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[00:00:00] Kelly Cherwin: Today, we're fortunate to be talking with Tyrone E Couey, who is a founding member and president of the National Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Alumni Association's Foundation. Ty, please tell us a little about the foundation and the current work you do with the HBCUs.

[00:00:15] Tyrone E. Couey: Sure. Our foundation was founded in 2010 as an LLC originally.

And in 2016 we became a 501C3 turned ourselves into a foundation since we were primarily dealing with educational institutions, historically black colleges and universities, as well as many of our potential investors, donors prefer dealing more so with a nonprofit than for-profit. So, we made that switch and actually things have really been booming over the past two years during the pandemic.

Our real success has taken place during the past two years, financially and support from [00:01:00] industry and the nonprofit sector as well.

[00:01:02] Kelly Cherwin: Thanks Ty. So, can you please expand a little bit more on what you do with the HBCUs?

[00:01:08] Tyrone E. Couey: Sure, what we do. We seek out different resources for our HBCUs, our alumni students from corporate America.

We run interference. We act as a clearing house for many organizations that indicate that they're interested in inclusiveness, diversity, finding qualified students. We as an organization, we represent a little over 5 million graduates of HBCUs. So, we can find any type of person from an astronaut to a chemist, to a gym teacher, you name it, professional football player.

We can find those sort of graduates from our HBCUs. Where that clearing house for any sort of industry that's looking to engage our HBCUs. We vet them very carefully before we [00:02:00] provide the connection information to that particular entity that they may be interested in.

[00:02:05] Kelly Cherwin: It sounds like you are doing a lot of important work.

So, following up more on the HBCUs, and I know this might be a, a lot to summarize in a few minutes, but can you just give us an update on where HBCUs have been over the past decade and where we're at now?

[00:02:19] Tyrone E. Couey: Well, over the past decade, I guess they've been in the same position that they were when they were first started.

Underfunded, under supported, but they rise. They continue to move forward. They create wonderful students, wonderful graduates, because of that a lot of industry is coming to our organization, looking for these students. Within the past, I would say two years, last year, especially after the George Floyd incident, many organizations have been really working with our organization as well as seeking out historically black colleges and universities.

Many [00:03:00] donors have provided large sums of funds that we've read about pressure. We've all read about some of the spouses of some of the richest people in the world have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to HBCUs to assist them. And some of the shortfalls that oftentimes the federal government has not provided.

Well, I shouldn't say that they have provided, but the states have not provided those funds that the federal government have provided to many of our public HBCUs, but instead have given that money to predominantly white institutions. But the alumni that are in the HBCUs are still teaching great students, uh, creating the best and brightest students that you can find on the planet.

So HBCUs will continue to survive. We're more concerned about them thriving with the appropriate resources from the state governments, as well as the federal government [00:04:00] being very intentional. As they've been very intentional and not funding our HBCUs.

[00:04:05] Andrew Hibel: I think that's actually a really, really nuanced point for people to understand.

When you look at systemic inequities, this is case in point of things that we, as a society need to work on. When you look at systemic inequities, it's so important whether it's celebrating veterans on veterans day or in this case, black history month, where we've spent these days before honoring people and raising awareness.

I think it's really important to also think about while public funds are absolutely the engine that drive so many institutions in academia. The private funds that are raised is what provides that margin of excellence for organizations to go from being good to being great. I know as part of a foundation that represents a group of alumni associations at HBCUs, raising funds must be really important.

And we'd really love to encourage people who listen to the podcast, that if you're going to do something [00:05:00] this month, that maybe considering a gift to an organization like yours would be a great way to not only raise awareness and further your education on the subject, but also do something to help and make a difference.

If somebody was inclined to make a gift, where would you encourage them to go to do that?

[00:05:16] Tyrone E. Couey: They can come to our website, which is www.nhbcuaa.org. Or they can call me directly (301) 537-3917.

[00:05:34] Kelly Cherwin: Ty, can you tell us some hot button issues that your foundation has been working on over the past few years?

[00:05:39] Tyrone E. Couey: Sure Kelly. We've been working on some real significant issues, actually three key ones. And luckily I have our vice president. Who's really the brains behind that, but I'll just briefly mention that we have been engaged getting, uh, the students out to vote, helping them to register. [00:06:00] Primarily in the state of North Carolina over the past year or two, we've had great success with that.

