The Mindful Marketplace with Joel Skene

Building Inclusive Futures Through Collaborative Community Projects - Part 2

• Joel Skene / Dr. Glenell Lee Pruitt

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Imagine transforming unused spaces into life-changing opportunities. In our latest episode, we sit down with Dr. Glennell M Lee Pruitt, president of Jarvis Christian University, to uncover groundbreaking solutions for community investment. Learn how the university is breathing new life into empty dormitories by offering housing to young adults aging out of the foster care system. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in innovative strategies for community development and higher education, as Dr. Pruitt emphasizes the power of "fishing differently" through non-traditional solutions and impactful community partnerships.

We also explore the broader landscape of generating revenue for community initiatives without sacrificing social impact. From utilizing unused university acreage for housing to the inspiring story of a church building apartments above its sanctuary, this episode highlights the necessity of bold, outside-the-box thinking. Dr. Pruitt shares insights from the "Fishing Differently" conference, where leaders from various sectors come together to tackle community problems. With a focus on inclusivity, representation, and leveraging technology, this episode offers a fresh perspective on fostering a more equitable future through collaborative and innovative community engagement.

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Joel:

What if investing in each other could change the world? I'm Joel Skeen with bizradious, and this is the Mindful Marketplace.

Joel:

Welcome back to part two of the conversation I'm getting to have with Dr Glennell M Lee Pruitt, who is the president of Jarvis Christian University. If you didn't listen to part one, please go back and do so. We got to talk with Ms Pruitt about really just her background in education, what she's witnessed in working with students who come from disenfranchised areas and neighborhoods and the way that they can really be transformed through care through community, through education, informed through care through community, through education, and can really go on to do some incredible things. I'm excited to get to dig in with her further on really the innovative ways that her university is not only serving its current students, but who is really investing in their community and in their local community for the future and to solve social problems in that local community.

Joel:

This is the Mindful Marketplace on BizRadio US. If you have not heard us before, this is the show where we interview people who are questioning the assumption that there's just one bottom line in business and who are getting out of the two-pocket thinking that has dominated the way we view social good and social change. It's where we learn how to connect our businesses and money to our values and our community and ourselves. So, glenel, so happy to have you here with us again today. Thank you so much for your time.

Dr. Pruitt:

Thank you, good to be here.

Joel:

Yeah, I'm grateful to get connected with you. Just so the audience has a little background, you and I got connected through someone who I recently had on the show earlier this year. His name was Sidney Williams jr, Um and he is hosting. He and I met through um, a group called neighborhood economics, who's focusing on local investing, impact investing and community investing, especially into, like, entrepreneurs who come from disenfranchised communities. Um, he made sure that he wanted to make sure that I talked to you, because I know that the two of you are working together on this upcoming conference called Fishing Differently. I'm wondering if you could share a little bit about what does Fishing Differently mean to you?

Dr. Pruitt:

To me, fishing Differently means looking at problems and looking at non-traditional ways of resolving them looking around you, seeing what the needs are in the community where you are, and then finding ways of partnering with those in the community and those, obviously who may be outside of the community, in ways of addressing those issues. And so it's a non-traditional way of solving problems and thinking about how problems can be solved.

Joel:

What's one of those key pieces of thinking that you feel like could be expanded could?

Dr. Pruitt:

be expanded here in the area where I am in, a rural area, is housing, and I think on college campuses so often and this would be an example of fishing differently. Covid impacted how we do business, and COVID impacted how students see higher education, because they realize, oh, I don't really have to be on your campus to earn a degree, I can stay home, I can work and still earn my degree, my degree, and so what we as presidents do is we're sitting in our offices and we're looking at empty buildings that can house people. As we partner with the community, one thing that we are working on I'm excited about is the ability to provide housing for young people who age out of the child care system, child protective services. But what happens to those young people when they turn 18? Usually that's it.

Dr. Pruitt:

So I'm sitting on a college campus with all of these empty dorm rooms. When we could provide housing for those young persons in a safe environment, they can earn their degree and then, of course, they can return to their communities and then what continue to invest in their own community because they have the skill sets to do it. And so, you know, looking at those kind of situations is thinking differently. That not only helps the institution, of course, because your empty buildings can be filled, but it also helps those individuals who, in most instances, when they age out of the child protective service agencies, they have nowhere to go and they don't have a backup, and so those are one of the things that I'm excited about.

Joel:

Yeah, so you guys are actually utilizing the dorm like the dormitory style housing that you have in order. That's kind of going empty. To solve another problem, which is what happens to kids who have been in and out of foster care their whole lives, and where do they go?

Dr. Pruitt:

And where do they go?

Joel:

Yeah, that's really incredible. Are they able to access the? Are they able to partake in the education as well?

Dr. Pruitt:

Well, that's really the primary purpose. The primary purpose of what we are working to do is to help them earn a degree. You can earn an associate's degree, a bachelor's degree, and, if you stay long enough, you can earn a master's degree before you leave. And so it's not just providing that, but it's also, as I said, provide opportunities for them, not only in housing that they need, but also a leg up in education Right. So when they leave here, when they decide to leave, then they're able to have that degree with them.

