and the largest private HBCU within
Speaker 1: the state of Georgia. Doing his tenure at Clark Landing University,
Speaker 1: President French has brought millions of dollars to the institution,
Speaker 1: increased corporate partnerships and sponsors, and has led the university
Speaker 1: to a worldwide pandemic which we know is so important.
Speaker 1: Prior to his appointment, President Frisch served for fourteen years
Speaker 1: as the president of Miles College, making him one of
Speaker 1: the longest serving the university of presidents in the country.
Speaker 1: Dr French recently made positive headlines when I was reading
Speaker 1: my Houston Chronicle and he announced in that article as
Speaker 1: president of Clark Atlantic University, student account balances for the
Speaker 1: spring of summer, fall, spring and summer one semesters we
Speaker 1: will be brought to a zero balance. Please working with
Speaker 1: money making conversations the President of Clark Atlantic University, Dr
Speaker 1: George T. French, Jr. How are you doing, sir? Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. I'm privileged and honored to be with
Speaker 1: you this morning. Well, first of all, I had a
Speaker 1: lot to say, because you're doing a lot of great things.
Speaker 1: But there's always a journey to get to this conversation.
Speaker 1: And the conversation is that when I read a headline
Speaker 1: like that and I realized that in the pandemic hit,
Speaker 1: it limited a lot of African American students from taking
Speaker 1: a C T S and s A t S to
Speaker 1: enroll in various not only a SPCs, but any college
Speaker 1: across the country. When you're here about all these situations,
Speaker 1: how did this come about? And what led up to
Speaker 1: the announcement that the zero balances for the dates I
Speaker 1: mentioned for students attending Clark Atlanta University. So, so what
Speaker 1: led up to it is is, as we know, we've
Speaker 1: experienced worldwide pandemic, the first such pandemic since the influenza
Speaker 1: flew of nineteen eighteen. So it's been a century since
Speaker 1: the world dealt with pandemic. This generation has never dealt
Speaker 1: with pandemic. So what led up to it was the
Speaker 1: fact that we were on campus at Clark Atlanta University
Speaker 1: and and we had to take transition from on ground
Speaker 1: to an online platform for four thousand students within two weeks.
Speaker 1: Because people were dying worldwide, the the COVID nineteen was
Speaker 1: spreading at unprecedented rates, So we had to get our
Speaker 1: students back home off of campus. We had to d
Speaker 1: UH centralized, We had to uh dedentsify the campus. So
Speaker 1: we sent students back to forty two different cities. But
Speaker 1: as on the way home, we realized all of them
Speaker 1: would not be able to go online because all of
Speaker 1: them didn't have laptop computers at home. So what do
Speaker 1: we do? We went and we purchased four thousand We
Speaker 1: spent three million dollars to purchase four thousand students, one
Speaker 1: for all of our graduate and undergraduate students. What else
Speaker 1: did we do? We we refunded tuition, We refunded housing
Speaker 1: calls por raded, we refunded a dining, parking, everything. We
Speaker 1: reduced tuition by ten per We did everything that we
Speaker 1: could to help our students. We even paid for airline
Speaker 1: tickets and bus fare for students to get back home
Speaker 1: because we realized the gravity of the situation. So fast
Speaker 1: forward to to now, now, five semesters later, our students
Speaker 1: are preparing to come back to school for the fall. However,
Speaker 1: nine hundred of them had outstanding balances, and the pandemic,
Speaker 1: as we know was was was devastating to our nation,
Speaker 1: not just to our students, but to Black America. When
Speaker 1: we talk about making money, the fact that of all
Speaker 1: African American businesses went out of business during pandemic, this
Speaker 1: is unpreceded. So our students were suffering. Yet they were
Speaker 1: preparing to come back in the fall to the campus
Speaker 1: on ground, but they had balances. So what we decided
Speaker 1: to do was we decided to take two million dollars
Speaker 1: and pay off student balances so that they could return
Speaker 1: to school in the fall. Students are I'm gonna tell you,
Speaker 1: for the last two months, every day I've gotten emails
Speaker 1: and calls wondering how we can help them to return
Speaker 1: to school in the fall. This was one of the solutions. Well,
Speaker 1: here's to good the beauty of what we're talking about HBCUs.
