Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: This is Paul Peters with On Purpose with Paul. Your amazing host, entrepreneur, bestselling author, founder of the Nehemiah Project, and owner of Covenant Case Management Services.
My name is Paul Peters. I'm a proud father of the three kids. I always want to put that as a priority for me. I have a company called Covenant Case Management Services in North Carolina. We primarily work with folks with intellectual disability, mental health, substance abuse. We are looking to expand outside of North Carolina this year. Also have a non profit based in North Carolina called the Nehemiah Project. We basically work with individuals that are struggling with addiction, homelessness, seniors, veterans, homeless and at risk kids, domestic violence victims, and those with mental health, intellectual disabilities. I want to take my message about what I have discovered helping people find their purpose. And I want to take it worldwide because I believe if people find their purpose, they're going to find their joy. They're going to find the reason for their existence and how they connect to this world.
Welcome to On Purpose with Paul. I'm here with the distinguished guest, Dr. Anthony Davis. Dr. Davis, welcome to On Purpose with Paul.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: I'm excited to be here. Wow, what an amazing opportunity to sit down with you. Best selling offer. You have one of my favorite pieces of literature. Your life, your purpose.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: I can't wait to unpack it. But hey, I'm glad that we're here today.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Well, we're excited for him to tell his story, Dr. Davis.
He's going to tell his story of how he came from the foster care system to become the college president.
And he's going to be telling his story about what he went through to get to that point to give people, young kids, a sense of hope. Dr. Davis, tell us your story.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: Well, my story begins in 1965 in New Haven, Connecticut. My mother was a teenager who was pregnant with me, 13, gave birth to me at age 14.
The plan was my mother, my grandmother and I would, you know, come together as being the family that was gonna be my direct caregiver to get my mother out of high school and to get us to the place to where she would be able to, you know, take, you know, the responsibility of raising me as an adult.
Unfortunately, tragedy happened on the night that I was born.
My grandmother dies.
So here you are with a teenager, 14 years old and now a newborn baby.
Back then, foster care was a little different.
People didn't take the mother and the child, they said one or the other, because there was only one check that wouldn't follow two foster care children.
So my mother was placed in one foster home, and I was placed in in another foster home. They couldn't find a home for me initially, but they found a home for me in New Haven, Connecticut, 9 Admiral Street. A woman by the name of Louise Jackson Moore, who had never raised any children of her own. If there was a greatest of all time related to foster care and foster parents, she would have been on that list. They went to her and said, hey, you've done a great job raising young men who are in the foster care system.
We have one more for you. She said, I can't do it. I'm older now. I'm sick. I can't do it. They asked her to keep me for a weekend. She kept me for a weekend and fell in love with me. I always bragged to my wife and said, see? See how easy that is? She fell in love. It's easy to fall in love with me. I get it. But no, she fell in love with me and kept me and said, God is telling me that I have to keep this one. And my entire life I spent right there, 9 Admiral Street, New Haven, Connecticut. Which is symbolic because Admiral street was directly across the street from the largest public housing project in the state at that time, Elm Haven housing project. A stone's throw away from Yale University, but light years apart. It was one of those housing projects where it was just not the best of situations. But it taught me so much growing up in that community.
So I level set every day. I don't start my day without taking a look at the dilapidated property that I grew up in. And I take a snapshot. I have photos of the housing project that was across the street where I spent most of my days with all of my friends. And the projects were housing projects weren't upgraded to where I was living. But I stayed there for 17 years, nine months.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: Same lady, same time. So I don't have the horror stories of being bounced around. I have some other things that I can talk about relative to my foster care experience.
But she was preparing me for emancipation. She didn't use the word emancipation, but she said, when you get 18, they're gonna kick you off.
I didn't know what that meant. She said, so I've gotta prepare you for life.
And I said, what?
So she was very intentional about education.
Whereas in that community athletics and going to the community school across the street, Winchester community school, they had something called open gym.
The reason why I'm not a better athlete is because she wouldn't let me go to open gym. She said, you need to go to the library and open a book, because your ticket will not be athletics. Your ticket will be academics.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: And so during the summers. This is funny. During the summers, rather than going to day camp and what they had game room. She said, no, that's the waste of time. So during the summers, I had to learn poetry orations, and guess what? To this day, I have to still use some of those poems. She would call her friends over and she said, do that poem by Langston Hughes for me and do the Creation by James Weldon Johnson. I didn't realize that later on in life that I was being prepared.
