It's Where I Am with Zandra Polard

Kevin Krall 0:00
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Unknown Speaker 0:50
Good morning, Las Vegas, it's Sondra Bhullar. It's where I am. Thank you for tuning in to 91.5 Jazz and warm welcome if you know me, you've got to know my guest today. She's a wonderful friend, person, mentor of mine shaitaan a Nelson. She is our company is the finest our PR firm. So she is a publicist. But she is also an advocate for human trafficking. So if you've seen my show a couple of times that you know that she is you know, actively working as a human rights. We're human and slavery. She's got a lot of titles, always long. Okay. So she has a lot of titles and they're always really long. But, you know, I'm gonna let her break it down. She's a great person. She's working with her community out in Houston, as she visits Vegas from time to time. She's been at a couple of my women conferences that I've had here at UNLV St. Donna, thank you for joining us today.

Unknown Speaker 2:12
Thank you so much for having me again. It's always a pleasure.

Unknown Speaker 2:16
Hey, you're attached at the hip now.

Unknown Speaker 2:20
It feels like it right.

Unknown Speaker 2:21
I so appreciate you. But you know, you've got some great clients. You work with some people?

Unknown Speaker 2:31
Yeah, I do. I get the wreck with some of the best people in the country all the time. Wow. So

Unknown Speaker 2:36
you have a young lady today, who was the daughter of Eric Thomas, the motivational speaker. And he has a foundation called the school days foundation with Eric Thomas. Right. So let's welcome Jada Thomas. To the show, Jada?

Unknown Speaker 3:01
Hello. Hello, ladies. Hey, thanks for

Unknown Speaker 3:03
joining the show today.

Unknown Speaker 3:07
Thank you for having me. It's always an honor.

Unknown Speaker 3:09
Man. You know, it's so important our youth, right? The things that we do the way that we shape and mold them and prepare them for the for the future. So your dad's foundation? Tell us more

Unknown Speaker 3:24
about it? Absolutely. So the school day foundation with Eric Thomas was founded in 2014. And really, he founded this for 16 year old Eric Thomas right. At a point he was struggling with decision making, he was struggling with some of his emotional social needs, and also just overall during a very pivotal time making appropriate decisions. And so what he lacked, he definitely wanted to provide for kids between the ages of 14 and 18. Of what he didn't have, he wanted to be able to provide that same support for what he needed within the school system. So that's how he created the school days foundation to definitely add that emotional, definitely social and decision making skills within these schools.

Unknown Speaker 4:15
Yes, because, you know, our decision making especially as young adults, it's our prefrontal lobe is not completely developed until about age 25. I think it is 2125, something like that. So it's great that there's mentorship and leadership, to help the youth, you know, guide help to guide them in those decision making processes, right.

Unknown Speaker 4:46
I completely agree. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 4:47
So how is that done? Like, what do you guys do to help, you know, to help them to make better decisions, and what type of decisions and education and so So settings.

Unknown Speaker 5:02
Absolutely. So we definitely have four centralized focus to help support these underrepresented students. The first, for example, would be our youth exposure program. So what that does is definitely get students acclimated with cultures, different from their own as of recently, we just took the students to the Super Bowl and Dubai. Also we have literacy.

Unknown Speaker 5:29
Slow down, slow down. So you're not just taking these kids to, you know, a college tour, you're taking them out of the country. Wow. Wow, what was Dubai? Like? I've never been there.

Unknown Speaker 5:45
Absolutely, it was amazing. I mean, the kids got to experience just a whole different culture, I think that they definitely made an impact on how they viewed their opportunities, their networking skills as overall, just how exposed they were able to be. So I think it definitely made an overall impact on the students. And so for me, that's definitely all that matters.

Unknown Speaker 6:09
You know, and then just, you know, to see that cultural difference, you know, my husband went to Dubai, to Dubai. And then just seeing everyone that's close, very differently from you and covered, you know, that's got to be a culture shock in itself.

Unknown Speaker 6:27
Absolutely. And finding out the history as to why that is, I think definitely engaged. More. So that's a great point. Wow.

Unknown Speaker 6:35
So okay, so then they also went to the Super Bowl. Yes. So they got to see Rihanna.