Speaker 1: For several reasons in corporate America discovered HBCUs, you know,
Speaker 1: with massive donations and led by Mackenzie Scott who's delivered
Speaker 1: the four point one billion dollars I believe to various
Speaker 1: HBCUs across the country. But this happened in pandemic awareness.
Speaker 1: Why do you think that suddling in twenty that corporations
Speaker 1: started to acknowledge the quality of education is being produced
Speaker 1: at HBCUs, Dr French And how do we move forward
Speaker 1: to continue that resonating within the corporate community as well
Speaker 1: as the general community overall for donations. Well, I think
Speaker 1: I think in actuality, we've been on the precipice of
Speaker 1: the relationship that we had with corporate America for some
Speaker 1: years now. I don't think it just occurred to corporate
Speaker 1: America what actually happened. And I think you and I
Speaker 1: both have witnessed the fact that at one time it
Speaker 1: was a moral imperative. It was a moral imperative to
Speaker 1: hire African Americans, to hire the graduates of our HBC
Speaker 1: used but empirically based data inform these corporations that their
Speaker 1: bottom lines would be increased should they diversify. So it's
Speaker 1: no longer a moral imperative, but it's a smart business
Speaker 1: decision to find the crim baa crim to come to
Speaker 1: the Atlanta University Center, which is the largest consortia of
Speaker 1: HBCUs in the nation, and you find the best and
Speaker 1: the brightest students there so these corporations, yes, some of
Speaker 1: them gave because of of the tragedies of social injustice,
Speaker 1: but most of them. Now my conversation is not talking
Speaker 1: about how they can give us a gift uh to
Speaker 1: create their conscious. What they're talking about now is how
Speaker 1: African Americans are proficient in artificial intelligence and coding and
Speaker 1: how we catch on very quickly to any new environment.
Speaker 1: So so it's a good business decision for those what
Speaker 1: Dr French is saying, who is the president and of
Speaker 1: clak It's finally here the season of celebration. And no
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Speaker 1: state Forester, and the ad Council. What grows in the
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Speaker 1: when it comes to the Black community, a spc US
Speaker 1: I call hbc U is Black excellence. You have roughly
Speaker 1: hundred and seven and historically black colleges and university across
Speaker 1: the country that have produced within the Black community eight
Speaker 1: percent of the Black judges. This is HBCUs. When he's
Speaker 1: talking about excellence, when you're talking about the corporations, recognizing
Speaker 1: seventy percent of the Black dennists comes from HBCUs, seventy
Speaker 1: percent of the black doctors come from HBCUs, of the
Speaker 1: black public school teachers, fifth percent of the black lawyers,
Speaker 1: for the percent of the black engineers, for the percent
Speaker 1: of Black members of Congress. We're not just talking about
Speaker 1: our Vice President Kamala Harris. Eighteen percent of the Black fortune,
Speaker 1: five hundred of CEOs and eighteen percent of CEOs in
Speaker 1: general come from hbc U s. And this is the
Speaker 1: whole purpose of this interview. When I saw that announcement
Speaker 1: by doctor French, who was the president of Clark Atlanta University,
Speaker 1: renouncing these like you said, roughly nine hundred students who
Speaker 1: were struggling to deal with the dead balance, and they
Speaker 1: rectified that. He rectified the situation when students had to
Speaker 1: go home by by getting laptops so they can continue
Speaker 1: their education. Because what we cannot do within any community,
Speaker 1: especially the African American community, is limited our opportunities to
Speaker 1: be educated. How important is that is that? In general?
Speaker 1: I can say it, I'm a novice, I'm on the outside,
Speaker 1: but you are an educator. Dr French talk about education,
Speaker 1: the impact it has on our Black community and how
Speaker 1: it levels the playing fields for opportunities in general. But
Speaker 1: thank you, sir, and those statistics where I mean you
Speaker 1: are eminently correct on those statistics. We are the creators.