In the summers. I spent my summers on the campus of Yale University. They had a special program for inner city youth to come to their campus. And that is where I really unlocked my potential in the area of math and science. They had a program called the Ulysses S. Grant program was through their foundation, and they had a partnership with this inner city housing project. And I was one of the only males that was on that campus. But that turned out to be how I navigated the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test. Because I scored so high in that they had me come back, take it again, because young men from my zip codes didn't score that high.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:42] Speaker A: That is so cool.
So what was the greatest lesson that she taught you?
[00:06:47] Speaker B: Greatest lesson? Integrity.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: Integrity.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Integrity.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: Tell me a little bit more about why that is so important.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: Because what she was saying is, if you're always leading with the truth, you never have to tell a lie.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: She said, if you're leading with the truth, you never have to live the lie.
Think about that. You're 13, 14 years old. You're getting these life lessons.
If you leverage the truth, you never have to lead in with a lie.
And that's true. So I've taken that to my presidency. I tell my staff, I tell everyone I encounter, vendors and everyone associated affiliated with Livingstone College, that I will be three things. I'll be trusting, I'll be trustworthy, and I will be transparent.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Now what? The lesson that she taught you, and you have gone into some high schools, and you've seen some kids that you probably mentored a counsel to talk with.
What lessons have you been able to communicate to them? Because she was really a beacon of hope for you, and she served not only as a parent, mom, dad, was she married?
[00:07:57] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: Okay, so you had a mom and dad.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Right.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: And so the lessons that she taught you, how have you communicated that to some of the kids that you've been working with? Not only here at the college, but some of the kids that you've gone, because I know you've done some traveling to give them a sense of hope so that they can keep their eye focused in order to be as successful as you have been.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Life lesson number two. So we talked about integrity. She always talked about education.
She always said that education will be your key.
So what I tell students today is that education is the key that will unlock the door to the middle class and beyond. Now, there are other ways that you can get into the middle class and beyond. Most of the time, you break in or slip in, but this is the surest way for upward mobility to use your key. Your education will be your key.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Sure. And you're a great example there.
So a lot of individuals who have gone through the foster care system, and I myself do some mentoring because I have a mentoring center in Stanley County.
And so did you have some difficulties as a foster kid going through some of the challenges, some of the peer pressure, drugs, alcohol, gangs, anything like that?
[00:09:03] Speaker B: Not personally, but I was around it.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: And growing up in 9 Admiral street, guess what? She put the fear of God in you, where you realize that now you don't want to do that.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: I will tell you my humble beginnings. My family. When you say Stanley county, my mother and my entire Davis family.
Guess what? That's where our roots started. Right there in Stanley county in Albemarle right now. One of our family homes are right there on Washington Lane, right there in Albemarle. So that's my family history.
My family tree is right down the road. So we're kindred spirits, right? When you talk about Stanley county, yeah.
Gangs were around us, but guess what?
She just had a way of making sure that that just wasn't something that I would slip into.
I was always involved in, you know, sports programs later on after I got a little older. And then by the time I got into high school, guess what? I was too busy. I was too busy. I held a job working at a pharmacy.
And that was one of the things that helped me grow because people. People were around me that were pouring into me. My high school mentor who owned the pharmacy, he's gone on the glory now. His name was Milton Smirnoff. He saw so much potential in me. And, you know, I'm not going to say he felt sorry for me, but he empowered me. I'll tell you how. I didn't have a car, Right.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: So I'm working for this pharmacy. And one of the things he would Allow me to do was go on deliveries. When I had my driver's license. He said, take the company car and go deliver. Before Walgreens and CVS were popular, was the neighborhood pharmacy. And so what he would do is say, Anthony, it's 7:30. You know, we close at 8. I need you to go do a delivery for me. He would purposely give me a delivery close to closing so I could take the company car. He said, keep the car for the weekend. And so I had a car for the weekend so I can go out and be a teenager with means when I had no means.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Yeah. That is amazing. It's interesting because Albemarle is the location of the mentoring center and we focus on the at risk kids in the particular areas that are struggling. So we have a lot more in common, which is pretty powerful. So it's interesting. If the individuals that were played a part in your life knew what had come of you now, what would they say?
