Why The College Experience Is Not Created Equal

for our communities by our communities, not by ourselves. I want to continue the conversation we began last episode around education now. In that episode, our guests touched on the importance of collaboration and the well being of our educators, creating safe spaces that allow the youth to be completely themselves just as they are. In this episode, I'm going

to focus more on that student experience. In the u US, we've grown to accept college as this write of passage for so many young people, but for some of them, especially students of color, going to college can be a very difficult experience. It's another stressor a source of financial and social burden that makes for a lonely experience when you're the only person in a room that looks like you. That's what makes today's guests so special through their resourcefulness

and collaboration. They've defied the odds, though their actions begin with themselves, through longing for something more, they proved that no one action is ever too small, and thanks to that work and their interests, they've become action leaders in their own lives, becoming that force that multiplies beyond themselves.

Our first guest is a writer, democratic organizer, founder and president of She the People, an organization dedicated to increasing voter engagement and showing the power of the women of color electorate. Amy Allison strongly believes that women of color are the saving graces of our American democracy, and her work kind of shows it. After we'll hear from Cheyenne Chambler, a graduate and first year medical Sciences Master's student at

the University of Kentucky. Her educational journey wasn't always easy. As a young student who had a father with a chronic illness and a family stretched financially, she had to lean into her university's resources to complete her studies and fulfill her dream of helping others. Amy, Welcome to Force Multiplier. I want to start with your early years. Where did this begin for you? Where did you grow up? And what was that life like? I grew up in rural Ohio.

I'm one of six kids. My parents had met. My dad's last couple of years getting his PhD in plant pathology. For a black man, that's a very unusual and rare profession at the time. His job took him to the middle of Ohio and it was a very, very white town with a little section of black people, and we went to the A. M. E. Church there, so I had my dad's teaching me what it was to be black, and then a few people at church and otherwise it was a lonely, lonely existence. And I remember then thinking

and always searching for belonging. And I have always been attracted to and building community with those of us who were on the margins. And it became a foundational value of mine, even before I could articulate those words. That's where it all started. For young people like Amy, especially in smaller working class towns, that sense of belonging mixed with a combination and of what comes next is overwhelming. But there is an institution ready to catch young minds

in their formative years. It's the military. So that's what Amy did. She enlisted in the U. S. Army in search of her own community. We're talking a lot about access and the power of access, whether it's too health resources, health care essentially to education and your educational journey. It sounds to me financial resource was the primary driver of your military enlistment, like this just felt like the way to pay for school or is there more to it.

I didn't think it all the way through. Your teenager. It's your job to not think things through that. Literally, you have one job as a teenager, underthink things. But I was also one of those kids where he said, oh, you can't do it, as I Yes, I can. The military recruiters have a lot of access to young people for pticularly in a school like mine, whereas a lot of working class kids. So when he laid it out, hey,

here's the economic argument. I didn't know that I could have gotten a job at McDonald's and made the same or a little bit more. But it was a job I could quit. I didn't know I couldn't quit. I didn't know. I had no idea that I was committing myself for eight years. I wanted to be a doctor at that time, and you know, in the subsequent years where I would talk to young people who are considering the military. So you know why, because service, public service

is an honorable thing. Why do you want to be in the military? And I often will hear I want job training, I want to get out of my parents house. I want to opportunity to be free. And I said, well, let me talk to you about freedom and what freedom really is. It's a conversation that I keep having with women of color everywhere, like the conversation about freedom. How did you end up getting free of the U. S. Military? You are no longer a member of the armed forces

of this country. How did you leave? The first I should say this all happened a long time ago, in my fifties. I have a chance to think about and tell the story with new meaning. What happened for me is after four years of being a combat medic. It was a reservist, so I was working with vets at the Palo Alto v A. I would go to my trainings, you know, and qualify for my weapon and we would still do MOP training. I was part of a mobile

hospital unit. Our unit was practicing for war. Was the time where I was, you know, going to college classes. I was learning about the freedom movement, the black freedom tradition, and remember I'm still young. The Black freedom tradition in America is the proudest tradition we have, and I started to realize I'm part of that. But what does it mean for me to study war even though the song

clearly says war no more so. My unit was starting to prepare to deploy, and a lot of us have this moment where we have to decide what is right for us. We have to make a hard decision and we have to have the courage. My dad actually told me about a very obscure rule that people in the military can pursue an honorable discharge as a conscientious objector, which means that a person who wasn't opposed to war

