- This and more, coming up on the Whitney Reynolds show.

- We built an algorithm.

That algorithm basically told us which 15 schools were gonna best benefit from our scholarship.

And we told the entire school, you are going to college for free.

Your college tuition, your room and board, your books and fees will be paid for.

You will go to college!

(students cheering) - [Announcer] The Whitney Reynolds Show is made possible by Simple Modern, drinkware with unique styles for adults and kids.

Take us with you.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Together at Peace, a foundation with a mission to generate financial support for hospitals, schools, and many charities that provide compassionate bereavement care and foster spiritual resilience.

We are here to inspire tangible moments and share the light of loved ones who have passed away, always doing good in their honor.

Children's Learning Place, a school for the earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child in uncovering the power of learning.

Our curriculum is centered around empowering young students with the confidence to overcome present, and future challenges to promote a brighter future for our youth and community.

The Adventures of the Harry Moon book series for kids that focuses on becoming your best self, with themes of friends, anti-bullying, and responsibility at harrymoon.org.

Kevin Kelly, joeperillo.com, Hi-Five Sports, Fumee Clair, Respiratory Health Association, Hearing Health Center, Mike Dyer with Edward Jones.

(light music) - Hello and welcome to the Whitney Reynolds Show.

We are so glad that you have found us.

Today, we are on an inspirational journey with dreamers, and we're gonna follow their path to finding their dreams.

Here, we believe your story matters.

(audience applauding) - Whatever the story is behind those scars, I think it's beautiful.

- I was that story, the one that needed a safe space.

- We can build a stage, speak life back into this community.

- So we created it.

- From this moment on, everything has changed.

- Just treat housing as a human right.

- When I was, I think, 15 months old, my mom adopted me.

- I've been transitioning for three and a half years, and I'm nowhere near being close to where I want to be.

(audience cheering) - Keep following your dreams.

Keep chasing what makes you happy.

I think that's the biggest thing.

Don't let anyone put you in a box.

- [Narrator] Our conversation with Britney Coleman from Broadway's the "Company" grew as we chatted, just like her contagious smile.

So often, we see dreams when they come to fruition because they hit the main stage.

But we wanted to know the journey that it took to get there.

- I think I've been in denial growing up a little bit.

I've always just wanted to tell a really meaningful story on stage and to have people leave the theater feeling differently than they did when they first walked in.

And I'm just really, really excited to be with this group of folks and telling our "Company" story across America.

Oh, my gosh, it's gonna be great.

- What's gotten you to get back up, stand up even in the rain or shine and keep going?

- Oh, I mean, I'll tell you this.

I was the understudy.

I was the understudy on Broadway.

Leading the tour was not on my radar.

Truly, it wasn't.

It was a fully surprise phone call.

- Wow.

- From the producer.

- [Whitney] What is her secret ingredient?

Well, we would say after our conversation, the word "tenacity," the quality or fact of being able to grip something firmly, and the dream is what she's gripping.

And she's not alone.

We met another Broadway star that's on the same path.

When did this Broadway dream catch you?

- It didn't happen at a young age.

Like I didn't even know that it was possible to even dream about something like this, let alone this caliber being here in Berwyn, Chicago and just like having a dream role like Aaron Burr be the thing that brought me here.

But the idea of being on Broadway, I would say officially called me, at the earliest, the first moment that I knew I wanted to be a performer was after my sophomore year of high school.

It takes a lot of hard work and it takes a chance and it takes an opportunity.

But all of that just sort of like seemed to be in the cards.

And then by 2019, I was in a Broadway show in Hamilton.

- In a Broadway show.

By 2019, I mean- - Yeah.

- [Whitney] Both of these dreamers had the courage to climb, and being the lead actors is quite an achievement, yet there is more in the making of their dream.

- I grew up youngest of six, single mom, and I'm also the only like performer in the family.

So like my mom definitely raised me singing in the church.

Oh, yeah.

- And that's how I got my start.

And I would say that she did all that she could.

And what she couldn't do, I had music teachers that were so influential and so pivotal in my upbringing, and they introduced me to my first musical.

They introduced me, and all of those, and my mom, paired with a couple of my music teachers, definitely saw something in me that I didn't quite see in myself.

- I had a teacher, an elementary school who came in, a music teacher who basically pulled me out of the ranks and said, "Hey, you've got a gift, and I would love for you to utilize it."