[00:11:31] Speaker B: Some of them actually still alive?
Two people. My fourth grade teacher and my sixth grade teacher. My sixth grade teacher was actually at my inauguration and he spoke okay.
Also my fourth grade teacher. My fourth grade teacher was the one who really unlocked the door for me.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: So when you grow up in foster care, although my foster mother was great, I didn't have to deal with the abuse. I ate every day. I had good meals every day.
She utilized the money for what it should be utilized. Right. Food stamps. I grew up in public assistance. I always tell people, hey, I grew up on a grant from the US Department of Agriculture. Right. Food stamps.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: I grew up on that.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: So I didn't have to worry about some of the trauma or some of the horror stories that you hear.
But the one thing that I remember, and it wasn't until I was well into my 40s, I never talked about being in foster care. No one ever knew because I was ashamed of that. I didn't talk about it.
I didn't talk about it until I actually executed my spiritual autobiography when I was in my doctoral program.
I never wrote about it. It was so liberating to talk about it.
[00:12:48] Speaker A: We will be right back after these announcements.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: The most traumatic, one of the traumatic things that I will always remember was for a behavior modification tool.
She would say, if you don't behave in school, I'm gonna have to tell the state to come on here and get you because I'm too old for this. So I didn't know what that meant. Yeah, I mean, to have the state come in, I knew that they had those little Blue cars, little blue cars. And we would see them come in the housing projects. Cause I'm sure there were other individuals in my neighborhood. But the state would come. I mean, they had. The state vehicle back then was a Dodge Dart. You know, it had a symbol of state of Connecticut on the side of the car. But she would use that. And so I had a traumatic experience in third grade that should have really derailed me. And it almost did.
So I go, well, between second and third grade, I had a traumatic incident happen to me.
An attempted molestation. I told you I'd be liberated. It was attempted. Didn't happen. Thank God. It's like God sent somebody to catch it before it happened.
But psychologically, I went on a different trajectory.
My behavior just went south. And I had a third grade teacher that didn't understand.
So she was constantly sending me home, sending me to the principal's office. And it was third grade where she said, if you keep this up, I'm gonna have the state come and get you.
So now I move into fourth grade.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: And now in my mind, keep messing up.
I'm gonna have the state come and get you.
Keep messing up. Yeah, I'm gonna have you them come pack up your things and take you. Cause I can't do this.
And I remember my fourth grade teacher, this incident, true story.
The kids bullied me, picked on me because I didn't wear the same style clothes that they wore.
My hair, she wouldn't let me grow an afro back then. I had to keep my hair just like I keep it now, brush cut.
Now I can grow here. I keep it low, right?
And I never will forget. They picked on me because I was very, very smart, very, very articulate.
I sat on a thumbtack. They put thumbtacks in my seat. And I sat on the thumbtack.
And I sat on that thumbtack. Wouldn't cry. They were laughing. The bell rings and I'm crying. My fourth grade teacher says, why are you still sitting here? It's time to go home.
I said, I have a thumbtack in my seat. She said, you don't have no more sense than to let somebody put a thumbtack in your seat.
And I said to Yvonne Jones, my fourth grade teacher, I said, if I go home and I fight, I might get into trouble and the state will come and get me.
She took me by the hand. And the housing project was directly across the street from my elementary school. And she walked across the street hand in hand.
And my foster mother was on the porch because the rule was when the bell rang, you had about five minutes to. To get from across the street to the house because you had to get home, start homework, because dinner was at 4pm after General Hospital went off.
[00:16:06] Speaker A: I used to watch that show.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. One Life to Live. General Hospital. Right. So I.
My fourth grade teacher, Yvonne Jones, an HBCU graduate from the northern part of North Carolina, somewhere around Weldon, somewhere, Somewhere in that area, grabbed me by the hand, walk me across the street. My foster mother was waiting for me on the porch. I told you not to get in trouble. Now the teacher has to bring you home. Now this is. And the teacher said, anthony, go inside and start your homework.