Speaker 1: HBCUs are the creators of the Black middle class. That's
Speaker 1: that's that's essentially what we do. And we were proud
Speaker 1: that the United Negro College Fund, under the leadership of
Speaker 1: Michael Lomax and Rodriguez Mary, went to Washington. They led
Speaker 1: the effort amongst h b C used to go to
Speaker 1: Washington to push for the cares that to get the
Speaker 1: billions of dollars for the her Relief which is Higher
Speaker 1: Education Emergency Relief Fund, which is the way that we're
Speaker 1: able to use and to fund some of our initiatives
Speaker 1: because the United Negal College Fund and the whole world
Speaker 1: understands that to receive a college education is just not
Speaker 1: self um edification, but it's the only way that you
Speaker 1: build generational wealth. What we see, what we see today
Speaker 1: is we need generational wealth not just for one generation,
Speaker 1: but it has to be intergenerational as well. And the
Speaker 1: only way you do that that we've seen empirically based
Speaker 1: data indicates that you do that with a college education.
Speaker 1: It indicates the United Negal College Fund also be a
Speaker 1: study indicating that with a college degree, on average, African
Speaker 1: Americans earned at least one million dollars more per their lifetime.
Speaker 1: And more importantly, they set the stage for those who
Speaker 1: would come behind them. As the first generation college students graduate.
Speaker 1: You have other members at family reunion tell us about college,
Speaker 1: tell us about university, and they get excited and they
Speaker 1: look forward to going to college and university and it
Speaker 1: perpetuates our entire race African Americans. That's why we are
Speaker 1: doing so well because we have embraced two things. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, we even embraced the church and we've embraced education.
Speaker 1: And these this formula is the formula for success. I
Speaker 1: do believe, sir well, that one is the formula. But
Speaker 1: when you look at the school or a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty year legacy, that's what we're talking about, Dr French.
Speaker 1: You know, a legacy when that's powerful and you're a
Speaker 1: powerful man to be able to accept the responsibility of that.
Speaker 1: Not only four thousand young people who are going to
Speaker 1: out and change the world, because that's what they're gonna do.
Speaker 1: That's why to put those numbers out there, because so
Speaker 1: many people, like you said, are giving it bigome money
Speaker 1: out of diversity. Please don't do that. Give money to
Speaker 1: us because we're produced cream Daylight, cream black experence on
Speaker 1: a daily basis, not just at Clark Atlanta Universe, but
Speaker 1: all HPCUS. But we're doing an interview by Clark Atlanta University,
Speaker 1: a school is on this own that the President decided,
Speaker 1: you know something, I'm not gonna handicap these young people,
Speaker 1: these nine hundred young people. I'm gonna help these young
Speaker 1: people because in the end, it's all about passing forward.
Speaker 1: That's where God comes in, That's what partnership comes in,
Speaker 1: that's what friendship comes in. With that level of articulation,
Speaker 1: Dr French, talk to us about how you feel and
Speaker 1: how the response is within the community, because it's all
Speaker 1: about the community and all about trying to make a difference,
Speaker 1: and you're making a difference. Expound on that, sir, Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's interesting that you've raised that point because my
Speaker 1: spirit has been so lifted during this process and seeing
Speaker 1: how how students are impacted, but more importantly, how the
Speaker 1: community is impacted. We are the first institution HBC in
Speaker 1: the nation to provide graduate degree. Atlanta University is where
Speaker 1: w Eb the Boys did his greatest work. And he
Speaker 1: didn't just stay within the Ivory Tower of academy, but
Speaker 1: the Boys was the advisor to the Department United States
Speaker 1: Department of Labor. Based on and predicated upon his studies
Speaker 1: of African Americans in Atlanta as well as Philadelphia, he
Speaker 1: was able to garner data, empirically based data to indicate
Speaker 1: what it means for African Americans to be in the
Speaker 1: mind in the minds, what it means for them to
Speaker 1: be in the stell factories. However, would it also means
Speaker 1: for them when they transition to higher education? What a
Speaker 1: difference it makes. That was the very beginning of the
Speaker 1: social justice conversation, and I have to say to you
Speaker 1: said that a lot of times we talk about social
Speaker 1: justice when we when we're marching in the streets and
Speaker 1: we're talking about jobs and fair housing, But it goes
Speaker 1: a little bit deeper. If you go to the emergency
Speaker 1: room today, you may not get the same level of
Speaker 1: treatment because the the the trials for um UH, the
Speaker 1: trials for these different medicines didn't always include African Americans.