in any form when they joined, which I wasn't. I really hadn't thought of it to a person who based on moral, ethical, religious beliefs, could not participate. I had become that person, and I pursued one of the most difficult discharges. Took me a few years. I still wore the uniform, but I did earn that honorable discharge. I'm very proud of it, and I know of no other black woman who's won this kind of discharge. I did it for moral reasons, and I thought so few Americans

serve in the military. People might say thank you for your service, or remember the yellow ribbons which you might have been a generation ago, or they have this stickers on their car, but they actually don't understand what it is to give to your country. And I still believe in that, like, let's that's deep for me. It's just I want to give to my country. Differently, we are at a perfect point to talk about this time in this country. You've stated that women of color are the

saving grace of democracy. It's clear you're doing everything in your power to ensure these women have info, have access, have tools to exercise this power to save us. All I want to talk about democracy and color. I want to talk about get information and then the more present work of She the People. Can you just give me a brief overview and the path of the first two and then we'll focus more on She the People. Democracy and Color was about supporting courageous leadership that would stand

up for our issues, justice issues. But the thing that's behind the curtain that people don't see often about the business of politics is how we get the candidates on the ballot that we get and what they stand for. The ecosystem of donors and packs and party politics even at the state level, and campaign committees and influencers who say who's electable and not have a very definitive effect on who we see on the ballot and what they

stand for. So the Democrats for many, many years, and that's what democracy and Color and ultimately She the People continues to push on. I really thought the most important voters to win through supporting particular candidates and the money that they spend on you know, how they turn out votes was white voters. Yeah, and so we made the case and I'm still making the case. White voters are not the Democrats best hoped for success. They just aren't.

The majority of white men and women vote for Republicans. Those who are standing for abortion rights and climate justice and trans rights and economic equality, those are women of color. Those are the core. We did that work. Demarks and Color made that case. We're continuing to make that case, specifically for women of color. Now, what about good information.

We look at a state like Georgia where you have this fantastic candidate named Stacy Abrams, who I've known for many years, who was making a run for governor, and so here I am in California, knowing that we have this remarkable, talented candidate who has a philosophy of building a multiracial coalition in order to change the political landscape in Georgia to allow a Democrat to win statewide. And she had been doing that work for a long time.

So I founded a campaign called Get Information, explicitly to call black women who were outside of Georgia together to focus. Now listen. I went to Georgia. I had a friend who's to live in California. She moved to Atlanta and uh, I said, Hey, I'm here visiting the campaign of who I hope is your next governor. She said who's that? I said, Stacy Abrahams. And at that time she was like, oh, she'll never win. A melanated, natural hair woman democrat had

no shot in Georgia. Getting formation was about activating the power of black women before we were recognized. We are the highest vote turnout, most likely to organize. We are public servants extraordinary, and we whold division of democracy and justice. We are unique, we are special. The country needs us. It wasn't just black women who answered Latina's Asian American specific Islanders and Native women answer the call. People gave small amounts of money, they went to volunteer, and they

brought us to where we were today. Out of that, we saw the potential, even though we were fighting against these anti democratic people, both in Georgia and other places in these frontline states, that we have tapped something very powerful. So she the People was born out of that. It

was out about a vision. There's a thousand Stacy Abrahams in this country, and if we are able to focus our resources our attention on those who have the strongest vision and are most likely to build multi ritual coalitions, we can win. I love the language of Sheeta people. You explicitly talk about achieving a multiracial democracy, which is

something we haven't ever quite had. And I often think of this country, which I deeply love and have only ever really lived in for the past forty four years, as this unfinished journey, laudable goals, questionable execution, and we talk about, you know, we're the longest standing democracy and like whoa for who? You know, for most of our history most of our people couldn't participate. So is it

really a democracy? You know? Starting what year are recounting sixty four sixty never did have that equal rights Amendment for women, So maybe we can get to nickel on it. But I appreciate the explicit nature of multi racial democracy and the terms of love, justice, and belonging as kind of the spirit that moves this whole operation. So here's the picture I want to paint. Abortion rights are being dissolved,

economic crises are emerging. Yet again, both of these land disproportionately on women of color on the saving grace of democracy. This current US administration, the Biden administration, has a woman of color right there next to the president. He's only there because a lot of folks got information and turned up and turned out for him. It feels too many like we're losing. How do you handle what feels like a moment of regression for so many of us? Do

you see it? Is that? Remember when I told you, m I grew up in this black church in this really white area. Yeah, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Amy Church. The pastor used to talk about a scripture that called standing in the Gap. Do you ever hear about that? Hm? Standing in the gap refers to the difficult ability to see what is like the truth of what is at the same time hold what could be the greatest people who have ever lived had an extraordinary