Unknown Speaker 6:44
They got to see Rihanna. Did they get to see Rihanna? Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 6:48
Cuz that's about all I cared about for the Super Bowl. You know, I'm not a football fan. Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 6:56
I'm sure half the students didn't even know who was playing to get to, but it would be so

Unknown Speaker 7:04
awesome. And so your dad when he's involved? How does he engage? You know, these youth? They're?

Unknown Speaker 7:14
Absolutely a lot of his engagement is through motivational speaking. And definitely that one on one mentorship? Because like I say, he was once where a lot of these underrepresented students who are paid for the program are, they definitely connect through that motivation. And that one on one connection? I

Unknown Speaker 7:32
guess so because I saw him on his Instagram and I was motivated.

Unknown Speaker 7:36
He says, ma'am, I love the year. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 7:38
I read something like, you know, you want to succeed the way you want to breathe or something like that. Absolutely. Yeah. So and he also mentors, people like LeBron James and Jamie Foxx. So motivate them. I'm sure you can motivate the kiddos, right?

Unknown Speaker 8:00
Absolutely. Yes, ma'am.

Unknown Speaker 8:01
So I think Eric motivates everybody. I don't think there's a human celebrity or not who who's never shared the Eric Commons video. I think you can probably name you can just say the planet. Eric. Eric motivated. The plan? Like, I gotta say, it's right. Post boom, and everybody has posted to Eric.

Unknown Speaker 8:27
Oh, my God. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 8:34
Go get that book to

Unknown Speaker 8:37
you incident sign of support back behind it, and we truly appreciate it.

Unknown Speaker 8:41
So what is your role there, Jada? What do you actually do?

Unknown Speaker 8:47
So I am the youth program director. I'm a bit of what that like is assessing these programs and seeing what types of impact it created for students.

Unknown Speaker 8:56
So you're helping to formulate what they are and what they are not going to do.

Unknown Speaker 9:02
So absolutely, yes. Yeah. You're

Unknown Speaker 9:04
on the decision making process. Part of it. Yes, ma'am. I know. That's right. I know. How many students do you work with and in what areas?

Unknown Speaker 9:19
Yep. So we work with about three school districts for each area. A few of our areas are listed as Detroit, Lansing, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, Washington, DC. And so I'll say between 80 to 100 students each for each district.

Unknown Speaker 9:37
Oh, wow. That's a lot of kids. Yeah, a lot. Yeah, you guys have a pretty big staff. I guess so especially since you're taking them off the country.

Unknown Speaker 9:45
Yes, ma'am. We're ready though. We're ready for the test.

Unknown Speaker 9:49
And how long do they are they able to stay in the program? Is it like a yearly thing where they where they go or

Unknown Speaker 9:58
academic needs He's, I mean, it really varies. So you can have a friend who's just introduced to our services, and they can go throughout freshman to senior year, or you can have a senior that introduced our services. But of course, since they're seniors, it'll only last for about a year. But it really does vary between the students in their academic and social needs. So

Unknown Speaker 10:20
you help them to matriculate into college as well then, right? Yes,

Unknown Speaker 10:24
ma'am. transition into college correct, or any career path that they decide on? Okay.

Unknown Speaker 10:28
And then is it based off of, you know, merit? Do they have to have the grades to participate in the program, or app has yet? Okay, I'll let you explain.

Unknown Speaker 10:42
Yep. So based on their grades, and MSA, that social and academic wellness is important to us. So it also is related to their social and academic behaviors as well, just saying and scaling, and that allows them to go on these trips with the youth exposure programs, such as Dubai in the Superbowl. So that definitely has an impact on it. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 11:03
Well, I love what you're doing. Keep it up. And I hope that it grows, you know, and you can spread some love out here to Vegas one day.

Unknown Speaker 11:14
Absolutely. And I just want to personally thank fatahna, as you mentioned, she definitely is a great mentor, a great leader, and we love people who are out seeking change. And that's what she's actively doing. So just a shout out to her. We truly appreciate her and you as well for taking your time to interview me today.

