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Financial freedom starts with knowledge—and it’s never too early or too late to learn. This engaging panel explores practical, on-the-ground strategies for building financial literacy in our communities, from understanding credit and budgeting to investing and generational wealth-building. Featuring programs and leaders who are working to empower Black youth and families, we’ll dive into real-world tools, success stories, and culturally relevant education models that are shifting the financial future—one lesson at a time.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:01Hello, hello. Good morning. How y'all doing? All right. I am so excited to moderate this
00:08very important and timely conversation on financial literacy. We don't have a lot of
00:12time, so I'm just going to introduce our amazing panel, and we're going to get right into it.
00:16So first we have Ms. Anissia Williams, Chief Impact and Venture Officer of DreamBlock.
00:30We also have Ms. Courtney Pettway, Co-Founder of KidVestors.
00:37Dr. Brandy Waters, Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships and Engagement at College Board.
00:49And Dr. D. Wayne Edwards, President of Pencil Lewis College of Business and Design.
00:57Thank you all for being here. Before we dive deep into the conversation, I actually wanted to
01:06ask something more personal. And if you can quickly answer, what was the moment that you had when you
01:13were like, you know what, I need to go into financial literacy, particularly for young black
01:17people? I'll start here. I think the moment for me was, you know, I come from, and again, I'm just
01:27having this bill that is on my mind right now as we think about literacy. So I came from Section 8. I came
01:37from vouchers at school. I came from all of those things. And so for me, being able to transition and
01:46move to other things, I had to understand financial literacy and what that meant to me, and then how
01:53that also could impact my family as well at the same time. So it was something that was imperative
01:59and that I had to figure out because my mom didn't know, my grandma didn't know either. So I took it upon
02:07me to find out for my family. That's great.
02:13Yes, for me, I made a bunch of financial mistakes. I would take the whole session if I had to list
02:19every mistake that I made. But the light bulb moment for me is when I had kids of my own, and I thought
02:25about all the mistakes I made, and what if I could put them in a much better position than I was. And that was
02:32really the turning point for me is when I was pregnant with my first child.
02:38For me, it was really something that I started to think about with my friends after we graduated college and saw
02:43that many of us were encountering heavy loads of student debt, still trying to become homeowners, and really at that
02:50point, really wanted to pivot and build our own organizations and businesses. And the first thing we kept saying to each
02:56other was, I wish I had known this earlier. I wish someone had taught me this in high
03:00school. So I wanted to make sure that whatever career path that I took in
03:04education really opened up that opportunity for young students as well.
03:08Yep. Very similar story. Mine was a lot younger, where it was out of actually necessity. I wanted
03:16certain things that I couldn't buy, so to speak. In learning from my older brothers and sister, the power of
03:24actually saving money and spending money, I would always have them buy me stuff, and then I would just
03:29pocket my money. But no, I learned very early the power of wealth building out of necessity at a very
03:37young age. I ask that question because for all of you, and I think this is kind of true for most black
03:44people, the jobs and the roles that we end up in, there's a personal connection, right? And it's the
03:49solution that we're looking to find for our communities. Courtney, I'd love to expand upon
03:55your, you and your husband building KidVestors. Can you tell us about that? And, you know, what is
04:03one of the goals that you have through your organization?
04:07Yes. So we started really in our living room. Again, we became parents, and we wanted to put them
04:13in a much better situation than what we were in. And so what we wanted to do is make sure they were
04:18prepared. And so knowing everything from the fundamentals to budgeting and taxes and credit,
04:24but going beyond that to learning how to invest. Because we are all feeling the impacts of inflation.
04:29I don't know how many moms out there, every time you go to the grocery store, it seems like your money
04:34is, you know, not covering the same amount of food that you, you know, purchased last year.
04:39It's because when we're not investing, we're actually losing money to inflation. And so we want to,
04:45I didn't learn how to invest until I was an adult. But imagine your six-year-old or eight-year-old or
04:5118-year-old, you know, starting to invest. They have time on their side. And so what we want to do
04:56is be proactive. We don't want to be reactive like I was as an adult, trying to learn on the back end
05:02after I've made the mistakes. What if these students were prepared before they graduated high school?
05:08And so that's what we want to become is KidVestors is the leading financial education platform for K
05:15through 12 students. So they're prepared for real life before they graduate high school. And one of the perks
05:20is when kids go through our program, they don't just learn, but they earn and reward them with real stock
05:25in the process.
