BE A BALLER -"Building a lifelong legacy"

Alethea Gaddis and Corey Smith: Building Lifelong Legacies Through Education, Community Involvement, and Mentorship

• Coach Tim Brown, Uncommon Life • Season 4 • Episode 3

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On Be a Baller Podcast, Baller's Edge Live Event,  Ms. Alethea Gaddis and Mr. Corey Smith,  share their remarkable journeys and the profound influence education has had on their lives. Ms. Gaddis talks about her parents’ unwavering dedication despite limited opportunities, revealing how their commitment enabled her and her siblings to achieve higher education. Mr. Smith, representing "I Know I Can," discusses the responsibility adults have in preparing the younger generation for success through education and mentorship.

Our episode also shines a spotlight on the Jump Start for Kids summer tour, designed to introduce students to educational opportunities at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). I share my personal journey from high school to college and the vital role the Gattis Foundation has played in guiding students towards academic excellence. With initiatives like essay workshops and test preparation, these programs aim to help students secure scholarships and excel academically. Corey Smith’s dedication to student support through "I Know I Can" further underscores the importance of community involvement in education.

Finally, we explore how aligning education with personal dreams and aspirations can transform lives. Hear inspiring stories from students who found their ideal HBCUs and the lessons they learned along the way, from building confidence to developing discipline and assertiveness. As we wrap up, we express our heartfelt thanks to Ms. Gaddis and Mr. Smith for their invaluable contributions and encourage our listeners to support the Be A Baller podcast. Remember, always strive to be a baller and join us next week for more insights on building a lifelong legacy.

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Speaker 1:

I'm Tim Brown and I'm the host of a Be A Baller podcast, a podcast about legacy. I'm at age now where I begin thinking about what's my legacy going to be and I begin to recognize that you all in this room young people, you're my legacy and my job is to pour into you and all these adults. Our job is to pour into you and prepare you to take your rightful place in this whole legacy deal.

Speaker 2:

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Speaker 3:

All right. So welcome to the Be a Baller podcast, where we discuss how to build a lifelong legacy. I'm your guest host, chris Stevens. Today's episode is from the Baller's Edge event event and today's episode we're interviewing. I have the honor of interviewing Ms Alethea Gaddis and Mr Corey Smith. These two people, two amazing people, whose primary focuses have been education and sending students off to college. Today, they will share their impact on students of the organization, on students All right, so, without further ado, please give a warm welcome to Ms Alethea Gaddis and Mr Corey Smith, welcome.

Speaker 3:

So just a little background on them and I'll let them share their stories in. Just a little background on them and I'll let them share their stories in just a little bit. Ms Alethea Gattas, you were an independent insurance broker. You are, as of right now, licensed since 2013. Give her a hand. Give her a hand for that. Give her a hand for that. She also has a college experience called the Jumpstart College Experience.

Speaker 3:

They have a booth back there. It's back there and then. So please, when you get opportunity at the end, please go back and get some more information on that. But she'll explain a little bit more about that in just a little bit, and Mr Corey Smith is from. I Know I Can he. He'll tell his story in just a little bit. They also have a booth back in the back. I know I can't raise your hand. They got the signs and everything. All right, great, great. So please make sure you take advantage of getting the information from both of those booths as soon as possible. All right, first question is going to go to you, miss Gattis. We're going to ask you the first question. I want you to talk about your parents and the impact they've had on your life and of commitment to students and education. Ok, oh, hold on, I got you. Hold on, should be on there. There you go.

Speaker 4:

Thank you All right. Before I talk a little bit about my parents, I want to have you repeat something after me. I have some jumpstart students in here and they can help me with this and I want you to act like you're out on the football field. If you're on the cheerleading team, I want to make sure you're yelling loud. I want you to repeat after me Say it with some meaning, because, as Coach Brown says, you need to write it down, you need to have it in your heart, and so succeeding is inevitable for me. Success and do this is my reality. So let's do it again. Succeeding is inevitable for me. Success is my reality. Thank you for helping me with that. That leads me into how I came to be involved in this space of college awareness and college access.

Speaker 4:

I am the oldest daughter of Willie and Vivian Gaddis Both of them are in heaven now and my parents were very instrumental in instilling in my siblings and I the absolute importance of an education. Now, my dad did not have an opportunity to even graduate from high school. He was a sharecropper in Mississippi. I don't know if you know what a sharecropper is, but we are descendants of not only of our African people. We are their dream, but my parents were descendants of slaves. I'm descendants of slaves and sharecroppers. Parents were descendants of slaves. I'm descendants of slaves and sharecroppers.

Speaker 4:

Sharecroppers had to work the land in order to provide for their families, and they had to pay the landowner with the results or the fruit of their labor. The fruit of their labor went to the owner of the land, and so my dad instilled in us the importance of getting an education, because he did not have that opportunity. My brother, my two sisters, as well as my brother's four sons, all had more education than my either. Of my parents us to excel, to exceed our limits in providing not only for ourselves but for the future, which is why I engage in the work that I do. So my parents instilled that, so your parents are instilling in you.

Speaker 4:

Your coaches, your other community leaders, are instilling in you the importance of education, but as well, as you heard earlier, entrepreneurship and a trade. My dad and mom started a construction company in 1971 that still exists, and my brother and one of his sons run that company now, as well as another entity of it, and it's what helped my brother, as well as my parents, put us all through school. So you can do the same thing even if you don't have an opportunity to go to college, and I hope that you will. But don't give up if that doesn't happen, to be in your future, because entrepreneurship and even learning a trade is important as well, because you also have a dream that you must follow, and I started because of what my parents instilled in my brother and my sisters and I. It's good.

Speaker 3:

It's good. Give him a hand, give her a hand, all right, mr Smith, I wanted you to just briefly tell your story about growing up in Columbus and your HBCU college experience. He is a HBCU grad, but he is also from this great city of Columbus and, yes, it's a great city. But I'm just saying that anyway. This is not about me. This is about me Absolutely.

Speaker 5:

Well, my education journey started. My dad went to East High School. He yes, just shout it out for East. I lived down the street on Ohio and Longstreet, so I'm living in the community, but my dad went to East High School and he used to walk past St Charles and play sports against them and and he was feeling some kind of way because his dad couldn't afford to send him to St Charles. So before I was even born, I was going to St Charles.

Speaker 5:

I look back now, you know, at the time when I was younger, all boys, predominantly white school I was, you know, come from. I grew up off of Mound and Lilly. I was supposed to go to East High School. I wanted to follow in my parents' footsteps, but my dad was like no, I want you to go to a college preparatory school. I want them to teach you things that I can't teach you Also, my dad is a Central State grad as well. I can't teach you Also, my dad is a Central State grad as well.

Speaker 5:

So I had the HBCU experience all in my house all my life. I knew nothing more than, yes, we grew up watching sports and seeing all the bigger schools, but it was always about that HBCU experience. If anyone ever gets an opportunity to go to a homecoming, go to any kind of event at an HBCU. The thing that drew me there it felt like a family. It feels like a family reunion when you go there. So, going to St Charles, I went to a college preparatory school. I played basketball. I wanted to go to some other schools but that HBCU was kind of pulling me there. So I ended up going to Central State University and that was the best decision I ever made in my life.

Speaker 5:

I have 30-year friendships from that university. I have guys we go on summer trips. I haven't missed homecoming in. I'm going to age myself almost 20 years. The only year I missed was the COVID year. We go back, we give back. I go back on career day to speak to the students. I have a funny career because I've bounced around. I have a psychology degree, I've worked in sales and now I'm in college access. So I tell people it's okay to pivot, it's okay to make different decisions and it's okay to find your passion. I have a passion for sales because I love building relationships, but I have a passion for seeing kids win. So that's why I'm in college access as well. It's good.

Speaker 3:

Good, very good. Miss Gaddis, I really want to get just a little further. Of course you've talked about your parents. I've had the honor of knowing, knowing them. I went to church here First Church and got a chance to really know the Gaddis family. They're an amazing family. I mean, words cannot describe how amazing they are. But I want you to talk about the mission of the Willie and Vivian Gaddis Foundation. And also, how did the Jump Start for Kids summer tour start?

Speaker 4:

So how did the Jump Start for Kids summer tour start? Okay, so our mission is to make sure young people know what their opportunities are. I actually am a graduate of Bowling Green State University only because I cut up so bad in high school. Don't laugh that my parents wouldn't let me go to Clark, atlanta with my best friend who grew up across the street from me. They said, uh-uh, no way, jose, are we sending you to Atlanta, which was probably a good decision because I was not mature enough at that time to go that far from home. But I met my best friends for life there.

Speaker 4:

But, as Mr Corey just said, the HBCU experience cannot be matched, and so it has been my desire since I started offering college tours. We primarily focus on HBCUs is to make sure you, our young people, know what your options are. The Ohio State Universities are great. Michigan State is great, all the other universities. There's a school for everyone, but I encourage you to consider an HBCU. I have friends that graduated from HBCUs and they have the same testimony that you have. So we started out with the vision, with the goal of exposing young people to all of those different pieces that you need to go to college. It's not just about getting up and saying, hey, I think I'm going to go to college, because basically, my parents just told us you're going to college. We didn't really know what all that meant because my dad, as I already told you, only went to eighth grade. He didn't have a choice. My mother only went to Franklin for one year, actually one semester. So they just said you're going to college. So, being obedient students that we were, we said okay, had no clue what it was about, didn't really prepare when I got to Bowling Green, even though I had gone to school in Westerville and had a good education. I was not prepared with a personal mission statement or a plan like Coach Brown is getting you all to work on to help me navigate and matriculate through Bowling Green successfully. I did. I received my degree. I even went back to school later and achieved a master's degree from Ashland University. But I would have fared so much better had I been prepared.

Speaker 4:

So the programming that we offer to help students find not only a college or a career or a trade, our program is designed to help guide you in that direction. When I get in my car and I don't know where I'm going, I say, siri, how do I get to so-and-so? You all have apps on your phone. You know how to get to where you're going. We consider the Gattis Foundation an app to help you get to where you're going so that you can have directions, and so when I started putting together our programming, we put together pieces that help you be prepared not only to matriculate through high school, but also when you get to college, to excel.

Speaker 4:

We offer different types of programming that help you prepare.

Speaker 4:

So we have an essay workshop this coming Saturday. So many essay applications, many college applications that we see I was talking to my San Z and Major and C Street back there earlier and we know that we see college essays that really help are not the best and you should be putting your best foot forward. So one of the reasons why we are offering college essay workshops is because of that. We recognize that an ACT score in many cases, or an SAT score can help make the difference between a full ride or you having to possibly taking out a loan. So our goal is to make sure you have all of the resources you need to make the right choices, to make a decision, so that you can matriculate not only through high school, but through college, and some of the students that have gone with me in the past including Michelle, who's back there at our table can tell you about the different programmings that we offer that get you ready for college. So I hope I answered that question, because I get excited when I get to talking about it.

Speaker 3:

No, that's good. No, that kind of puts it in a nutshell pretty much what the impact of that is. Corey, I wanted to ask you a question because you are part of the I Know I Can and you've been a part of it for a while now. Can you tell us what drew you to be a part of I Know I Can?

Speaker 5:

We'll go back to the HBCU. I mentioned that I spent a lot of my adult life living in Chicago after I graduated from Central State and one thing that kept me close to college was being involved in my alumni chapter. Being involved in my alumni chapter, recruiting, making sure kids got scholarships. So when I made that pivot to move back home and be closer to family and kind of bet on myself. Another tidbit about me is I'm a realtor as well. I work out of Caldwell Banker in Bexley, so I look like I have a full-time and a full time job.

Speaker 5:

But I wanted to feed my passion in working with students. So I kind of sought out I know I can. I know I can is I pride myself in working for industry leaders. I've worked for Nike in the athletic space. I've worked for I Can in the college access space to where they've been in business since 1988, assisting people from grade school all the way through high school. And now we've even pivoted a little bit because we talk about college but college isn't for everyone. So now we used to have what we used to call college retention department. Now that is its career and college navigators. So we're going to help you navigate wherever your dreams take you. Yes, it's still about college, but we're not going to leave anyone behind. So, seeing that I Know I Can stays in the forefront of college access, helping kids in all of the Columbus City Schools and now some of the county schools and now even out in Reynoldsburg and even stretching to Mansfield, it was another industry leader that I wanted to be a part of and help and make a difference.

Speaker 3:

It's good, good. This next question I'm going to ask both of you guys, because you both are in the education field and helping others to find higher education as well. I want you guys just briefly to talk about the value of education and career preparation, and either one of you can start, doesn't matter, you want to flip a coin, it's all right, I don't know matter.