Joel:

You know. You mentioned earlier different assets that the university has. You mentioned the housing that you have, the beds that are there, the building that people can live in, but earlier you also mentioned the land that was, that are there the. You know the, the building that people can live in, but earlier you also mentioned, you know, the land that was originally donated to you. You said that there's a. You know you guys have a good amount of acreage and a lot of universities do. I'm just wondering, like, when you're thinking about expanding the way you think of university assets that could be community assets, what are some other ways that we could expand that thinking it could be community assets?

Dr. Pruitt:

What are some other ways that we could expand that thinking? I would still deal with the housing, because when you enroll, I'm in rural East Texas and I ride around where I see and there's a need for better housing situations, not just for that population of young people I talked about, but for community people. And so what is next on my plan, taking into consideration now I'm a new president right, and I have all of these wonderful ideas is rural housing on the acreage that we have. So we sat on about 400 acres where the campus is, but we have other acres across the highway that is not being utilized.

Joel:

Oh, okay.

Dr. Pruitt:

Yes, and so that plan is to develop a housing opportunity for those persons here and utilize that which helps us as a small institution, because then it generates alternative income. Because there is what they're saying a demographic cliff, or there is a numbers issue, because people are not having babies like they used to have and a lot of young people are not choosing to come to college, and so you have to think of a. You have to fish differently in order for an institution to survive in the higher ed environment currently.

Joel:

Yeah, and that's what I really resonated with the Fishing Differently conference on was kind of breaking down this barrier that we have mentally in our world, which is that if something generates revenue, then that revenue really has to be used to generate more revenue and more revenue and maximize that ad infinitum, forever and ever and ever.

Joel:

And that's the only reason that it can exist. And then over here we try to give a little bit of that back and we give a small percentage of that back and we donate it. But there's this idea that our giving and our revenue creation are these two separate things and they shouldn't kind of mix pockets in that way. And what I love about what your university is doing is saying like, no, even though we're a university, we can figure out ways to generate revenue for the impact we want to have in the community.

Dr. Pruitt:

Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.

Joel:

You know, I I the cause. The fishing differently conference isn't just about how schools can do that, though it's also about how a lot of ways, how churches can do that, that there are churches who also sit on these assets that could be used for the community. Could you, you know if someone was out there kind of considering going to this conference or wondering, like what is this about? Why should I go to that? Could you speak a little to who should go to these, to this conference? Or wondering, like what is this about? Why should I go to that? Could you speak a little to who should go to this conference?

Dr. Pruitt:

You know I can and interestingly enough, joel, I'm also an ordained pastor. I pastored for 25 years and I gave up pastoring when I became president last year. And let me tell you a story that I heard at the Fishing Differently conference last year that blew my mind right, and I was still pastoring at the time. There was a church in the community that was locked in. But they wanted to do something different. They knew that housing was needed in their community, but they had no more acreage, they had no more land, so they built apartments above the church.

Dr. Pruitt:

Who would have thought of that? You know, who would have thought that a church would think well, you know what, we can't go to the left, we can't go to the right, north or south, but we can go up. Well, you know what? We can't go to the left, we can't go to the right, north or south, but we can go up. And so those are the kind of persons you meet, those are the kind of stories that you community problem. And so I think for this conference everybody could attend. You know, community organizers, preachers, teachers, anyone in any area who understands that we can no longer operate business as usual, and I think that's the opportunity that this conference gives us.

Joel:

Well, yeah, and to me it's about collaboration too, because it's one thing for any one of us individually to understand that things should be done differently, but it's a whole other thing when we actually get together and collaborate around shared interests and around things that we know will benefit our community but that no one person can do all on their own. I'm wondering if you can speak any to the collaborations that you've seen come out of that, or just the importance of that collaboration.

Dr. Pruitt:

Well, one thing that this conference does it brings various persons to the table who come from federal government, who come from the philanthropy space, who come from, of course, education and religion. But what it does, it allows persons to sit in a room together to really kind of problem solve, because you're able to talk about different issues that you have in common, but you didn't even know each other. And so then you're able to say to each other, well, I can't do this, but I can do this. And persons can say to you well, I can help you do this because I've done it before.

Dr. Pruitt:

And that means that there's a lot of networking that takes place, there's a lot of connecting that takes place and, to be honest, I was at the conference last year and I'm still connecting with people who were there last year. Who says, look, can Jarvis benefit from this? And that is what this is about connecting with people. And people want to help you, but they have to know that you exist. And so for me, as I shared with you earlier, for me being at the conference, first of all it gets Jarvis' name out there and people know that we exist, and then I'm able to connect with people that can help us do some things just a little bit differently and make a difference.