We've also worked with the census bureau to get folks out for the 2020 census. And as we all know in this great state of North Carolina due to some of our work. We won't take all the credit, but they did receive an additional congressional representative in the great state of North Carolina. And I think a lot of that was predicated on many of the HBCU students that we engage with the importance of getting engaged with the systems.

And when you look at the millennials, and the generation Z students, that's the largest voting block that we have in this nation. So we've been pushing a lot of the training that we've created for our alumni association into actual practice to see how it works. And we've had great successes by doing that in the state of North [00:07:00] Carolina so much so that one of the largest, HBCU organizations, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund came to us based on our success and getting students registered and created a partnership with us this past summer.

But I’ll cause for a moment since Richard is the key person within our organization have been managing that process. So, Richard would you like to address that?

[00:07:25] Richard DeWitt Smith: Certainly President Couey short and sweet, what Ty is describing is affectionately called our HBCU student ambassador, voter registration, education mobilization, and get out the vote project.

Uh, we started it in 2020 with the presidential election. We got funding to run two pilot sites. We actually ran three pilot sites for that year and each HBCU had five student ambassadors per school to actually take on the task of student education for voter education registration, and to [00:08:00] mobilize them to get off the boat.

And from those activities, as Ty alluded, our affiliation with the census bureau and some grassroot nonprofits, we were able to improve the voting participation for our students at these HBCUs. On average, about 10% across the board, uh, very aggressive targeting activity where this is a project run by students managed by students.

The work is done by students on campus, specifically looking at their student population to determine what students are actually registered to vote. And then building registration education campaigns around that to get them registered and then motivate them to actually go vote. So, we added to that mix in 2020 nine early voting sites, which were staffed by students to actually be a guide of information for voters coming to the polls on how to vote, where to vote, what the issues are, et cetera. And then we moved from those three pilot schools in 2020 to actually [00:09:00] six HBCUs in ‘21 to ‘22 in the state of North Carolina, we have 10, four year HBCUs, Tthat's why we chose North Carolina. We now have six of the HBCUs running and looking to expand to the other three or four, uh, as we move forward and then expansion beyond North Carolina students.

So that's what Ty was speaking to. And we're very excited about that. So student engagement, pathways as Ty alluded, twofold education for voter registration, civic engagement, and scholarship funds. And then employment is the other student engagement track that we are promoting and supporting with our activities in North Carolina.

[00:09:38] Andrew Hibel: So Richard, just so we make sure we have your name and your position, correct. Introduce yourself and explain what you do and who you are. Also the work that you all are doing with Sherman Williams and the League of Southeastern credit unions.

[00:09:53] Richard DeWitt Smith: My name is Richard Smith. I currently serve as the vice president for the foundation. I wear many hats [00:10:00] specifically of late the student engagement project activity that I spoke to earlier, which does include two parts, education and scholarships and second one is employment. And the company's engagements that we launched this past year because they called us and said they wanted to create a pipeline connection to our HBCUs.

So, we actually have three of them in motion today. You mentioned two of them. The other one would be called flex tech. Flex tech group is a, uh, corporate entity that's in the business of, uh, selling copiers, printers, supplies. That also wants to join us in this, this journey of working with our HBCUs and supporting students and employing students.

Uh, so those are the two primary, uh, areas that I'm focused on today. And when I have another free moment, I do fundraising, marketing, uh, and other things as assign depending on what we're going, we're a very flat organization. So, we were many. [00:11:00] So Ty and I talk constantly morning, noon, and night, and sometimes weekends too.

So we were, you know, very, very busy, but, uh, passion, labor of love working with our HBCUs. And if I didn't say it, I hail from the great university of North Carolina Central University. That's the maroon and gray branding you see on my right side, your left. And then our foundation banner, uh, on my left, I keep these up at all times so that people know that I represent these two organizations, I'm a proud graduate of NCCU uh, former national alumni association president. And that's why Ty invited me to the party, so to speak.

[00:12:18] Andrew Hibel: That was a, that that definitely served up the first part of it. And, uh, I can tell you from the recruitment industry that we're in writ large, not just HigherEdJobs, I can tell you that there's night and day difference over the past two years that we in academia have done a better job to call it ‘Good’ I think is difficult.