Unknown Speaker 11:31
Oh, absolutely. You're welcome. Anytime. Thank you. Thank you. So she Teyonah the lady, and you are plugged in girl. Sometimes when you call me and you're telling me about some of your clients, it's like, oh, no, that is I don't know who that is. Let me look them up. Let me look them up. But you know, one client that you do have that I do know, is called my mother and I said, Oh, yeah, she represents 50 said, Do you

Unknown Speaker 12:14
work together on projects like GEICO and I'm always like, dude, not a claimant. Like some of my clients is just like that. They are so big. And like, you don't really no one works for anyone. But when they need to do something, I do the products for them. And that's it. That's a 50 cent. That's like a psycho a day when we talk about safety. We're talking about something way larger than life. And everybody knows this so dearly. Most people they recognize and as I know, you do talk to you do that stuff. And I'm like, Yep, that's me. But yeah, that's me. So yeah, absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 12:55
So girl, I was like, I was telling you, I was to ask my mother. I said, Do you know 50 cents? And she said, I know 50 cent. Girl. I didn't know if my mom was she 70 didn't know if she knew.

Unknown Speaker 13:14
So Bernie, that's hilarious. All right, great. Exec. One of the guys at Def Jam plugs me and 50 in and it's just, it's just always a pleasure with that guy. I mean, it's it's there's never a dull moment with this.

Unknown Speaker 13:28
Girl. I bet I was like, I was so happy when you told me you were going to try and get me Eric Thomas in the studio. I said, Well, maybe I should be asking it fitting to interview

Unknown Speaker 13:47
workouts up because that's the guy to go to that he might be able to work something out. But you know, it's different. You don't gotta kiss him in passing.

Unknown Speaker 13:56
Right, I'm sure. But you know, you had to throw it in there. But what we do have we do have a representative from his chi unity Foundation has called the G unity Business Lab. Right. So decent project or 50 cent project?

Unknown Speaker 14:19
Well, it's a partnership with 50. HIV, right. And who else? HIV, the school district right,

Unknown Speaker 14:27
the Houston Independent School District. So we have Dr. Patrice Allen, who was the senior manager for his foundation. Since we're talking about the youth, we want to keep it going and talk about you know, all of the things that are all of the things that I know that are out there to help the youth. So Dr. Allen, thank you for coming on the show.

Unknown Speaker 14:54
Thank you for having me. Yeah, we

Unknown Speaker 14:56
want you to tell us everything about the G unity bill. Yes, ma'am.

Unknown Speaker 15:02
Okay, well, I'm giving you my elevator speech. We're in our second year of the program. It's a 28 week program that's in partnership with the Houston Independent School District horizon International Group energy unity Foundation, which is powered by Curtis 50 cent Jackson, to where we actually hire student interns in underserved communities in Houston to actually start businesses. So these high school students read six high schools this year, we had an A successful first year and Curtis Davis to charge to double in one year to expand. So we're now at

Unknown Speaker 15:37
Curtis

Unknown Speaker 15:44
I'm just keeping it as real as I can. Well, he gave us the the room to to expand to where we are now with cashmere Madison, Washington, Wheatley, Worthington, Yates, and H ISD. Where we have 25 students at each campus. And these students actually are preparing for our cumulative event right now. Which is called the hustle tank, and hopeful tank, they present their business pitches to him and effort to seek funding of a lifetime. So imagine being in high school and someone says someone says, come up with a business idea, and someone will fund it. So we get to actually take them to curriculum to teach them about entrepreneurship. We have some amazing business coaches and mentors that come in throughout the city to pour into these individuals. And they have actually transformed in front of our eyes. So they're actually preparing now for their business pitches, their business plans to get ready to give to him to see what he likes, and what he wants to invest in. Amazing.

Unknown Speaker 16:42
And how old are these kids?

Unknown Speaker 16:46
They range from about 15 to 18. We think sophomores, juniors and seniors in high school. So

Unknown Speaker 16:53
what if you have a student who really doesn't know what they want to do? How does that work? Well, or sorry? Or do they have to come in already knowing you know what type of business they go,

Unknown Speaker 17:10
they go through a three step process to even get into the, into the program, okay? To take them in bearing levels,

Unknown Speaker 17:17
those three steps.

Unknown Speaker 17:20
You have to express interest through an application, then we actually take you through an actual, like real life job application. And then you have to interview with me, I interviewed 400 students

Unknown Speaker 17:31
this year. Okay. span of two weeks. And you said it's a 28 week program. Right. Wow. So that's, that's great. So it's not like you only have 28 students for one year, two years, four years. You have them for 28 weeks. And it's like, you know, it's like a cohort, right.

Unknown Speaker 17:55
Yet, this year, we hired 150 students. So

Unknown Speaker 17:58
that gives a lot of opportunity.