Joel:

What would you say to someone who's maybe they're I don't know, maybe they're a student, maybe they're an adjunct professor, maybe they, maybe they're in a? Uh, and I'll let me there. You, you said you, uh, you know, the school started as an elementary school. What if they're in um another school? But let's say that I'm either at a church or a school, um, what would you say to someone who sees that, yeah, hey, my community could, you know, use some help with housing, and I know that we've got some assets, whether it's land, whether it's space, whether it's a kitchen that a local business could use, whether it's anything like that. I guess, what would you say to someone as far as if they wanted to move forward and to try to make an impact in their community? You know, I guess, what advice or what encouragement would you give them?

Dr. Pruitt:

Do it. You know, do it and you may start out small. You know, when you're talking about uh impacting the community, there may be a couple of young people who are great at uh you know putting meals together, but they don't have a place to do it. Just let them do it Right. You can be the foundation for persons to move forward with their dreams if you just do it. And I'm of the opinion, and I say it here at Jarvis all the time, and I try to surround myself with people who have some crazy ideas and I say look, let's try it. And then if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. As long as it doesn't kill us or kill the students, let's try it. And I think so often what people need to hear is just do it. We give them a lot of instructions and we talk a lot about why things can't be done, but sometimes people just need to hear try it. Or let's do it and let's see what happens.

Joel:

So, before we head out today, I guess the last thing I'd like to ask you when it comes to you know, this is a really kind of innovative way of thinking about it, even though it's a very simple way, I think, of thinking about it, of seeing a problem, seeing what resources you have to solve that problem and just getting out and doing it. But it does feel like there's something innovative about it because of that two pocket thinking that we've sort of been stuck in for a long time future, of the ways that universities and other institutions can impact their own local communities. I guess, what do you see as a potential future.

Dr. Pruitt:

What types of problems do you think we could make a dent in? I think connecting communities, especially in communities that have various challenges, I think it's going to be artificial intelligence.

Joel:

Oh yeah.

Dr. Pruitt:

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Dr. Pruitt:

I just came back from a president's immersion in Silicon Valley at NVIDIA, and I don't know if you're familiar with NVIDIA, but they make these chips for autonomous driving cars and they're all around.

Dr. Pruitt:

They're a trillion dollar business, computer tech business, and I was in the room of about 50 presidents four Black presidents, two from HBCUs, one from an urban area, me from a rural area and what I'm afraid of is, if we don't begin to think differently about how, especially educational institutions, not only have a responsibility to those persons who come here, but we also have a responsibility to the communities, regardless of how large and small they are, where we're located, of how large and small they are where we're located, then we're going to find ourselves not only behind, but the communities around us are going to be left behind, and so, for me, I think one of the largest challenges is going to be how do we collaborate using the word that you used earlier and how do we address the technological inequities that exist, where there's going to be a system where some will have the exposure and some will not, and what happens to those who do not?

Dr. Pruitt:

And so for me personally, as the president here, is, as we go. We bring the community along with us. We partner with them to bring them along with us, and so, as we're beginning now to delve into how we address issues of artificial intelligence, I want the community to come with us. I want to walk hand in hand so that those high schools and those young people can have early exposure, so that businesses can learn how can you leverage this technology in order to be more efficient in what you're doing, and so I think that I think that's going to be a big issue.

Joel:

And so I think that I think that's going to be a big issue. Yeah, whenever we're asking questions of you, know what a cost to something is? I think we always have to ask. You know, like I was talking with Kevin Jones, who's an impact investor, and he was talking about the cost of doing good in your investments, but that also there's a cost to not doing good. And it sounds like what you're saying is you know, while there may be a cost to the investment that we need to do in our communities, there's also a cost to not investing into those communities, and even though we, whenever we help someone, we should be asking that question, it sounds like what you're saying is who's being left out?

Dr. Pruitt:

Who's being left out? Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's a question that I always ask, because when I'm in the room and joy so many times I may be the only female in the room. I'm definitely the only black person in the room, and so you know what the question? The first thing I ask myself who should be in this room too, myself, who should be in this room too, and if they're not in the room, I should say something so that the next time you do this, I don't want to be the only one in the room, because that doesn't help anybody.

Dr. Pruitt:

We need to bring other people in the room. You know Hispanic people need to be in the room. You know females, same gender loving people need to be in the room. You know that should be representatives of everyone, and I often think about that because it goes back to a discussion we had in the last session about the caste system in higher education, and so when you feel like that is the case, I believe your obligation if you feel that is the case, is to deal with it and bring everyone and give them an opportunity for exposure and expansion themselves. Yeah.

Joel:

Well, I had such a great time talking with you today here. I'm so glad that we got to get connected and I'm looking forward to learning more from you through the Fishing Differently conference. And so everyone go out there and make sure to check out Jarvis University.

Joel:

Ms Glennell, Emily Pruitt, the president, thank you so much for your time today for all of you out there yeah, for all of you out there listening, you know, make sure to subscribe on all of the different podcast networks iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Buzzsprout, YouTube. Wherever you listen and wherever you consume your content, Make sure to subscribe and hit that like button for us. And until next time, remember we are each other.