- This month on the Spark, our theme is "All About Support".

We'll learn about a nonprofit enhancing post-secondary opportunities and outcomes by providing holistic student supports, a school that stands as one of Memphis's oldest charter schools, that's nurturing the overall development of students and an organization developing successful entrepreneurs, and minority and women-owned business enterprises through education, advocacy, and business development.

We'll also share a special moment from our Spark Awards 2023.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement, and leading by example to power the good.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sponsor of The Spark.

- (male announcer) Additional funding for the Spark is provided by, United Way of the Mid-South, EcOp, the Memphis Zoo, and by My Town Movers, My Town Roofing.

- Have you ever been excited by a new idea?

Inspired by watching someone lead by example?

When we talk about creating change, we start by sharing the stories of everyday heroes who are making a difference in their own way, so we can learn and do the same.

I'm Jeremy Park and this is The Spark.

They're a nonprofit enhancing post-secondary opportunities and outcomes for students.

We're talking about tnAchieves.

We're here with Graham Thomas, Chief Community and Government Affairs Officer.

And let's start out, Graham, give us a little background on tnAchieves.

- Yeah, absolutely Jerry, thanks so much for having me today.

So tnAchieves, we're one of the two partnering organizations, that operates the Tennessee Promise.

So Tennessee Promise allows any of our high school graduates to attend a community or technical college, for 2.5 years, tuition free.

And then we put all the supports around the students.

We do that a few ways.

One, we have a volunteer mentoring program, volunteers in the community giving back, working with a group of students, really on the access side.

So, helping students typically that are the first in their family to go to college.

Many of our students come from lower socio-economic backgrounds, kind of helping eliminate all of those barriers, associated with accessing post-secondary.

And then once they're in college, we have a coaching program.

So, a full-time staff member then, that is kind of doing the same thing as that mentor, helping them overcome the barriers once they're enrolled.

And we also have some additional funding for them to help them pay for things like computers, books, travel, groceries.

So really, success or access, but really, really focused on success.

Making sure that once students are enrolled, they earn that credential that leads to a meaningful employment.

- I know that you all work statewide for Tennessee, but a big presence heavily, obviously in the Memphis area.

And so talk about the localization for Memphis.

- Yeah, so we actually got launched in Memphis back in 2011.

Prior to the launch of Tennessee Promise, we operated for three years privately funded.

So we've been working there for almost a decade and a half now.

But by far, our largest, Shelby County is the largest county, working with almost 9,000 students annually.

To put that in kind of perspective, Nashville usually is second at about half of that number.

So, our largest footprint where we need the most community support.

And since we launched there, especially for our students that tend to be the most at risk, we've about quadrupled their graduation rate, since we started there 13 years ago.

- Talk about what it means to be a mentor.

- Yeah, so a mentor, we get asked all the time like, what's your ideal mentor?

It's anyone.

If you care about students, all you need is about one hour a month.

You work with a small group of students, you go, you meet with 'em at the high school in person one time, and we facilitate that meeting.

You're there with the other mentors and all the students at the high school of your choice.

And then you're just reaching out and checking in, just kind of checking to see like, "Hey, how's everything going?"

You're reminding them of their deadlines.

And I think more than anything, you're that person that's in their corner, advocating for them and just encouraging them to reach their full potential.

Just to say that, hey, you know, college is here, it's free, and let's make sure we take advantage of this opportunity.

And I think that's the most important role that our mentors play.

- Share a little bit of a testimonial from the student side for what tnAchieves means to them.

- Yeah, you know, I think you hit the nail on the head.

It's those small things.

You know, we had a student that went through our program a few years ago.

His name was Dalton, first generation.

Neither of his parents had actually graduated from high school.

So he is our target student.

And we got him to his mentor and his mentor gave him some advice.

He said, on your first day of college, leave your house early.

Traffic will be bad, the parking lot will be full.

Make sure your first impression is not showing up 30 minutes late, right?

And so he sent his mentor a text message that first day and said, "Hey, I did what you asked me to do, "but I've been walking around campus now for half an hour and I can't figure out which building is MWF."

And so the mentor thought for a second, well, MWF on your college schedule is Monday, Wednesday, Friday, right?

So like, hey man, we got you here on the right day.

They figured out what the building was and he made it in.

He graduated with a 3.89 GPA, transferred to the University of Tennessee, and earned a forestry degree.

So he is out there doing great things today.