capacity to stand in the gap. This is what we have to do right now. Everything you said is true, and the power and the possibility of justice can come. The reason why we organize are found our values is I deeply believe and am committed to gathering our people based on a fundamental belief of who we are with each other, to love our own and each other, to make justice the law of the land, to make this

country a place where everyone belongs. If we can hold that vision while seeing that, then we're doing something that is remarkably difficult and needed. In this moment, I tell people to be encouraged. Remember when I started this work, the term women of color was never used in politics. Women of color, including black women. Everyone talks about black women now. That didn't happen until and beyond Latino's huge, fastest growing part of the women of color population, Asian

Americans was always white voters until now. So what I got to see, a witness and really be part of is a changing of the culture that we are now seen and we are heard. Yeah, right now, we have all of these challenges that really come down to how strongly can we gather power? How nuanced can we think about power? Is it just about representation? It isn't. So representation is not the answer. Values are the answer and

building power. So when we look at what's happening now, we have to both prepare for the threat that is and strategize deeply about using our power, grounded in love, to overcome these elements in this country because they are What are some of the specific ways that you've learned to build this power and to mobilize communities? What does

that look like on the ground. Is it that use of technology is a type of messaging and their unique forms of other ring where people are feeling this potential, this possibility of what can be and not just what is well to the last thing, you know, and it seems like ancient history. But in twenty nineteen, when we had this historically diverse set of presidential hopefuls, I said, you know, what would be the power move to put women of color in a power position is to have

the first presidential forum focused on women of color. And that's what we did at Texas Southern, which is one of the largest hbc U s in Houston and we got it like over a thousand women of color from thirty states, and we had a presidential candidates and we were up there asking them questions that had never been asked to presidential hopeful. A lot of what we like

to talk about on this show is collaboration. We have folks on taken on big enough problems like of pandemic, like rebirth of democracy that no one person, no one organization could pull it off. How has collaboration Asian affected your work in particularly was She the People? Are there different types of partnerships and linkage. Is that you've been able to build and benefit from that help you see the clearer picture and help you achieve some of the

goals you set for. She the People is a network women of color are the movers where the organizers were the most effective on the ground, holders of the vision and actual turnout of voters. We just do all that. So She the People is a network of women all

over the country that do that. There are really exceptional organizing like Florida Rising, which is a statewide organizations actually themselves comprised of community and other groups that focuses on speaking to voters of color, doing political education, listening to them, getting people registered, turning people out to vote, building power from the ground up, a Virginia Majority one, Arizona, Texas organizing project, and the list goes on and on. These

are our partners. So I want to I want to bring it back as we started to close to the initiating theme of this episode, which is about education access and getting a little bit of that from your own story and thinking about the power that women of color

have and the connection of that power to education. You know, if there's a young woman considering her path the higher education, if there's someone considering a life in politics, do you have advice to folks in terms of how to get that education and that access to unlock you know, the power to govern ourselves. At the end of the day, there's so much to that question. It's a it's a great question. I will just focus on the aspect of the third part of power is data. It's not just stories,

it's not just knowing who our network is. It's data about ourselves. No one knows what we think or want. The education part goes on really figuring out who we are, how many of us there are. It's astounding, you know, in the last ten years, our vote share increased ten percent, white women's increase six where the majority of women in eight states. Now we are the majority of Democratic voters. So to me, understanding our power and educating is important

in our contribution achieve the people. Is we're doing a listening session across ten states and listening to women I think will help to contribute. Is My dream is to retell the American story with us in it and so understanding and almost refounding, getting an education to understand who America is with us in it, being powerful entities that shape this country, that served this country and continue to fight for ideals even if they weren't realized. That's the educationation.

Now would we go, look, there aren't the books, but we got to write the books. We have to write the books and have the data to have that kind of education, and once we do, we can understand and really embrace our power. We're far more powerful than anyone ever told us we were, and we're powerful together. That's holding the vision. That's the vision I got. I got one more for you, And it's the flip side of

everything you've been describing. Writing women of color into the story is often perceived and certainly weaponized by folks as being written out of the story. How do you think about the fear and backlash generated by the shifting narrative that you're promoting. Here's what I say. There are more people then we know and recognize that share our values, that we have the power to overcome those who would say the future is this dim, violent, vile, white supremacist future. No,

that is our past. We're building something new. So you have to ask yourself both how do you want to play in history? I decided I'm part of the black freedom tradition, and it's a tradition that's actually open to everyone. We can be part of that. I have seen the political power of black women, Asian American women, Latina's I have seen it grow in the time that I have