05:26They don't just learn, they earn. And as a teenager, I would have loved to earn too.
05:31Right. And I think it also reduces the shame that can come when you're an adult and you feel like
05:38you're behind. But as we know, in our community, we don't have the tools, right? Which is why it's
05:43so powerful what you all are doing. So you said, we're doing more than learning. We're also earning
05:48and also really quick AV. I don't have a timer up here. It's not moving. I will go over for an hour.
05:53So you might want to keep the clock going. Thank you. And Nisia, you also are in the funding part
06:00of this as well. Can you talk a little bit about that?
06:02Yeah. So at Dreamblock, one of the things that I wanted to make sure is that founders were in the
06:08right ecosystem. You hear a lot of times when folks are building businesses, they're like, oh, you know,
06:14I need to raise money or I need to go find this investor. And it's not about just finding random
06:19people. It's about finding your people inside of your ecosystem. And so at Dreamblock, we have
06:25DreamWealthCamp to where we bring growth stage founders together for two days of programming
06:30with investors. And then we have office hours as well so that it is intentional. We can make sure
06:37that it is an environment to where they can actually meet, grow, pitch, do all of those things at the
06:43same time. But I try to make sure that I have resources there for everyone and in every sector as
06:49well when they come to camp. And that's removing the barrier of entry, right?
06:52Oh, absolutely. Again, it goes back to this confidence, right? If you just provide this
06:56opportunity for folks to have this courage to step into these rooms that don't look like us,
07:00right? We know we can show and prove, but we just got to have the courage to get ourselves into that
07:05room and feel confident with what we have. Thank you for that. Dr. Edwards, I want to ask you about
07:11your platform, EHBCU. Yes. And how it's equipping black women and black communities at large to stay
07:19ahead of a changing economy, especially as AI has been introduced. Could you talk a bit more about
07:24that? Yes. So first, I mean, I think we all have to understand that knowledge is currency. And the
07:32more knowledge that we are able to acquire, the greater net wealth we have an opportunity to actually
07:37achieve. And so EHBCU is an innovative partnership with four other HBCUs, Pencil Lewis, which is in
07:45Detroit, Delaware State, Southern University, as well as Alabama State. Our goal is to create kind of
07:53the solution, a bit of a solution of the knowledge and wealth gap, especially virtually for young black
07:58men and women. During COVID, like HBCUs were the institutions that suffered the most due to most weren't
08:05prepared for online learning. EHBCU allows the learners to be anywhere in the world. So you could
08:12be in Mississippi and taking programming in Detroit, or you can be in Delaware and taking programming at
08:18multiple HBCUs. So being able to create a platform that you can actually program your own educational
08:25journey, that is a groundbreaking opportunity that we recognize that's important for our communities.
08:31That's great. Thank you for that. And you mentioned COVID, the pandemic, and HBCUs having to catch up,
08:39right, to make sure that our students still have the support that they need. We've also been talking a
08:44lot about like what's happening right now, this crazy, evil, sinister bill that happened yesterday.
08:50Even before that, and I want to come to you, Dr. Waters, about the attacks that we saw on African
08:58American history, and a lot of the work that you've been doing, would love for you to share with the
09:02audience some of that work that you're doing at the College Board. So that's been really the joy of
09:07my life, not only as a scholar of African American studies, but to really have the opportunity to
09:12build the first internationally available course for high school students to earn college credit in
09:17this field. It emerged at a time where we saw... Wait, hold on, pause. Say that again, because y'all were a little
09:23too quiet in responding to that. Well, you know, it is. AP African American studies is the first
09:30internationally available course where students can earn college credit in African American studies.