She sits on the front porch. She tells her mother, this boy is brilliant, but you're killing him.
You have to allow him to take advantage of what that school has to offer.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: She said, there's after school programs and things. He doesn't have to run home every day. You need to let him live in this community or this community is going to devour him.
And it was that conversation where she allowed me to take up some after school programs. But get this, it was only three.
All right.
So my first after school program was martial arts because I had to learn how to defend myself.
And when I was taking martial arts, the same individual taught me how to play chess.
Name is Mr. Ronald Moore. He was at my inauguration as well.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: Oh, cool.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: And my fourth grade teacher sent her family members because she passed while I was going through the search to be president. She said, you're gonna make it, baby doll. That was her term of endearment for me.
But my sixth grade teacher, remember, I talked about. About being able to go to after school programs. She allowed me to go to martial arts. But she said, you're gonna do something that has to do with, you know, schoolwork. She said, I can go be a part of rocking and science club. And I met Ron Jakubowski, who ended up becoming a superintendent of one of the school districts in Connecticut. He was at my inauguration as well.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: But it was Ron Jakubowski, a sixth grade teacher. They all got together, and later on I learned that Ms. Jones had gone to all of them and they knew my story and they rallied behind me. And I didn't know it until I'm. Well, until adulthood.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: Those were some of the life changing things that made me want to have.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: That's amazing. It's interesting because I'm around the same age. I was actually bullied myself because I was raised by a single parent. And had some issues that were different than yours. But, you know, I want to bring up a couple things that you shared that I think are very powerful. You have an underlying root of faith, and then you had an underlying root of somebody guiding you. Several people guiding you. I would call mentors, and for me, a man of faith, I would indicate. Seem to indicate that God had put people in your path, Because I'm one of those individuals that believes God knows your future and he puts people in your path. And so what message would you give to the kids as you're telling your story and going out? And just some of the things. Because you could have gone down the wrong path because you were being bullied, you had a situation where you potentially could have been molested, which, you know, a lot of kids that we deal with in foster care are going through that, and they're not allowed to share. They're just. They see it as a behavioral challenge. And of course, then they get into that behavior modification, and they're not able to really heal from that, and they carry that. So tell a little bit about some of, you know, how that helped you and some of these mentors. And then they actually came to your graduation and supported.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: They were there.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: So, I mean, powerful stories of how I believe God has put certain people in your path.
[00:19:43] Speaker B: In your path. Definitely.
Here's what I say, and I live this every day. God's plan always prevails. Yeah, his plan always prevails. Even if you deviate from the plan, somehow he gets you back on track. Because there were times when I was going in a totally different direction. That's why my story is different. It has a happy ending. I told you that I was born of a teenage mother who was 14.
When I was 24 years old, I had the encounter of a lifetime. I finally had an opportunity to.
To meet my biological mother.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: That's awesome. Tell us about that.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Wow. It was amazing. So I'm in New Haven, Connecticut.
I'm with one of my foster brothers.
And he asked me. I helped him out of a situation. I was always a counselor and someone they could talk to. And I helped him out of a bad situation.
And he said, what can I do for you? I said, I'm the only one of all of you who grew up, I'm the only one that doesn't know my biological family. I want to know who my mother is.
I want to know. I hear I have a sister here. I want to know. And he said, okay.
He comes to me, and guess what he does. He says, you're going to go to church today.
So I went to Bethel Ame, Not Ame Zion, Bethel AME Church. And he said, your mother's a member. And I stayed there all day, and I waited for her to come to church. And for the first time in about two, three years, she didn't come to church.
So the next day, my good friend and I, you know, I was always an entrepreneur. I, you know, I ran an entertainment enterprise where I would run a traveling nightclub, so to speak.
And Mondays were reconciliation day, right? Take back the renting equipment, tables and chairs. And that Monday, I was telling my friend and business partner, I said, hey, you know what my weekend was like. And he said, wow, your mother? I said, yeah. They said, she works at Hill House. He said, why don't you just stop by? I said, I don't know her. He said, well, stop by and see one of the administrators.
I said, the gym teacher. He said, he was our gym teacher, but. But now he's a principal. He's assistant principal that you need to go. And when I went in, I saw him, told him the story.