Unknown Speaker 18:03
Something is exposure. It

Unknown Speaker 18:05
makes sense that shutdown is involved because she's from Houston. Yeah. Yeah, you know what?

Unknown Speaker 18:19
Ours, didn't do anything but come and do the kids. Let me know what can I said, Hey,

Unknown Speaker 18:30
you just count the things that you have done in Houston, you have raised millions of dollars for children. You have you been recognized by the state? Right? Didn't you? Don't you have like your own special day out there?

Unknown Speaker 18:47
I do. I do. I do. I do. Shout out to the governor and to the Congress, people in the area, Sheila Jackson Lee and to the mayor. Absolutely, that's true. But I just in that particular the Business Lab thing, that's that's kind of their thing, you know, always active, always doing something in a community I'm trying to see for kids for the most part and get some new shoes and prepare them for school and then they get them when they get to the school that when they create something that's just so dynamic. So not necessarily discrediting this crediting what I do, I love what I do in the community almost every day, you know, it's a weekend practice that I don't even talk about, and and post about, but definitely, like loving what they do within that that school sector, but I do my best and I just use the communities. You know, I traveled the world doing that. That's my true passion. Yes,

Unknown Speaker 19:40
absolutely. Absolutely. So Dr. Allen. Now, this just focused in the Houston area, but it is a great model for others to follow. Right. And so you guys have a website that you know Other people can look at it, and maybe want to model the same type of things. So can you give us that website?

Unknown Speaker 20:10
Well, the website if you if you Google, I don't know, it's as its own little URL. But if you go hspg Unity business class, you'll see our website. I don't know the exact URL. You get more information if you've worked on Instagram at the ad Community Business Lab. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 20:26
okay. Cuz like, you know, I just put it in Google G unity Business Lab. Actually, I just put g unity. And it came up. So yeah, easy to find. Easy to find. So hey, listeners, check out what he's doing out and used in and around the world, because he's done some things in Africa as well and wears it out in Africa. He's doing a couple of projects. And

Unknown Speaker 20:57
everywhere, we don't even

Unknown Speaker 21:03
see it everywhere. Okay, well, he's just everywhere, check it out. model the behavior, help your community. And Dr. Allen, thank you so much for providing some information about what you all are doing out there in the Houston area.

Unknown Speaker 21:19
Thank you. And thank you to Susanna.

Unknown Speaker 21:25
Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Hey, should Donna I forgot to get the information for the school days Foundation, from Jada. So all

Unknown Speaker 21:40
you have to do is go to Eric Thomas Instagram and click on his link. And it'll take you to everything that he has for from the book that he had that came out to all of his nonprofit, his for profit, and everything else that we have coming up for him. Same thing with fish, because most of the time, you can just go to his social media and he has going on. And if not, if he just has that kind of team, you can find his stuff. It's out there in the media. And

Unknown Speaker 22:07
also, let's give the information for your foundation. Which is so

Unknown Speaker 22:13
yeah, foundation that kind of feeds into others is this Jay Nelson Foundation. And you can actually find that as far as a nelson.org or on social media as the project Alpha Foundation. And all my names across social media is upon a diagnosis of Dr. Dr. Fred Allen. And you can find it there. Father, everybody's name is their name.

Unknown Speaker 22:36
And my name is my name, which is Andhra po lard. You can find me on Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon podcast platforms. Also on www dot it's where I am.com Check me out. So she Tane any final words before I let you go?

Unknown Speaker 22:59
Now man that says thank you so much. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 23:02
no, not that easy. I know you're involved in something you're doing something.

Unknown Speaker 23:09
Man. So be on the lookout I got something really huge coming up with Eric soon that I want everyone to be a part of it's gonna kind of be in the Houston area. You definitely want to be there for wants you to be a part of that. And of course, this summer, I'm going to travel the planet as I always do, and feed a couple of cities and get out some shoes and that information will be coming in the next couple of weeks. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 23:31
and keep us informed here too. You know, I want to make sure we know absolutely. Alrighty, well, thank you shutdown and Nelson. And your firm, the finest hour PR.

Unknown Speaker 23:45
Thank you so much. Bye, guys. Have a good one. Hey,

Unknown Speaker 23:48
91.5. So thank you for tuning in. You know, I'm here every Saturday at 730 Hagen kicking off your day with some great information to get you going. So, I'll see you next week. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai