By Robin Wilson-Glover | For full article see NJ.com posting.
August 01, 2024 at 2:38 pm EDT
Eric Pennington, a lanky man with a greying beard, sat in front of a group of Rutgers students in a refrigerated classroom on a hot day in July. The students had come to learn how to be successful in business and life. Pennington, Newark’s business administrator and a longtime lawyer who has had several careers, came to tell them how they could succeed.
As if sitting in his living room, Pennington looked at them with familiarity and told them that they would likely face adversity at some point in life because most people do, especially those who come from backgrounds with few resources.
He had faced hardship. He and his four siblings were raised by a single mother in Newark, sometimes living in a station wagon. He experienced drama every day but he said homelessness was a life-altering experience that made him stronger.
“I never felt like giving up,” he told them. “When you make it through those PTSD moments in your life you can make it through anything.”
Pennington is one of several mentors in the new +Club, a project created by business strategist and nonprofit activist Mark Pearlman and his business partner Rutgers business professor John Longo. They designed the program and funded it, along with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
+Club pilot program at Rutgers Eric Pennington, Newark's Business Administrator and Kim Singleton, author and filmmaker, talk with students taking part in a pilot project called +Club, which uses a multimedia platform to teach financial literacy and life skills held at Rutgers in Newark on July 15, 2024. (Jeff Rhode | For NJ Advance Media/Jeff Rhode | For NJ Advance Media)
The general idea behind the program is to help young people, especially those in underserved communities, to make choices that will give them a fulfilling life. By their very nature, they will get into trouble because their liminal existence between childhood and maturity will expose them to family and challenges that will almost certainly include financial issues. The +Club provides advice about how they can prepare themselves for that adversity.
Last fall, the +Club was offered weekly for about eight weeks to a group of students at Newark’s West Side High School and for three hours in one day with a group of Rutgers business students, Pearlman said. This summer, the program was introduced to students in Newark’s Summer Youth Employment Program and in Rutgers’ B-STAR program, which assists high-performing Business School students who come from historically underrepresented and underserved backgrounds.
This fall, they plan to continue +Club at West Side and at Rutgers’ B-Star program and they plan to expand it to Rutgers’ high school outreach program and two charter schools, one in Newark at Great Oaks Legacy Charter School and the other in Yonkers, New York at the Charter School of Educational Excellence.
Longo and Pearlman had received positive feedback through surveys of the students but they say the real proof is in young people’s reaction in class. They can see young people’s faces light up during the program.
“The engagement, the discussion among the kids, they’re totally in the moment,” Pearlman said. “They’re not on their phone, and they’re really engaged. And afterward, they say how impactful it was for them.”
The students are likely connecting because +Club was created for the YouTube generation, young people ages 13 to young adults, who appear to absorb more information through an edutainment experience. Short videos and slides with tidbits of advice from mentors are sprinkled throughout a 90-minute presentation or a three-hour crash course.
This program should entertain them, Longo said. “This should be nothing that your arm is twisted to go to.”
The program also centers around relatable role models, especially individuals who have suffered setbacks and still become successful.
Besides Pennington, other mentors include Kim Singleton, a filmmaker, poet, and author of “I Love My People”; Michael Ojo, a private equity investor; Florida architect and educator LeAnn Elder; and Rutgers-Newark Interim Chancellor Jeffrey Robinson, who wrote the book “Black Faces in High Places” with Randal Pinkett, the first Black student from Rutgers to become a Rhodes Scholar.
In addition to sitting for video sessions, the mentors are often instructors. On the day that Pennington gave his heartfelt talk, Singleton and Rutgers Business School graduate Mariah Ledbetter talked to students about career goals, uncertainty, fear, and how to manage money. They were careful not to talk for too long before getting students involved in a group conversation.
When the topic turned to time management, a multimedia show began. They showed a video clip of a young man speedily twisting a Rubik’s Cube to solve it and another of a basketball player shooting a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
+Club pilot program at Rutgers Students in the B-STAR program take part in a pilot project called +Club, which uses a multimedia platform to teach financial literacy and life skills held at Rutgers Business School in Newark on July 15, 2024. (Jeff Rhode | For NJ Advance Media/Jeff Rhode | For NJ Advance Media)
Longo, an investment strategist and author of “Buffett’s Tips,” which outlines how Warren Buffett made his billions, told the students he was there to teach them how to make money, how to hold on to it, and why compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. “If you start saving early, even just a little bit, your money will snowball,” was his mantra.
Once they make money, he told them, they must find a way to spend less money than they make.
A photo of Antonio Brown, former NFL wide receiver, popped up on the screen behind him. Brown earned more than $80 million during his 12-year career and ended up in bankruptcy.
An image of Curt Schilling, former MLB pitcher, replaced Brown on the screen. Schilling lost $50 million and had to auction off personal memorabilia. Toni Braxton, who won seven Academy Awards, sold millions of records worldwide, yet filed for bankruptcy twice. Johnny Depp, who owns 14 houses and likes to fly on private planes, lost $650 million.
The images and the celebrity grabbed the students’ attention. As the program ended, they appeared to be energized and eager to chat with each other and the presenters. There was no rush for the door.
Marie Bethzy Motino, an 18-year-old from Newark, said she related to the discussion about uncertainty because there have been times when she felt she didn’t belong.
“It made me feel that I wasn’t alone,” she said about the presentation.
Her friend, Brenda Melissa Sandoval, said that what registered with her was Pennington’s talk about his difficult childhood in Newark.
“Having him say that was important. I never thought that not giving up was important but it is,” the 18-year-old from Union City said. “You know, he’s right. I’m not going to give up.”
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