- When you look at the tracking for, you know, what the college graduates go off and do, the success you're having, paint the picture, the metrics, the stats, you know, of what puts a smile on your face for tnAchieves working.

- Yeah, so you know, if you were a low-income student and you found yourself at one of our states community colleges prior to launch of Tennessee Promise, your graduate rate was only about 6%.

Today it's, in our program, 36%, three-year graduate rate, and then about almost 50% in a six year.

So those are those students that go to Southwest for a semester or two.

They don't technically graduate from Southwest, go to University of Memphis, UT Martin, wherever it might be, and then they graduate.

So, you know, we're well outpacing state and national averages.

There's still a lot of work to do.

That number is still lower than we would like for it to be, but making steady progress.

- How can the community help?

Obviously mentorship is one piece of this, but how can the community help and get involved with tnAchieves?

- Yeah, so if you're watching today and you're thinking, man, I'd really like to dig in and help out with some students, you can go to our website at tnachieves.org and complete the mentor applications, it's real short.

Doesn't take very long to do.

We'll put you through a training, we'll give you a handbook.

If you're like me, and it's been 20 years since you went to college, don't worry, we'll get you caught up on what it looks like to go to college in 2025.

But it's, again, it's those small things, like it's building relationships and helping usher students through the door.

And then, you know, if you work at a large employer or you've got an active church group, or community group, you know, we're happy to come and tell that story.

We've got a team of people across the state that can come, fill you in on what we're doing.

We're always looking for groups that might be interested in mentoring, but also job shadowing.

You know, our students, many of them being the first in their family, they come in oftentimes with a very limited scope of what they think you can do with a college degree.

Thinking you can be a doctor, a nurse, a lawyer, or a teacher, right?

Maybe that's the only people they know that have a college degree.

They don't know that you can work at a nonprofit, right?

And so, anytime we can increase that access to potential employment opportunities down the road, is another way that we can really make an impact with our students.

- Well Graham, thank you for all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Absolutely.

Thanks so much for having me.

[upbeat music] - They're known as one of Memphis's oldest charter schools, nurturing the overall development of students.

We're here with the principal of Promise Academy Hollywood, Principal Jeffrey Monroe.

And let's start out, give us an overview of Promise Academy Hollywood.

- So, Jeremy, as you said, we've been around since 2004.

We just recently celebrated our 20th year.

We've had an opportunity to serve the city of Memphis by educating students, really focusing on developing the mind, body, and spirit of students, and educating holistically.

We serve around 265 students, and it's pre-K through five.

We are on the corner of Hollywood and Chelsea.

It's just a beautiful place to be and we serve kids and families from all over the city.

- Talk about what makes you unique.

- So, it's certainly the culture.

I would say that you are gonna be hard pressed to find a building full of adults, who go above and beyond every day and bring their best selves to support students and families.

We have a lot of programs, resources, Boys & Girls Club, a lot of community partners to help with sports, to help with social and emotional learning, just so- we have the gambit of things to provide families and really develop children into the kind of adults and citizens that we need in the city.

- Talk about your experience with another nonprofit, New Leaders, and you went through a National Aspiring Principals Fellowship program.

Talk about that program and how it equipped you for success as a principal.

- Wow.

I mean, I can't say enough about it.

It is a transformational experience.

I would say that the first two classes, specifically, provided the tools that I would need to be successful and currently successful in my role.

The first one was a leadership course.

It was great because it rooted me in basically why I wanted to get into this very difficult role to begin with.

And it filled in a lot of historical gaps around education that I didn't understand, when I was going through them as a young man.

So, that first course made it, made this work what I want it to be, right?

And then the second course was a course in school culture, which is really foundational and really helpful because this work is about leading people.

And unless you develop the capacity to really lead a building full of people and a community full of people, then you're not gonna do the things that you're capable of doing.

And the school community is not gonna thrive the way it needs to.

So, those two courses combined were transformational for me, because you hear the words, or the term servant leadership a lot.

But for me, New Leaders allowed me to develop what I would say is adaptive leadership, and I would also say situational leadership, which for me are, what basically allows you to be a servant leader.

'Cause if you cannot change the hearts, and minds, and the habits of people, and you can't get them to be the best version of themselves, then you can serve all day long, it's not gonna make a difference.

- What puts a smile on your face to see already where things are headed.

- I got into this to grow people, not just for outcomes.

So it puts a smile on my face to see the people that I lead, getting better in every possible way, not just in their professional lives, but in their personal lives as well because, something that I always tell them, you spend more time at work than you do in your personal lives.

