B.O.L.D members Rashaun Williams and Juwan Bennett are working to help communities thrive in a knowledge-based economy.
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In an old city like Philadelphia where to advance it’s always been about whom you know, two charismatic millennial researchers are putting in the long hours to enable community members to thrive off of what they know.
Rashaun “DJ Reezey®” Williams and Juwan Bennett, the two youngest members of Techbook Online’s Board of Leaders and Doers—a world-class roster of thought-leaders, subject-matter experts and active citizens who produce content across disciplines and platforms—are betting their futures on their abilities to grow neighborhoods of informed and engaged constituents who can leverage their expertise and unique experiences into opportunities and earned income.
Long before they were widely published and highly sought after thought-leaders—with both of them giving their first keynote speech within two years of each other at Choice Mentoring’s Boy’s Power Lunch on the campus of Drexel University—Williams and Bennett lived the quintessential life of an endangered black boy in Philadelphia, with Bennett dodging bullets on the way home from school, and Williams being raised like a nomad, living in more than 15 homes as child.
Refusing to become a product of their environment, both young men, aiming to achieve PhD’s, graduated from Philadelphia’s public schools and went onto Temple University; where Williams, after realizing his calling in social entrepreneurship, dropped-out after one year and Bennett, a McNair scholar, graduated with a B.A in sociology and criminal justice.
Despite traveling different roads, the boy geniuses have equally made history: Williams became the youngest BMe Leader in Philadelphia and the youngest content producer in the world to be published by Niuzly.com, and Bennett became the only black male in Philadelphia to win two of Temple University’s most prestigious awards: The Diamond Award and the Criminal Justice Faculty Award.
And even as you’re reading this post, Bennett and Williams are perfecting their craft so that they can successfully lead others. In July, Phresh Philly, an eco-centric cohort co-founder by Williams, will be recruiting up to twenty high-school aged interns who are interested in content production and advancing the environment through activism and community organizing. Bennett on the other hand, preparing to start his PhD classes and continuing to engage communities in participatory action research, will begin teaching an entry level class at Temple University in August.
In a world that loves to paint the black male body with a broad, negative stroke, these two young millennial thought-leaders are proving that black men and boys are assets to communities, and when properly invested in, the returns they’ll yield will be priceless.
As a mentor to these two brilliant black boys in Philadelphia, I quite often feel like the luckiest man in the world. I’ve had the pleasure for a few years to watch their steady and strategic progression, and now the world is being introduced to the men who will lead others to a place I cannot.
Planning to change the way members of communities contribute to causes through a cognitive surplus, Bennett and Williams are becoming the change in the world they want to see. So keep an eye out around town for them as they are millennials on the move!
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™