And I think that was the first time.

I was in third grade.

I was playing Mary in the Secret Garden, and I had no idea what musical theater was.

And I just knew I had a really good time with it.

And I've been chasing that ever since.

(laughs) - We heard about a story, a man who is making a whole school's dream come true.

Let's take a look.

- Your college tuition, your room and board, your books and fees will be paid for.

You will go college!

(students cheering) - Peter Cadence is paying it backwards.

He retired from all five of the businesses that he started, one of which is a major marijuana company raking in billions.

Instead of cruising down Easy Street at 40 when he retired, he's putting his money where his heart is.

When I think about what you're doing, it's this radical idea, but you don't believe it's radical.

- No.

- This is what you believe should just be opportunity.

- I believe it should be opportunity, but I believe it's necessary.

Only 20% of our black students who graduate from Chicago public schools are going on and graduate from college.

And you just cannot build a sustainable, equitable community with those data points.

It's just about making our city writ large a better ecosystem to support, equity in the support of these young, beautiful minority students.

- What about the people that say that we don't need a college education anymore?

- None of my programs that I've started in either Ohio or Illinois are mainstreaming children.

If a child wants to go become a police officer, we would advocate that they do not go to a four-year university if that's their dream.

We would advocate they go to one of the city colleges to get a two-year criminal justice degree, and then go to the academy when it's legal to do so at the age of 20.

So we don't want those kids necessarily to go to college.

It's not right for them.

Someone wants to make money right away, and they wanna get a welding certificate, and at 19, be making $65,000 a year, we fully support that.

The reality is, in almost any room I'm in and probably in almost any room you're in, when I look around with successful, smart people who have made a good deal of money and who have created generational wealth, and I ask the question, how many of you do not have a college degree?

I rarely have anyone who raises their hand.

Maybe one person.

And so what that says to me is, if we wanna change the communities that have been so disempowered by the weight of poverty, we have to work with them to create wealth.

- When you walk into a room in the different areas that you've been in, how do you gain trust?

- I was saying to a colleague of mine yesterday, the key to my style, I've taken two companies public, I've employed about 7,000 people from companies I've started.

Why, why me?

I think it's because my style is that of unwavering authenticity.

Like you may not like what I'm gonna say, but you're gonna know where I stand, and you're gonna know where I sit.

But I would rather people know where I'm at on a subject matter versus have them think I'm playing coy.

- Did you always have this deep-rooted love for humanity and giving back?

- My father was a teacher.

My mother was a 16-year elected official politician.

And while they weren't rich, they were civically engaged.

My father would always have the students over to his house, to our house who were Black or Latinx.

Their issues were so much more Darwinian, just about survival.

It wasn't about going to college, for example.

It was about just surviving to like make it to the next day and pay rent.

And for me, there was something curious about that and really intriguing about that.

And I just decided that if I ever made it in life, that I was gonna give back to those communities who've been hurt.

I looked at this and said, there were so many people in communities who suffered so I could succeed.

And there's that notion of what I call pay it forward.

Well, I'm busy focusing on paying it backward.

- [Whitney] Pete has pledged a huge chunk of his own money, hoping other entrepreneurs will do the same.

This is helping students' college dream become a reality.

- The perspective on how I view where I'm going to be in the future is so different from before.

I think a lot of children, especially minorities where I come from, they talk about moving out of Chicago.

Like we have to make it out of here.

Our parents are always telling us, like, you have to leave Chicago in order to follow your dreams.

But when Hope Chicago came and like basically made sure that our path was clear of any obstacles, it made me wanna stay in Chicago and give back to the community because they're serving me.

They think of me as an important piece.

- There was a high school in my community, my high school, my wife's high school was a mostly white, very high performing public high school.

Four and a half miles down the road, it wasn't all black all below the poverty line.

Worst performing school in the state of Ohio.

And I played basketball with those kids.

I was a high school basketball player.

And I got to know those kids and their families, and I saw the destruction that poverty played in their lives.

And it enraged me when I was a kid, because they were as talented, as intellectually capable as I was.

But they weren't thinking about going to college.

And I felt like if I ever had an opportunity, I was gonna go to that school, Scott High School in Toledo, Ohio.

And I was gonna walk in, and I was gonna tell them that they deserve this.

They are worthy.