started this work till now. We're just getting started. And the movement that She the people is part of building is for us not to give up on the country. It is to create our own future and to create a new language and thinking about where we're going. Yeah, Amy Alison, thank you for everything you're doing. It's an honor to spend this time with you. I appreciate you and the work that you are part of so so much. Thank you. I feel the same appreciate you having me

on stand in the gap. You're listening to a podcast called Force Multiplier. Action meets Impact Now. I'm sure you've grown to expect ads baked into your podcast, but we're gonna do something a little different to walk the walk. We've donated our ad space to the organizations that need it, most organizations directly tackling today's greatest challenges. Be right back. The biggest threat to global health isn't a virus, it's injustice.

The same scenario the ones denied life saving HIV medication to the world's poorest countries is now on repeat with access to COVID relief. We must act now to get doctors and nurses on the front lines to help they need to save lives. Join Red and learn how every dollar raised for the Global Fund results in thirty one dollars in health gains and economic returns. Visit red dot org for the many ways your money and support can

become a force multiplier in the fight against pandemics. Hey, I'm still Baritune Day, your host for Force Multiplier, but I'm checking in with you with a little different energy, because if you're listening, you like the show, and if you like the show, you might like my other show, How to Citizen, where we take citizen as a verb and find out from people practicing the ways we can shape our community by showing up, investing in relationships, understanding power,

and valuing our collective selves. Check it out at how to Citizen dot com or wherever you get your podcast. The more I think about Amy's story, the more impressive it gets. She's someone who challenges herself, doesn't take the common road from her honorable discharge, which is pretty hard to obtain to uplifting the voices of marginalized women in places that can be so incredibly unwelcome to them. She is a manifestation of what we can accomplish when we

move as one. She also shows us that before helping others, sometimes we've got to help ourselves be kind and true to ourselves, even if the choices we make go against our initial plans. Much like Amy, our next guests also didn't allow circumstances to define the outcome of her life. As a recent graduate of the University of Kentucky, Cheyenne Chandler had to quickly learn how to leverage resources from the institution to complete her studies. Check it out. Hi,

my name is Cheyenne Chandler. I am a recent graduate from the University Kentucky. So I have always really been interested in oncology and cancer therapies. I have a personal experience. My dad is a cancer survivor and he's also going through treatments. Currently he has a jenetic cancer and so it's just going to be continuous for the rest of

his life. I have seen and witnessed a bunch of oncologists and munologists actually create therapy specifically for him, and that's how I really figured out that that's actually what I want to do. I really want to just honestly help people. But before helping people, had to learn how to help a person, namely herself. She had made the first step, she got herself into the school, but once she got there, she had to learn how to stay there. That's a whole another game, that's a whole another class.

And when you're in one of these big universities, it's already hard. When you're bearing the pressures from home, that can be a lot. This is the point where we lose a lot of our young people especially women of color, because financial challenges coupled with the lack of representation can leads to this feeling helpless and alone. Lucky for Cheyenne, she stumbled upon our University's LEADS program, which is short

for Leveraging Economic Affordability for Developing Success. This is her school scholarship program set in place to ensure that every student who needs an education can actually afford one. First, when I was accepted into UK, the first thing that they normally do is send you a bill, and I remember when I opened the mail and I saw fifty dollars and I screened, that's it. I can't do this.

It's just just a lot of money. And I was like, Okay, I'm gonna figure out how to do it, and went through the Financial Aid Office website where I was able to get instate tuition. But for me to get into LEADS, it was actually a really bad circumstance that I was in.

I was not a part of my LEADS program my first year in college, and so my family really forked out the I think it's around like dollars that we had to pay for in state and that didn't account food, and that an account the required meal plan that you had to be on as a freshman in the building. So I think it was like dollars total, which is better than some people, but it was still very high. I made it through my first fall semester and I

just couldn't afford it. Classes were registering again and I just couldn't get my account opens register at all because you have to pay your balance off. And I remember going to the Financial aid office and they recommended for me for getting a loan, and I said, I already have some loans. I can't afford that. And at that point my mom had gotten laid off, and also my dad a lot of a cancer treatment that he was doing. It was just really difficult for all of us to pay.