09:36Wow. It is a beautiful thing. And it's something that we've built because of student interest. So we
09:43saw coming out of the pandemic in our surveys that African American studies continue to be one of the
09:48most requested new courses for us to build. So this is a course that has grown from not only 60 schools
09:54in the first pilot, but it is actually one of the fastest growing AP courses. And if you remember your
10:00experience with SAT or AP, that is not something that I would have predicted when I was a student in high
10:05school. So this course just emerged in its first year out of the pilot. It's grown from those 60 schools to
10:1223,000 students in four different countries and launches broadly internationally in many more
10:18countries this fall. But getting back to your point about this, I see our other course, AP
10:24business with personal finance, a new course that we're building hand in hand with African American
10:29studies. And why is that? As students start to learn more about their history, their culture, they are
10:35learning about the literal commodification of people. They're learning about entrenched wealth gaps that have
10:41happened over generations. They're learning about systemic undermining of black businesses, but also
10:46the ways that we've overcome and thrive in spite of that. So what we've done with our next course that's
10:52coming up is really merge learning about business with personal finance skills. And Courtney, you mentioned
10:58something. Imagine that you're 18 and you already know how to build a budget. You already know how to
11:03invest and you've already had practice in building a case study, which is the largest instructional model that
11:08we see in MBA programs. So this is something that is pulling together not only what's relevant to them
11:14from a personal and community aspect, but also having them walk away with the tools that they need to
11:19make good decisions after high school. So we're very excited about it. I love that you merge those
11:25together because I tell people all the time and I do a lot of political commentary. I've worked on
11:29presidential campaigns and advocacy groups and folks constantly ask me, how do we get through this
11:34moment? Like what's the strategy? What's the tool? But you just made the point that I always make to other
11:38people. Our ancestors actually have laid the groundwork, which is why it's so important for us to preserve our
11:44history. And it's also why they keep attacking our history, right? Like they don't want us to know where we came
11:50from and this legacy, how we've been able to build black economies and black cities, right? They don't want us to
11:57know that. So I get real political because this time is so urgent right now. But thinking about
12:04that, there is an urgency for our communities to figure out how to build wealth. The racial wealth
12:09gap continues to widen, right? Even with, you know, people talking about, oh, I get in the bag and all
12:14this. I'm like, yeah, but the racial wealth is continuing to widen. So how do you all approach this
12:19work, especially with the next generation, giving them the confidence to keep going versus to feel
12:26defeated already? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a lot of different things. Um, so one, like what is
12:38actually getting the bag? Like, like what does that even mean? And I think in this culture of social
12:47media, there is a projection out there that getting to the bag means, you know, the Chanel and, you know,
12:53all of these things or whatever have you, um, these material things that can be gone just like that.
12:59Right. Um, but there isn't preface on getting the bag also means buying some stock. It also means,
13:06you know, investing, taking the money that's in your savings account that is not earning any interest
13:11at all and putting them into something else. You know, it's also, you know, if you are, you know,
13:17working this extra job or you have a, a gig on a side, like what does a traditional Roth look like?
13:24Like where can you start to build, um, money and, and wealth in those ways as well? Um, and then also
13:31even, you know, for parents, like how do you set your children up for success? You know, instead of
13:37the birthday parties, and I'm not saying don't have a birthday party, but what I am saying is that
13:41a two-year-old is only going to play with those toys for however long. Right. So exactly. And we'll not
13:46remember that, but they will remember if, Hey, like here's an Apple stock, like you guys can
13:52contribute to this instead of buying the toys and things like that. So I think it's us also just
13:56reprogramming our mind of how we think about wealth, how we actually think about money and
14:02the relationship that we also have with money as well. That's going to put the next generation
14:08where it is that they need to be. Courtney, you wanted to jump in. Oh yeah. So double click on
14:15everything you said, but that was one of the approaches we took even at KidVestors. I know
14:19growing up, you know, there were only, there were a few voices that were speaking to financial
14:23literacy and honestly, they were just boring in my opinion. So I wasn't really paying attention.
14:29And so one of the reasons I love KidVestors and I'm probably biased is that we took a culturally
14:34relevant approach. You didn't see people that look like me. And so that's why we have African kids,
14:40Hispanic kids, black kids, white kids, Asian kids, because they resonate when they at least see
14:45people and characters that look like them. We gamify it to make it fun. And again, they're
14:50earning. So they're earning real stock, you know, putting them on that path to wealth creation.
14:56You know, even as a VC back founder, we talk about narrowing the wealth gap. You can't do that without
15:00assets. And how do you get the assets if you don't know how? And so like I was, we were having a
15:06conversation backstage. I couldn't have told you what private equity and M&As and VC and all of that
15:11stuff was five, six, seven years ago. But now kids going through our program, they're going to know
15:15about that stuff. They're going to be 10 steps ahead than what I was, making it engaging in the
15:21process, fun in the process. So they want to learn. So they want to build wealth. You know, don't just
15:27play roadblocks, own roadblocks. You know what I'm saying? And so that's the approach that we take.