This is not a question, this is more of a comment talking about diversity, equity and inclusion, not just the hiring process, but in the work that people do. There's some academic institutions, I believe who have taken it and understand why it's good for their organization. End of discussion. But what you're seeing [00:13:00] more broadly in recruitment, you're seeing lots of corporations, the size of the ones that you're discussing here, who are taking things in a different seriousness than they did three years ago.

And I think that that's a wonderful direction that you all are doing was definitely something that I found amazingly interesting personally, and want to learn more and continue to learn more. Just one last question. The PWI partnership between Fort Valley State and Utah state, what specifically is that partnership?

Is that on the student side or on the employment side?

[00:13:30] Tyrone E. Couey: It covers the whole gamut. It's a concept that I came up with after January 6th. Uh, what we witnessed at the capital, I realized that, uh, our nation was really in trouble and I felt as though, and I bounced it off of Richard, I normally bounce everything off of Richard.

And he normally bounces it back to me, but we thought that by getting an HBCU a historically black college and university, which we were [00:14:00] connected to the PWI being Utah state University, my Alma Mater, that's where I went to undergrad. We worked closely with fought Valley State University there in Georgia with, uh, President Dr. Paul Jones. We worked very closely with the president at Utah State Dr. Noelle Cockett and brought these two leaders together, explained the importance of coming up with a holistic inclusionary program at colleges and universities that could be a national international model. The acronym is hip, HIP. They liked the concept. And this was, uh, it started a year ago this month during black history month when I was asked to be on a panel at Utah State, and I challenged the leadership of Utah State that although they were being inclusive, they had to be much more [00:15:00] intentional. We had to deal with issues that were really real, that most Americans were not aware of, such as, uh, the vital part that HBCUs played in winning world war II with the Tuskegee Airmen, and many of the HBCUs that were involved in that, as well as our race to space against the Russians. How the HBCUs and many women math majors played a vital part in coming up with the algorithm to go to a space that there's been recent movies, but God we've never heard of this in schools.

So we have to really deal with the truth about our history. So all children will understand what's going on, who really contributed to this nation's wealth and greatness from the first 300 years of this nation's wealth dealing with cotton the last hundred years, dealing with [00:16:00] the oil industry. As far as wealth in this nation and what people help in that endeavor.

So at any rate, I got the attention of both of these leaders. They thought it was a great idea. And they're working now, as we speak during this month, it took them a year after I presented the concept, the idea, the outline that both of their teams from both schools have been working together and they're going to ultimately have an exchange of the president's exchanging to the schools.

The board of directors exchanging, the students exchanges, and really making a real difference because when you work with people and get to know people, things are a lot different than what we hear about people. You know, I'm proud to say, I went to Utah State, you got a chance to meet a lot of Mormon folks.

Many people may have one view of Mormon [00:17:00] people because perhaps they've never met them. As, you know, a lot of people have one view of black people because they've never met them but once you begin to engage young people together, that's when we have the changes. And that's what we've been attempting to do with our organization recently because the opportunities have opened up with industry really trying to be inclusive and coming to our organization.

As I had mentioned earlier to run interference. The, uh, HBCUPWI program is up, it's running and we're looking for Utah State, Fort Valley State University to bring it home for this wonderful nation that we live in. That's part of the, uh, program that we started with, uh, an HBCU, and a PWI.

[00:17:49] Andrew Hibel: That was fantastic. Thank you, Ty, for sharing with us about that extremely important program. The use of dialogue between parties is so very important. Richard, [00:18:00] would you be able to share with our listeners the work that you all are doing with employment firms, like the Sherwin Williams paint company, the league of Southeastern credit union, and the flex tech group?

[00:18:10] Richard DeWitt Smith: Certainly. Excellent question. Thank you for asking. The gist of it is this activity under student employment falls under what we affectionately call SEEM, student employment, engagement, and mentoring. And what that looks like is that students are going to college to further their education in a particular discipline.

And they're going to become a practitioner in something upon graduation. And so this is designed to talk about the destination of the student, walking with them from freshman through graduation and on to employment or higher education, whatever that destination is. And from an employment perspective, the three companies you listed are part of this activity to say that this will be a destination for them when they graduate in their respective discipline to be that [00:19:00] practitioner for in business or in science or in education, whatever that might be. So we operate in this space under what we call the SEEM, student employment, engagement and mentoring.