And this is when Leeds really was starting to get bigger, and I think they had just started and they were still collecting money to start the program, and they were like, actually, we're gonna put you in contact with the people who can really help you, and that was LEADS. So it was sort of just a blessing. And I remember I was walking back to my dorm and I was on the side of the the road and that's when Miss will Gis,

who is the advisor over me for LEADS. She called me and she was like, Hi, Cheyenne, I know you just talked with someone from the Financial aid office and we heard about your story and we really just want to help you continue scholarship journey and continue academically. And I was like what, I was on the side of the road crying because that one phone call really changed everything, because they truly let me get to the point where I was able to graduate. And it was just an

honest question. So here Cheyenne going through this difficult moment in her life, and even in this very stressful time, she is still helping others. She's still thinking of ways she can do more. I think programs like leads are essential, not just for what they provide on the surface. As a scholarship kid, myself, I believe in the value helping kids pay for tuition and books. That is practical, that is necessary, greatly appreciated. Thanks for all the folks who

helped me out. But programs like this do more than just provide the money. They are providing a service to students and even hold communities. That's hard to measure. Here's what happens when we help students like Cheyenne, We're telling them, we believe in you, believing in yourself, We believe that you matter just the way you are right now. That sort of investment beyond the money, but just caring about

people's well being. That investment pays dividends for communities that needed most because it turns people like Cheyenne into leaders who can go back and pave the way and advise others and create more people like Cheyenne who can go back and pave the way and advise others and create this really virtuous cycle. So I actually agreed to a mentor a couple of students and help a couple of

organizations that I was still a part of. So like one of them is he's in Medicine, which is an organization for health care really directed towards minority students, and so I'm actually the social media manager and so I'll

be doing that while I'm in my maths program. But my advice for any student that is really participating in STEM, anything from engineering to science to medicine to even math, really is if you do not see representation, then say something about it first, because there really are a lot of people who may not be actually at your university, but in the community who would love to come. Secondly,

never give up on yourself. That's one of the biggest things that I told myself when I was crying because I just felt so alone in some of my classes, and I really just told myself, you got this. You are capable, and you are extremely intelligent, and you will

make it through. And third really would be if you see lack of representation then started and that was the biggest one for me is when I went back to several organizations that I was a part of our other classes and I said, I don't see anybody that looks like me, and that's a problem. And if so, if you need that person, then I would be that person so that the next person we'll see someone that I needed. Financially, my advice would definitely be asked as many people as possible.

It was really me just walking around campus for an hour and a half in the blistering he just going around and not taking another loan. So go to your financial aid office, asked them if it is there any other programs, Are there any grants, any fellowships, any work studies that I could possibly do. Additionally, there are a lot of scholarships that are available, especially if you are

a person of color. There's just so many opportunities. My advice for any business audience would truly be to actually asked, is there any small initiatives that can really help? Or can I start an initiative that can help students and helping financially, You're really helping someone complete their life. It's just it's just that's I feel like that's an honor. Over the years, higher education has become synonymous with this

ritual symbolizing the ultimate American dream and freedom. As we've learned from our two guests, the path to education isn't always linear. In fact, it's sometimes lonely, terrifying, expensive and wobbly. But sometimes these are the experiences that allow us to help others. When we find these hidden gems, the people that believe and invest in our potential, then we can finally start to believe in some of the promise that this country offers up, that we can be anything we

want to be. That's a big promise, you know. And there's definitely these moments when I feel like it's just marketing, and then I meet people like Amy, I meet people like Cheyenne, I remember finding these moments of belief in myself, myself, that little motor in me that kept me going, and I love seeing that in others. So folks can go and share that wealth with all of our communities and uplifting empower us all, especially when we're not feeling so empowered.

These ideas don't have to be grand, over the top huge, as we've seen time and again throughout this season, our guests proved that being yourself is sometimes the most radical thing you can do, the most profound action you can take. And whether it's through their lines of work lending an air offering practical advice to building communities during difficult times, I guess I've never up in their pursuit of making a difference, of bridging the divide and solving some of

today's greatest challenges. It's in the small lack sometimes, like seeing a face that's willing to help you in a classroom setting, or the acknowledgment of your wants and needs by a political figure. It's those moments that help teach us to learn to bet on ourselves, to take risk for ourselves, and to take our community along for the right. Are you feeling inspired and want to check out more information about the organizations we talked about in this episode.

Learn more about our guests and how you can support their work by going to Salesforce dot org slash Force Multiplier. Force Multiplier's production of I Heart Radio and Salesforce dot Org. Hosted by me Barrett tune Day Thurston. It's executive produced by Elizabeth Stewart, produced by Vane Chien, edited and mixed by James Foster, and written by Yvette Lopez. A special thanks to our guests Amy Allison and Cheyenne Chandler. Listen to Force Multiplier on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. M