15:32Don't just play. Own it. I know that's right. Yeah. I mean, I was going to piggyback off what
15:37you were saying. I mean, I think it was a few years ago. I think it was MSN stated that we spend
15:43$1.3 trillion on products and services, but our net worth dropped. Right. And so we're in that.
15:51You said 1.3 trillion. Trillion with a T. Yeah. But our net worth dropped to your earlier point.
15:58And so when you look at those businesses that we spend money on, products and services,
16:04we are less than 5% of employment in these organizations. And so what we're doing on the
16:10EHBCU side is to provide the relevant education you need to actually be employable in those
16:16institutions, but also to make sure you understand, you know, you don't have to stop being a consumer
16:21of those products. But to your point, can you be a creator? Can you be an owner? Right.
16:27There is a platform called StockX, which is a sneaker reselling platform. It's worth $3 billion.
16:35It's worth $3 billion where it's a bunch of kids. Some of them look like us, some that don't look like
16:42us. They'll buy three pair of sneakers. They'll keep one on ice. They'll trade the other one and sell
16:48it to pay for all three. They're learning math. They're learning economics through a cultural topic
16:55of, you know, things that we purchase and in some cases, unfortunately, idolize. And so what we want
17:02to do on the EHBCU platform is provide relevant education to help them understand that you can be
17:08more than just a consumer. You can be a business owner, but then also leverage that education through
17:14relevant topics in some ways to trick people into learning because that's in some ways we have to do
17:21that as well. But, but that's, it's, it's all about how do we increase the wealth gap? And, and I just,
17:26I'm sorry, reduce the wealth gap. Sorry. And, and, and I just wanted to also just say this as well. Like,
17:32let's just cut the check. Like, let's, let's, let's just cut the check. Let's not have them to imagine
17:41how can we do this. Give them the money to do, show me through practical application,
17:46how this grows, how this actually works, how these fractional shares actually works for you to be
17:53able to get in because the barrier of entry, believe it or not, it's, it is shrinking, literally.
17:59Like you can go on the Coinbase, like you have Bitcoin, like you have all of these other platforms
18:04that you can actually get into now, but give them the money to do it. So let's not just theorize and
18:10talk to them to death, show them how to do it and give them the money to be able to do that.
18:15And also, of course, for founders, I'm always going to advocate to please cut the checks for
18:19the founders. Yes, please. As a founder, please. Yes. And for education institutions as well. Don't
18:25forget about it. Absolutely. Yes. Because you guys are doing that work and you need to be funded
18:28to do that work. As HBCU alums in here, you should be donating to your alma mater. He didn't make the
18:35plug, but I'm going to make it for him. I don't, Dr. Waters, if you had anything on this topic
18:39before I give us a closing question. I think what's so important is what you mentioned,
18:44the urgency and really tapping into what that means for us and what micro step you can take
18:49to move that forward. What we're doing with AP business with personal finance is not leaving
18:55it up to chance, not making it hard for students to find, not making it confusing for parents
19:00to understand what students are learning, but we're really putting this class into American
19:05high schools. So this is a class that will show up in your student's classroom, in your
19:09student's high school, your niece's high school, your nephew's. Our step is about making sure
19:14that our students are present in that space. So once resources like these that we've talked
19:19about become available, what is the micro step that you can take knowing the urgency of the
19:23moment to make sure that our students are not left behind? You know, something that you
19:28mentioned, and actually all of you kind of mentioned this, you're talking, you're helping the
19:33next generation, but you're not forgetting about the parents. And there's a partnership
19:37there too. And that speaks to us as a community, right? We are community people. Thinking about
19:42the essence audience and that, you know, majority of people here are not students, middle age,
19:48older women, and our friends are here. I would love for you all to leave us with an action step
19:55for the black woman who is here and feels as though she may be behind on her own finances,
20:01right? She's thinking about, yes, got the ideas and the resources to help her children.
20:07But in her mind, she's like, I'm living paycheck to paycheck and I'm behind. And I know my white
20:12counterparts have been doing this since they're 20 and I'm 41, right? So I would love for you all to
20:17just give some final words on like, what's an action step that someone could take listening?
20:22Um, action step for me. And I don't know, again, the audience, if you guys are faith based or not.