And it was an incredible moment to be able to do that.

I would say short of my marriage and the birth of my three children, the most important moment of my life.

Many people are incredibly appreciative and have said remarkable things to me.

I never forget after that first incident, that first opportunity in Toledo to provide scholarships, the family come up to me and they said, "I just want you to know, you're the first white person to ever engage our family.

You're the first white person to ever believe that our family is worthy of this."

And that just hit me hard.

I mean, this is a 47-year-old woman who said this to me.

When you live in a community that is so downtrodden and so trauma filled, there's often not a real good rationale to be appreciative.

And many of these kids are not taught to be appreciative.

So I understand that now, and I understand that they are appreciative.

It's just that they may not be trained on how to say it.

Your college tuition, your room and board, your books and fees will be paid.

You'll go college.

(students cheering) Our model is a whole school model.

We don't cherry-pick kids.

I don't like cherry-picking kids.

There's lots of scholarship programs that can go to find high performing Black and Latinx kids in underserved communities who are getting 3.5 GPAs and send 'em to college.

That's not a win.

I mean, those kids are gonna go to college anyway, if I'm being honest.

What I like to do is figure out, what about that next tier down?

- Let's talk about success stories that have come out of the program.

- Crazy success.

In Toledo, Ohio, the high school I intervened with there is Scott High School.

The graduation rate from that school was about 15% in terms of college graduation rate.

My first cohort, they're seniors in college now, they're gonna graduate at about a 75% clip.

It's not just incremental change, it's literally exponential 4 and 5x.

The year before I went and started giving these scholarships up, I taught in the highest murder rate zip code in the state of Illinois.

The first day I walked in, there were 21 kids in my first class, all Black, all below the poverty line.

And I asked them, "How many of you have been impacted by gun violence?"

Of the 21, 14 raised their hands, two thirds of the class.

- Wow.

- The next question I ask is, how many of you wanna come back to Chicago when you become successful?

And 2 of the 21 raised their hands.

That told me basically all I needed to know.

What we are literally doing right now is we are catalyzing a brain drain.

We are taking these kids who have been scarred by what's happening in their orbit in Chicago.

And if they can make it to college and they can make it out of here, they ain't coming back.

And that is not how to build a great ecosystem.

- What's next for you?

- I speak around the country.

I like that.

I like engaging audiences.

Particularly, I like engaging rich white people to help them think about this notion that I talk about all the time, which is the more generous I am, the wealthier I get.

I feel wealthier in love.

I feel wealthier in relationships.

And by the way, just as an aside, when I took one of my companies public, I remarked that I felt very bank account rich.

And at the same moment, in a very juxtaposed way, I felt very relationship poor.

And I don't wanna be a relationship poor.

When you give and you say to the world, "I'm rich but I'm giving up my wealth for society," it sends a signal that I should do that too.

I hope that happens.

- Well, thank you so much for coming on.

- Thanks for having me.

Appreciate it.

- Next up, we have a familiar face when it comes to cooking.

We met up with Chef Art Smith and wanted to know more behind his dream kitchen.

- I'm known as like the melon queen and the cake queen, but I'm not that royal, okay?

- The king of the kitchen, Chef Art Smith is living the dream, cooking for celebrities, humanitarians, and even presidents, all while running a successful business that includes six restaurants, cookbooks, cooking competition shows, and two nonprofits.

You are doing it all.

And we could not do this show without mentioning a man that has really climbed so many different tier, and we're making a tier cake, but also is giving back in so many different ways.

- Well, honey, a little food goes a long way.

Food is love, food is diplomacy, food is peace.

You got a problem?

Feed them.

- Yeah.

- If the problem still exists, keep feeding them.

- I love that.

- And if you really want to get the problem out of your life, out of your hair, you just keep feeding 'em.

And I'm gonna tell you something, you'll see some really good attitude adjustment.

- Oh, well, you're gonna have to roll me out here about that.

I'm gonna have to loosen the belt by the time I get out of here.

- I've taken care of governors and presidents and rock stars and celebrities, and they put it this way.

They weren't all pretty, but little food made 'em pretty.

- Made them, it goes a long way.

So what now?

This is one of the things that you are known for with your restaurant Reunion.

- Well, honey, I didn't invent it.

I just made it famous.

- Okay, now.

- Okay, this goes true.

It came from the Bible called Southern Living.

But a dear friend of mine, Susan Levin, a really lovely woman, taught me how to make it.

And then I just took it a step further and then I gave my little touches to it.

It served as the birthday cake from Oprah, Dr. Maya Angelou, Lady Gaga, Angela Bassett.

I've lost count.

Barack Obama, we did a huge cake for him.

- And now, it's on the Whitney Reynolds show.

- Now, it's on the Whitney Reynolds show.

- [Whitney] He's not alone in his aspirations.

In fact, he's taking others along with him in his business and in giving back.

- Get you some bananas and you just wanna mash 'em up.

You want some good ripe bananas, okay?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

'Cause the green ones don't have the flavor, so just kind of, you know.

You know when you're at home where you forget about 'em and they're like, they're almost there and that's what you want.

- You even make the mashing look easy.

- Well, honey, I'm mashing bananas, okay?

And you know what's funny?

I'm from the south, and southern people, they eat a lot of banana pudding, which I'm probably the only one that does not.

But I've always loved hummingbird.

Hummingbird, many people will look it up.

The recipe usually has like pecans and stuff in it.

And I don't like the nuts in it because quite frankly, there are people that are allergic.

- Yes, a lot of people.

- Okay.

So you just dump that in there like that, okay?

Simple, all right?

- I feel like I gotta help you with something.

- Well, you will.

- Okay.

- Here, spoon.

- Spoon, take a whip?

- Yeah.

You can move it around, yeah.

And then the next thing we're gonna do, we're gonna add about half a can with the juices of crushed pineapple.

And you wanna use can.

I've used fresh.

We've done it in the islands and it's delicious.

But the canned one is the best, okay?

All right, so the next thing you're gonna do is you're gonna add three eggs.

You see what we're doing?

- Yeah.

- Okay, add eggs with that and we're good, okay?

- Okay, whip, whip.

- Okay, it's very simple.

Now, this part, you can either use oil or applesauce.

We're using oil today.

Just you wanna use about, I'm gonna say a cup.

Okay, don't squinch.

You're gonna say, "Can I use butter?"

No, just use a bit of sunflower oil, okay?

- Now, is the apple applesauce a healthier alternative?

- Yeah, it is.

- But we're still making a cake at the end of the day.

- Exactly, right.

And then what we're gonna do now is we're gonna reach over here and grab a bowl, and we're gonna take simple as this.

I'm gonna add the sugar down.

Add that in there too, okay?

- Oh, wow.

- All right?

The next thing I wanna do is add the flour, okay?

I'm gonna add some baking powder.

I'm gonna add some cinnamon, and I'm gonna add some salt.

And then it's add a little vanilla in there.

Put that in there too, okay?

- One thing that's making this so great is that it was all prepped for.

Do you recommend people do that before they start cooking?

- I always recommend it.

And I never realized that making Michelle Williams a Destiny Child's birthday cake would turn into 18, 19 years of, look, just pleasant and lovely fun.

Okay, add the flour.

- Wow.

- Anyway, so you just take that.

You see how I'm being delicate?

- Oh, yeah.

- And don't be mixing it like you be mixing pancake batter.

You gotta do it really delicate, okay?

So it makes that good.

- You're teaching me a lot right now, because I would be stirring like crazy.

- And there you have it.

And you just kind of move that around like that.

It does help too.

If you have issues with cakes sticking, it does help to put some parchment on the bottom.

You're gonna do flour a little bit.

That's the other thing.

The pans were all buttered and floured.

Very, very important.

You're gonna put those in an oven about 350 degrees, and you're gonna bake them.

And what you're gonna do, you're gonna, once about 30 to 20 minutes, put a toothpick in it.

If it comes out still a little moist, you'll wanna take it out because it'll get too dry.

And there you have it, we're gonna bake those and poof, with magic, we're gonna have a baked cake.

- And we have our final product almost.

- Yes.

- Out of the oven.

- Right, and what we've done is we've pre-baked the cakes, and we made a cream cheese icing.

Everybody loves cream cheese icing.

It's cream cheese, butter, vanilla.

Delicious, okay?

Really easy to make.

People love it.

You put a little blop in the middle there, okay?

And then what you wanna do is always keep your tool clean there.

Just like that.

It makes a big difference.

- Now, while you're spreading this, because I know we have layers to keep spreading, I wanna go back to what you've done outside of the kitchen because you are an advocate for so many.

When people talk about you outside of your bio, what do you want them to say about your legacy?

- We created a national children's program.

It's in nine states.

We have half a million kids.

It's called Common Threads.

You can go to commonthreads.org.

You know why I'm happy here?

We're in Chicago, but I'm in all the boroughs in New York City, do you know that?

- Tell me about Common Threads.

- Common threads- - What's the mission?

- Simple: teach a kid how to cook.

They cook, they create that same piece, that beauty.

- [Whitney] And just like his vision has evolved over the years, so has his flavor for life and love for food.

- Now, you wanna turn- - Turn it upside down?

- Yep, like that.

- Okay.

- All right, now put that on, center it.

- Center.

- Okay.

- Now see, this does look so fancy.

- It is fancy.

What's fancy is having you here and let's make it with you, okay?

So what should, this is called, this is kind of like you.

If you really want it perfect in terms of the way it looks on the outside, but quite honestly, who cares about that?

Because then no one will believe you made it.

So just take it and just take it, and you wanna just kind of ice the sides.

- Oh, wow.

- And some people do that, and then they put it in the fridge, and so that makes it better.

But anyway, Whitney, I love food.

I love people more, and I love bringing people together for the greater good, enjoying delicious food.

But through that, I always say, you feed 'em, you got 'em.

I don't do a business deal without food.

- Oh, you have to have food there.

- Right, I sold my first book, "Back to the Table" with a hummingbird cake.

I sold a restaurant at Walt Disney World with a hummingbird cake, 'cause I always say, if you wanna know what I'm about, what I taste like, have a piece of this cake, and I'll tell you all about it.

Again, there's a lot of people that cook.

- Well, thank you so much- - It's a pleasure.

I'd kiss you, but I'd probably put half the icing on you.

Thank you.

- (laughs) Thank you.

Next up, these dreamers take us on their beautiful love story.

Let's take a look.

- [Photographer] Okay.

Okay, good.

- God, it feels unbelievable since we got engaged.

- It was fun.

I've been wanting to do this.

- For me, like I didn't know what to expect, but for me, it's when I got dream come true.

- [Whitney] Matthew and Lucia were set up by their parents and have been dating since 2013.

Their connection was a dream come true for both of them and their families.

- Even though it may take us longer to achieve our dreams, but Lucia Romano, will you do me the greatest honor of marrying me?

- Oh, my God.

It's a yes, baby.

It's gonna be a yes.

- For me, I knew I loved her since the very first date in 2013.

But I knew she was (instinct) for me years later.

I wanted her to be with me every single time.

And I was crying.

And I realized that at that moment, I realized she was the wife of me.

- It was one of my big dreams.

So yeah, someday, I would like to get married.

So here we are.

- I knew she was gonna say yes because my mindset was, if she said yes to be my girlfriend in 2015, why not her saying yes again?

So that was my philosophy.

- [Whitney] Although the wedding date has not been set yet, they are so excited to move forward together with their extraordinary love story.

- My dream of marrying her is coming to reality.

We are here to change the way the world views down syndrome.

- Today's guest captured the passion behind the dream.

Remember, your story matters.

(light music) - [Announcer] The Whitney Reynolds Show is made possible by Simple Modern, drinkware with unique styles for adults and kids.

Take us with you.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Together at Peace, a foundation with a mission to generate financial support for hospitals, schools, and many charities that provide compassionate bereavement care and foster spiritual resilience.

We are here to inspire tangible moments and share the light of loved ones who have passed away, always doing good in their honor.

Children's Learning Place, a school for the earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child in uncovering the power of learning.

Our curriculum is centered around empowering young students with the confidence to overcome present and future challenges to promote a brighter future for our youth and community.

The Adventures of the Harry Moon book series for kids that focuses on becoming your best self, with themes of friends, anti-bullying, and responsibility at harrymoon.org.

Kevin Kelly, joeperillo.com, Hi-Five Sports, Fumee Claire, Respiratory Health Association, Hearing Health Center, Mike Dyer with Edward Jones.

- [Narrator] Want to stay connected to all things Whitney Reynolds?

Well, follow us on social media, and you'll get exclusive content and updates from the show.

All episodes are available for streaming anytime.

- [Kids] Our mommy.

(laughs) (light music)