And if you want to change the outcomes in your personal lives, it's gonna start at work.

So changing habits and growing as a person, is something that you can't flip on and off when you leave the building.

You wanna be great in life.

You wanna be great in the building first.

- What do you want the public to know, in terms of the hard work and the heart work for you and your team, just like you're talking about, but ultimately, the critical role you play in a vibrant community?

- I would say that the community should understand that this is extremely difficult work, especially after the pandemic.

There's a lot of unpacked trauma still that our kids are dealing with, because I think people took for granted the things that kids didn't necessarily see because they were at school for eight hours a day.

So being at home and seeing things that they didn't necessarily weren't exposed to before, changed a lot of our children.

And so, the community can be supportive by always understanding that we are doing the very best that we can with the time that we have.

A school community is a partnership.

We only have them for a portion of the time that they're, you know, young adults.

A lot of the work has to be done at home.

So, when your school leader, or their teacher is asking for help in a certain area, please understand it, that's rooted in some type of either quantitative or qualitative data that is informing a gap that can only be closed if the school and the community works together.

- So wrap up with where we can go to learn more and get involved with Promise Academy Hollywood.

- So you can always follow us on social media, and then you can find us at promiseacademy.com and that will have all the answers that you need, if you want more information about Promise Academy.

- Well Principal Jeffrey Monroe, thank you for all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you for the opportunity.

[upbeat music] - The Spark Awards annually recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the community.

The 2023 Education Leadership Award went to Noah Gordon.

[upbeat music] - I'm Noah Gordon, the principal of Memphis Business Academy Elementary.

I'm also the pastor of Faith Heritage Church Of God In Christ as well.

Memphis Business Academy Elementary is a very unique and diverse place.

We build heavy on culture, we build heavy on diversity.

And one of the major things that I look at, as related to our school, is that we have a large Hispanic population.

And having that population along with our African American population, it help breeds culture, and it builds community beyond the schools, to whereas we're bringing everybody into our world, because it's all about student achievement and student growth.

And if we get everybody on board, then we can make an impact.

Being the principal at Memphis Business Academy Elementary, one of the things that I love about the organization that we work for, is that we try to eliminate any barriers that may hinder a student from moving, or advance, or even learning.

We hire some of the best teachers.

We go out and research some of the best resources that we can provide students with the opportunity in order so they can be engaged with what we putting out in front of them.

Whenever we notice a barrier as an organization, we try to eliminate those barriers to the best extent possible, so that there is no restriction.

And so doing it that way, students are able to get the best quality of education that we can give them.

It doesn't matter, race, background, whatever.

You know, our goal is that we look at the student as those are our future leaders.

And then we don't even call them students, we call them executives, because we believe that, we are transforming them, that we are birthing something that is so special that goes beyond, you know, what they can even see at this particular point in their lives.

So it is all about just exposing them and just making sure that as an organization, making sure as a school leader, that I'm moving barriers that's restricting them from getting access to what they really need.

What puts a smile on my face as pastor and principal is to see the transformation and to hear the transformation.

To see that you're transforming lives, and to hear how you are impacting lives that you don't even know that you are impacting.

And so, that whole transformation, seeing the babies, seeing that light bulb go off in their head when they're learning, see the classroom loud and vibrant, seeing the people at the church, you know, as they're passing out food and blessing families, those things like that, you know, is really what puts a smile on my face.

It's not about me, it's what it's what I can do to be a service to somebody else.

[bright music] - They're an organization developing entrepreneurs, and minority and women-owned business enterprises.

We're here with the President and CEO of the Black Chamber of Memphis, Ernest Strickland.

You all recently had a name change.

Give us a little bit of history and some background for the Black Chamber of Memphis.

- So thanks for having me, Jeremy.

The Black Chamber of Memphis, we rebranded back in August as a part of our 50-year anniversary, and in collaboration with National Black Business Month.

We wanted to do a couple things.

We wanted to shift from the old model of the Black Business Association to take on a new structure, a new brand.

We realized that associations are more inward focused, you know, exclusively membership, and exclusively servicing the members.

But where we are, as a community, we felt that it was imperative for us to be both inward focused, but also how can we impact the broader economic climate and create greater impact in Memphis as a whole.

And so, shifting to a chamber model allows us to make that shift seamlessly.

- Talk about the programs, because it's education, it's advocacy, it's business development.

So go ahead and dive into what you do.

- So our theme is, how do we build greater wealth in the black community?