Speaker 1: So we have to make sure that we're in those
Speaker 1: trials because it's more than just about a dollar. It's
Speaker 1: also about the health of our communities. So so social
Speaker 1: justice impacts us on so many different levels. And it's
Speaker 1: the job of the Academy to stand on that wall
Speaker 1: and to say to the community, to to society, this
Speaker 1: is what social justice equity actually looks like. And that's
Speaker 1: what we do on a daily basis by showing excellence.
Speaker 1: And anytime you want to see black excellence, you don't
Speaker 1: have to just come to Crock Atlanta University. You can
Speaker 1: go to over one hundred institutions across this nation and
Speaker 1: witness black excellence every single day. I love it. I
Speaker 1: love Dr fre Jo Brian did just like me and
Speaker 1: so that's why you were surprised at the reaction. You're
Speaker 1: just serving your purpose. You were delivering a cause on
Speaker 1: the need. And that's why when I saw the article,
Speaker 1: I need it, Realy called my friend Wendy Williams over
Speaker 1: at w C. Okay, I said, I gotta get him
Speaker 1: on that air. Can you give it? I want to
Speaker 1: put it on my show on Tuesday so we can continue.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna feature you on my social media as my
Speaker 1: motivational Monday talking about you do. Gonna put my newsletter
Speaker 1: that goes out to twenti thousand subscribers. My whole thing
Speaker 1: is that it's about brand building. All I can do
Speaker 1: is tell your story. But your story that you're trying
Speaker 1: to create is new opportunities for students who just asking,
Speaker 1: but asking. And I always tell us about a college degree.
Speaker 1: You cannot reapa a college degree, so when you get it,
Speaker 1: they can't take it away. I want to just tell you,
Speaker 1: Dr French, keep keep doing what you're doing. I've taken
Speaker 1: up a little bit more than your time than I requested,
Speaker 1: but I appreciate the time you gave me and allowed
Speaker 1: me to tell your story and the story incredible story
Speaker 1: of Clark Atlanta University. We look forward to having you
Speaker 1: on our beautiful campus to speak directly to our students,
Speaker 1: because while we exercise black excellence, our students do best
Speaker 1: when they see black excellence. So I need to see
Speaker 1: you on my campus so that they can see black
Speaker 1: excellence in motion. Or you know you got a man
Speaker 1: Kenny Leon one of the top directors, my boy Kenya Barras,
Speaker 1: I know him, my girl Jackie Reid, so you know
Speaker 1: you're already rocking over there was a black excellence. So
Speaker 1: I would be born happy to come on your campus
Speaker 1: on a regular basis to be able to showcase why
Speaker 1: I love what you're doing. High respect Black excellence and
Speaker 1: the power of what you're being able to present at
Speaker 1: Clark Atlanta University is defined by the excellence that you've
Speaker 1: been delivered by what I just talked about domination as
Speaker 1: far as in the community of what you guys deliver
Speaker 1: on a daily basis. Thank you sure for coming on
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations. Thank you, sir, I appreciate If you
Speaker 1: want to hear or see any of my interviews on
Speaker 1: money Making Conversations, please go to money Making Conversation dot com.
Speaker 1: I'm ra Sean McDonald, I am your host in this
Speaker 1: season of giving. Cools has gifts for all your loved ones.
Speaker 1: For those who like to keep it cozy, find fleeces, sweaters, loungeware,
Speaker 1: blankets and throws. Or support minority owned or founded brands
Speaker 1: by giving gifts from Human Nation and Shame Moisture. And
Speaker 1: in the spirit of giving, Coals Cares is donating eight
Speaker 1: million dollars to local nonprofits nationwide. Give with all your
Speaker 1: heart this season with great gifts from Coals or coals
Speaker 1: dot com. What girls in the forest, our imagination and
Speaker 1: our family bonds. The forest is closer than you think.
Speaker 1: Find a forest near you and discover the Forest dot Org.
Speaker 1: Brought to you by the United States Forest Service and
Speaker 1: the AD Council a man called Los Miller of the
Speaker 1: eighty five South Show and do Me Favors. Make sure
Speaker 1: you check out The Black Market, hostly by Me only
Speaker 1: on the eighty five South Show. Fee subscribe to the
Speaker 1: eighty five South Show to hear Tune into the Black
Speaker 1: Market here amazing interviews with entrepreneurs, creatives and thought leaders,
Speaker 1: people who are doing amazing things in the black community.
Speaker 1: Listen to the Black Market on I Heart radio, Apple,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.