And with that, it's about employment. It's about engaging the students. It's about mentoring too. They need to speak to someone who has done it or is doing it a big brother, a big sister, or just to ask a very intelligent question. How did you get here? What did you do? I often participate in what we call motivational task force activities with my Alma mater, where I go into the classroom and present myself as a testimony.

Once upon a time, I was a student sitting in the seat your in and answer questions. How did I figure it out? Who helped me get there? And so we offered that as a, kind of a, a support arm as well. We are certainly staying busy in this discussion. Our contact with our alumni association allows us to plug into the network if we need to speak to someone in a particular [00:20:00] discipline in a particular part of the country, we do that, uh, as needed and connect folks. So we can have dialogue, be very intentional, and assist our students in making sure that the educational journey is fulfilling. It is impactful and that they can look at gainful employment upon graduation, because I've said this more than once and unemployed or an underemployed graduate is going to be hard for us to be an outstanding alumni, to support the university and, or join their alumni association and, or support us.

So if we can help them. They will remember that and be more engaged, more receptive and be a lifelong loyal alumni once they get there. And I can speak as a testimony to that. Everything I just described to you, I benefited from my journey through NCCU to gainful employment as a student with co-ops and internships, and then permanent employment.

And I've been dedicated, committed to NCCU [00:21:00] ever since, uh, graduation. So it does. Someone invested in me. So we need to invest in them for the future. And I'll end on this note that our students really are our future. And because of student engagement, we are enjoying the benefits of what happened in the sixties.

So one of our initiatives is say, okay, we need to re-energize that concept invest in students so that they are leading the conversation because as you all would very know that adults who are gainfully employed are a little more risk adverse than students in terms of being very outspoken and engaging.

So students certainly want them to be very well educated and very aggressive, to not afraid to take risks and pursue those careers that they, they want. And no longer talk about glass ceilings and barriers to success. And then we wanna try to help facilitate that as much as we can. So that's what the SEEM is designed to do.

And we don't pretend to have all the [00:22:00] answers, but we give a little and we try to, you know, make a difference as we move through this. And so far so good.

[00:22:05] Andrew Hibel: I think that was extremely helpful at the end of the day, your institution of any variety, if it's not delivering employment opportunity, post-graduation, that the student feels is commensurate with the energy and the resources that they've put into their studies and acquired this knowledge and these skills. It may be that you've done a bunch of different things as an institution that are extremely worthy, but to that student, the experience has not met the expectations that they had for their experience.

I think that that's extremely helpful. Coming back to, Ty, the dialogue that you were discussing between Utah state and Fort Valley State University. The dialogue between folks has a amazing ability to break down barriers. One of the understated benefits of college athletics is also that same ability for alumni and [00:23:00] students to have that shared experience, to have those shared experiences between institutions having something that the college community has experience together being on a college campus of any variety on a football Saturday in the fall when the weather is much different than right now. And having people excited about the promise of a new academic year is a shared experience that no matter where you went is something that, uh, makes a difference. In your experience there is a large tradition of athletics within HBCUs. How important is it to your member organizations as well as the alumni that they serve to have that shared experience in 2022?

[00:23:40] Tyrone E. Couey: Well, I think it's one of the greatest experiences that I personally have witnessed at any college or university during football season, during homecoming. The bands are just amazing. It's just, uh, a whole different world. Unlike my personal [00:24:00] experience, although I was playing football at the time, and of course you didn't see the band, but now since I'm an alum of Utah State and I go back and I see the bands, it's like day and night. So it's, it's nice when you can blend these two entities, sharing what one band is doing at an HBCU what one band is doing at a PWI, uh, what students are doing and students all as you've articulated all doing the same thing when it comes to the football season, the change of the weather, just young people, exchanging ideas, the hopes, the dreams. And that's why they have these great professors at the HBCUs and great coaches providing these young people with these opportunities.

And of course, scholarships are important. One thing that, uh, I hope Richard may touch on is the scholarships that we help direct 25 scholarships from an entity. [00:25:00] Can I mention the name, Richard? The Renaissance.

[00:25:04] Richard DeWitt Smith: Oh, certainly go ahead. Yeah, please.