Speaker 4:

You want to flip a coin, it's all right. I don't know. No fear, no fear. You know, as I said earlier, it's important to have a vision. There's a Bible verse that says write the vision, make it plain. And you have to have a vision.

Speaker 4:

Young people, as I indicated in full transparency when I graduated from high school years ago, I did not have a vision. I just knew. My parents said you're going to college, but I did not understand fully what that meant, fully what that would offer me. So it is important to make sure that you understand what is available. What's available to you is not just because you have a college degree, but a lot of it is available because it's exposure. It's exposure to different companies and professionals, people that can help you along the way. It's about discovering what's out there. You know there's a whole world beyond Columbus, ohio, behind Westerville, beyond Bexley, and that's the purpose of taking the campus tours that we provide, so that you can see what's out there. It's an exploration. We used to call our program the Jump Start Youth for College Tour. Then we changed it to Jump Start College Tour. Now we call it the Jumpstart College Experience because we not only provide, as I indicated earlier, different workshops and sessions that help you to prepare, but it also exposes you to what is on these campuses.

Speaker 4:

I tell students when we get off of a bus at a school, find a place that feels like home. And I have students, year after year, who get off the bus and say Miss G, this is it. I've had students at Tennessee State, winston-salem State, many of them Tuskegee. I have a student at Tuskegee right now who got off the bus If you've ever been to Tuskegee it is in rural Alabama. That means it is in the sticks. But this young lady got off the bus and said Ms G, this is it. We didn't even tour the campus yet and she's graduating in December with a nursing degree. Her name is Heidi. Give her a hand, even though she's not here, because she's had a vision, she did the work to make it happen and so now, 40 years from now, she'll be able to say I found my HBCU home, graduated and now I am an accomplished nursing professional. So that's my response to that question. What you got to say professional. So that's my response to that question.

Speaker 5:

What you got to say oh, that's a lot to follow. Well, I will say this as far as the basis of education it builds confidence. It brings you into rooms that you may not have thought you can walk through. It gives you a little more stick your chest out. I always lean on my HBCU experience. Central State gave me the confidence to walk into any room and make sure that I'm confident about what I have to offer to that room. That education background gave me discipline. It gave me and being intentional about it, my dad used to always tell me be assertive. Be assertive, never sit in the back of the class. I never wanted to sit in the first class, but I always want to sit in the second row. So I have attention. I'll give a little story and it may be a little bit off track, but my first day at Central State I'm a stickler about being on time I had a sociology class first time in college and again I sat in that second row by the door, which was my comfort space, and at nine o'clock, when the class was supposed to start, the professor went and locked the door and I was like, wow, what's going on here?

Speaker 5:

I had never seen this before. And she began to talk about the syllabus, the class and whatnot. And there was a student that came and knocked on the door. The professor ignored the door at first Student kept banging. The professor calmly walked over to the door. She cracked the door. She didn't even open it all the way. She cracked the door and said may I help you? And the student said well, I'm registered for this class. You know it's the first day of class. She said OK, it is now nine, oh five. You are too late for today and too early for tomorrow, so I'll see you tomorrow. So those bases and things like that, for that reason I am never late anywhere. Bases and things like that, for that reason I am never late anywhere. If I'm not early, I'm late. And those are the bases of education and being involved and being around, certain situations that shape you later on in life. To this day people don't know why I'm an on-time person. I'm stickler about where we have to be. It's because of that experience in college.

Speaker 3:

All right, thank you. Listen, we have to wrap it up, but it's been great. Please, one more time, give a hand for Ms Alethea Gaddis and Mr Corey Smith. If you need any more information on their organizations, please, please go back to the back tables. They will have information for you, as always. Thank you for joining us for the Be A Baller podcast. We encourage you to keep supporting this podcast. It means so much to us and, as always, be a baller.

Speaker 6:

If you enjoy our show, please share this podcast with your family and friends. Be A Baller podcast is available on all major podcast stations. Be sure to come back next week as we continue to discuss on how to build a lifelong legacy. Until then, don't forget to be a baller. This podcast was created by Coach Tim Brown. It was edited by Taran Howell and produced and recorded by the video production class of Worthington Christian High School.