And that is, you know, some people may not understand that.

Some people may feel that it's being, you know, exclusive of other groups, but as we look at it, Memphis, with the population that we have, 65% African-American, if we are successful, when we are successful in accomplishing our mission, trust me, all of Memphis is a better place, because you can't have a robust economy with the level of poverty and with the gap in wealth and income.

And so, we're focused in an area that's critically important and vital for the Memphis community as a whole.

Our programs include, you know, targeting the restaurant community.

There are a lot of black businesses and entrepreneurs who first get their start with, you know, the restaurants and food service type of businesses.

So we created a program specifically targeting those groups.

It's called the BBA Business Booster.

Think about, you know, during the pandemic, we were all getting booster shots.

Well, businesses need a booster shot as well.

And this program is designed to do just that.

Participants are able to receive cohort-style environment, peer-to-peer networking.

We fly in a culinary consultant from Houston, who's been very successful in other markets, and we give them a $5,000 grant as a part of participating in this program.

And as a result, we've had four cohorts thus far.

We've dispersed about $150,000.

And our companies are telling us, you know, they're now able to look at hiring more people and be more intentional about the hiring.

We have one company, they're looking to give back and we're gonna partner with them on a giving initiative.

And so those are all of the outcomes that come with you know, helping these businesses be successful.

- Talk about the relational side to what you do.

It's about networking and opening up opportunities for business development.

So talk about the relational side.

- As a 18-year veteran in community development, economic development, I can assure you that it's all about relationships.

You know, that can be the death knell in a business.

We now call it social capital, but it's relationships, right?

And so, we for instance, we signed an MOU with the Greater Memphis Chamber, so that we can partner to explore ways in which we can support economic development efforts.

We share the same thing with our companies.

We actually are inside of the economic, the Entrepreneur Network Center, where we have the Tennessee Small Business Development.

We have City of Memphis Office of Community, Office of Business Diversity and Compliance, Operation Hope.

All of those are relationships that we've established and we've agreed to collaborate as much as possible.

And so we share the same sentiment with our businesses.

You know, how can you find strategic partners that have a similar goal and work with them, to ensure success of all parties.

- How can the community help your efforts?

- And so, you know, we changed our name to Black Chamber of Memphis, the acronym BCOM.

The community can BCOM a member, the community can BCOM an ambassador to our efforts.

The community can support our desire to create greater wealth in the black community.

Because, you know, in doing so, it's not only an economic development strategy, it's a health and wellness strategy, it's an education strategy.

And so, just getting everybody on board with understanding what we're doing and why we're doing it.

Our motivation is pure, we want Memphis to be that major metropolitan of the South, and a best practice that the nation can follow.

- Wrap up with where we can go to learn more about the Black Chamber of Memphis and carry this conversation forward.

- So our website is blackchamberofmemphis.org, blackchamberofmemphis.org.

You'll be able to find out what we're doing, how you can participate, and just keep up with everything that we're doing to support Memphis.

- Well, Ernest Strickland, President and CEO of the Black Chamber of Memphis, greatly appreciate all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you for having me.

[upbeat music] - When it comes to creating success in our lives, careers, and communities, it's all about support.

It takes the support of parents, teachers, coaches, mentors, investors, and leaders, who share their time, talents, and resources to help shape us and provide us with opportunities to grow and thrive.

We're fortunate to have so many organizations and individuals focused on providing support here in our city, helping our youth and adults pursue their education and development, launch and grow their businesses, find their passions and fulfillment, and become the leaders who then pay it forward to the next generation.

Organizations like tnAchieves are supporting students and helping them overcome barriers to successfully attend and graduate college, through scholarships, mentorship, and coaching.

Promise Academy Hollywood is leveraging support and training from New Leaders, to foster a culture where both teachers and students are excited to come to school and perform at the highest level, which is leading to academic gains and new opportunities for the students.

And the Black Chamber of Memphis is empowering and supporting entrepreneurs to achieve economic mobility and secure a brighter future by helping them acquire valuable business skills and make meaningful connections.

It's a reminder that when we're all about support, we're all about helping others and helping our community.

So where can you help power the good and become a Spark?

To learn more about each of the guests, to watch past episodes, and to share your stories of others leading by example, visit wkno.org and click on the link for The Spark.

We look forward to seeing you next month, and we hope that you'll continue joining with us to create a Spark for the Mid-South.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity, and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement, and leading by example to power the good.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sponsor of The Spark.

[bright music] [acoustic guitar chords]