[00:25:07] Tyrone E. Couey: Well, around January of last year, uh, they came to us, uh, looking for what schools that they could, uh, intentionally give 25 scholarships to.

And we came up with three suggested schools, North Carolina Central University, Hampton University, and Stillman College. And that's been going on for a year. And we'll be going back to them to see if they're ready to expand that, because at one point they had indicated they would like to provide hundreds of scholarships to our HBCUs.

So we're just very excited about organizations like the Renaissance, like Sherwin Williams paint company, the League of Southeast and Credit Unions just, uh, Flex Tech. We're just very [00:26:00] excited and we have quite a few others that's being vetted that have come to us. Just making sure that they're real because our schools really don't have a whole lot of time to waste with something that's not real.

Things are really looking up at our HBCs. Richard, you may want to go into a greater detail.

[00:26:19] Richard DeWitt Smith: What I would add is that, uh, each of the three companies that we're talking to now bring with them a set of scholarship offerings as well. So. We're gonna talk to all HBCUs in the state of Georgia and Alabama under the league of South Eastern Credit Union, they wanna set up a scholarship account with each one of those 18 HBCUs in those two states.

So as Ty mentioned, we had 25 originally with the Renaissance foundation. Now add these three companies to it and that's gonna be a one to 18 multiplier across those HBCUs and Ty said there are others that are approaching us as well, that we're gonna try to do the same thing from an investment [00:27:00] for education as part of the conversation and the journey these students are on.

I would add that to the conversation.

[00:27:06] Tyrone E. Couey: And the great thing about that is that when you do the research, as far as why students at HBCUs and probably at any school dropout is because of funding, lack of funding. So this mechanism of these scholarships is reducing a lot of those issues that will help with retention of students at HBCUs.

So we're very excited about it.

[00:27:30] Kelly Cherwin: I have a final question. And actually it's a, both a statement and a question I want to compliment you both on the work you're doing. I must say one of the best parts of my job is I get to meet people like you, and I'm inspired by your stories. I could tell by just what you said are dedicated and inspired.

And both of you Ty and Richard are saying how you bounce ideas off of each other and your passion and dedication truly show. And I know you kept using the word exciting and I, I agree. You are both making exciting things happen on college campuses. [00:28:00] You're talking about scholarships and moving things forward, which I think is so important.

So, moving into my question, it's a career related question. If I were to ask you your elevator speech, why you do the work you do, what would you each say?

[00:28:12] Tyrone E. Couey: I would say I have one life to give, and I'd rather give that life to HBCUs and this great nation that we live.

[00:28:20] Richard DeWitt Smith: My humble beginning is I was taught as a child to serve, your testimony to be what did I do for mankind while I was on planet earth?

And when I understood the, the religious teachings, my time on earth, uh, I just thought about it in simple terms. If I do all that I can for the goodness of mankind and say that my life made a difference that I added value to someone's journey as I went through. That testimony that when it's time for me to approach the pearly gates and I meet St. Peter, I wanted him to open the book and said, yes, your name is here. We've been waiting for you. Sorry to pull you off before you were ready to go, but it's time to come [00:29:00] and rest and be a part of this community. I do it because it was given to me as a child for my parents, my neighborhood, my village, that we should be about serving others, helping others along the way, and making a difference.

And the question should be easily stated from someone he made a difference because he lived, he'll be missed because he was a contributor not just pass through and didn't take, he didn't take and, and not give, I wanna be remembered for that and such the, the talents discussion. I wanna take things in multiplied and, you know, be a contributor to it, not a taker only I got a limited time on planet earth. I'm having fun. I'm doing what I love to do. I'm working with people who I love, and this is important work. So I, I will give it my all as long as I can. And certainly upon allow passage to the Pearly gates. I'll try to continue that there and certainly, uh, smile upon the, the, and say, let's continue this great works. Sorry for the longer answer, then short, but just what, what we do.

[00:29:59] Kelly Cherwin: Thank you so much, [00:30:00] truly you are both inspiring. And I, I mean it, I really appreciate the work that you do.

[00:30:03] Richard DeWitt Smith: Thank you.

[00:30:04] Andrew Hibel: Thank you, Ty. Thank you Richard, for just some wonderful insights, some amazing programs and some real food for thought for folks who want to make a difference and care about seeing the world and tackling some of the most important things that face our communities today.