20:29Um, but for me, when I started tithing, um, me too, girl, me too. I mean, when I started tithing,
20:36um, you know, God shows up, um, one. Um, and then number two, like, look at your circle.
20:44Who is it that is doing all the things? Who is it that has the opportunities and things like that?
20:50Um, and, and my thing is, is like, if, if I'm doing good and my sister is not, then I'm not doing
20:55good. So what do we need to do as a community together in your small circle to make sure that
21:02you know, the latest information, you know, what the latest is going on and things of that nature.
21:06And then breaking it down from, um, don't leave behind your grandma, your grandpa and things that
21:13they should, because they may not understand all of that sophistication. And it is up to us to be able
21:18to make sure that if this Medicaid gets cut, they can be able to maximize the savings or maximize
21:24their 401k or to maximize the, the, the social security that they have to be able to do that
21:30as well. So get a good friend circle. Ones that can actually each one teach one closed mouths do not
21:37get fed, but get that circle and then give that information back to your family. So that again,
21:44the cycle, we got to break it and we got to share this information.
21:50Practical advice I would, um, probably give is just to, I'm a direct person, you know, sometimes you
21:58have to face the music. And so this means where am I financially? Do I know where I am? That means,
22:07you know, going home after we have fun, you know, looking through those bank statements, how am I doing?
22:13You know, is it an income problem? Do I need to look at alternative skill sets, ask for a promotion?
22:20Is it a spending problem? Like, what is my current situation? How can I improve? Because if we don't
22:27acknowledge it first and be aware of it first, we can't change. And so get that friend circle,
22:37you know, if you don't want to do this on your own, find that accountability partner and say,
22:42hey, this is the year we're going to improve financially. And that starts with knowing where
22:48you are financially. But if we just avoid it and just try to sweep it under the rug, like it's not
22:54reality, we won't change. And so that would be my practical advice is to find out where you are
23:01financially first, get that accountability, accountability and friend group to encourage you
23:06along the way. And then go from there. Well, the first step for any change is to look in the mirror.
23:12And that's what I talk about in my book. In order to disrupt your community, you got to disrupt yourself
23:17first. So showing my bias as a historian educator, become the teacher, teach yourself, teach your
23:25friends. Don't do it alone. Make it a research project. What is the one piece of my finances that
23:30I need to understand better? Whether it's budgeting or understanding investment, but become the teacher
23:35and teach someone else. As I said earlier, knowledge is currency. For most of you work at a corporation,
23:44major, big or small, there's educational funds set aside for you in your institution for you to
23:50actually receive free education. Ask your organization, can you learn on their dime, right? If you work at a
23:58small company, and maybe that's not there, create your own sole proprietorship or create your own
24:04LLC, a few hundred bucks, depending on what state you're in, so you can write off your educational
24:10journey. But if you're able to actually learn through the current organization that you're working
24:15with, be able to learn on their dime to develop your skills necessary to make yourself more valuable
24:22to either it's your next job opportunity or your next entrepreneurial venture, do that.
24:30That's one of the things that we're looking to do with EHBC is to provide that additional education,
24:34not just for high school students, which we need to work together, but also college students,
24:39but even grown men and women who are currently already working. We're not only for first generation,
24:48versus for second and third and fourth as well, but knowledge is currency and you're never too old
24:54to learn. That is actually a great point because I'm an entrepreneur now, but looking back, there were
25:00so many resources, the companies that I've worked for, I didn't take advantage of, worth thousands of
25:07dollars. They don't need to know you think about leaving in two years. Correct. Exactly.
25:10That's why you wouldn't take that course. Exactly. But dry up every single resource in your employer
25:16match, in your 401k. Yep. Like all of those things are such critical points. And this whole
25:22accountability piece, amazing, this piece about each one, teach one, the tools and the resources are
25:28out there, this tithing piece. When you said that, and when you said culturally relevant teachers,
25:33I thought about Dave Ramsey. I don't like Dave Ramsey, but I am a tither, right? A person of faith,
25:37right? And so all of these steps are extremely practical. And I think, I hope the audience feels
25:43encouraged with the resources that are available and with leaders who look like us doing this work
25:49and standing in the gap and also understanding how urgent it is right now. So I just want to thank
25:54all of you so much for your time being here. I think all of you and please give up for our panelists.
25:59Thank you. Thank you.
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