He couldn't believe it. And he said, you know, to me, he said, I know who you're talking about, and if you. This is a hoax, this is not gonna be good.
And he went and he brought the young lady back.
When I walked in the building, we caught. Made eye contact, and we made eye contact. We both looked at each other.
She went down the hall, and when she came back in, she said, when you walked in, she said, I knew that you were messing up.
And so it was her, though. When you talk about God putting people in your path.
So it was as if I needed a software design from Louise Jackson Moore.
From birth to about age 17, 18, I go into the military. Age 17, I serve honorably with distinction. I come back to the same place, and I'm working in health care, and I'm doing some things.
And then I meet my biological mom, who said, well, this is great, but this isn't what God has for you. Yeah, I remember her telling me, you know, you called the ministry. And I laughed, and I said, if God's calling me, he's got the raw dumper.
And I can tell you about a car accident I had the next day after I said that. That got my attention. That's something else. I don't want to take up your whole entire interview, but it was my mother, Rhonda Gibbs, who was the Joe Clark of New Haven Public Schools.
She was one of the best high school administrators in the country.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: She ran the transitional program, or better yet, the school for young men and women at risk.
Basically, her school was a dumping ground. But even though the city or the school district made it a dumping ground, she worked so hard and it became a school of choice magnet status.
[00:24:14] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:24:14] Speaker B: She was so revolutionary as it relates to serving the community.
She would send work to the jail for young men who got caught up in the trap, as I like to say. She would send work by the correction officers to the jail so that when they got out, at least they'd be on track to graduate. Yeah, I mean, that's how she was. She was the one who said, you need to go back to school.
[00:24:46] Speaker A: We will be right back after these announcements.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: I said, why I need to go back to school. I'm working in health care. And you know what? They're paying me as if I have a master's degree. I was a lab tech. I was a good lab tech, military trained, and I had perfected the craft.
And I said. She said, but one day you're going to hit a glass ceiling. And ultimately that's not what God wants you to do.
I said, what do you mean, good salary?
She said, that's not what God wants you to do.
You've been called.
And guess what? A few years later, after that car accident, it was revealed to me what my purpose was. So I accepted my call to ministry. After I accepted my call to ministry, things started to make sense.
Then one thing after the other, I end up graduating from. Well, not then. She was telling me, first of all, you need to go back to school and get your degree. So I came to Livingstone College, 2001, I graduated, and when I graduated, I said I wanted to come back and be president. Some of my friends, I told them, I said one day we're sitting on the lawn after graduation and I said, I want to come back and be president.
22 years later, I'm the president.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: Let me ask you a quick question because I find it so interesting. Both you and your mom went through the foster care system separately. So you were divided or separated from your mom. And then from my observation, God put this godly woman in your life to raise you just with some strict direction focus with education.
And here you are now a college president. So the seed she planted in you. And then you then meet your mom, you know, when she's 24, literally 10 years later, and whoever raised her poured some good stuff in her.
[00:26:41] Speaker B: Well, I didn't meet her. I didn't meet her until I was 24.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: Yeah. When you were 24. And so she's 38 and so.
[00:26:48] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: And so it's so interesting because I don't know the situation when she was 14, I don't know what that was like for her, but God was apparently working in her life as well. Because when you Both met at U24, her 38, she continued to pour into you.
[00:27:02] Speaker B: Oh, big time. It was like the baton. It was like Louise Moore, you run the first leg.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:08] Speaker B: Wanda Gibbs, now you run the anchor. And she ran the anchor. Yeah, she handed me the. I mean, the baton was passed.
And she poured into me and she wouldn't stop. She would not stop.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: When I.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: When I earned my bachelor's, she said, you can't stop. You got to go get your master's. And then when I got my master's, now, you know, you need to do your doctor. I said, I want to do it. And.
Yeah.
[00:27:28] Speaker A: Well, it's interesting because your mom who raised you and then at 14, had to give you up.
No longer per se was your mom. And then you're raised by another mom, and then you're raised original mom once again reunites and then becomes your mom to further encourage you in your education. So why did you pick lip instead?
[00:27:48] Speaker B: Well, because I was a member of the Amy Zion Church, and Bishop George Washington Carver Walker Sr.
One of the retired bishops in the Amy Zion Church, today met with me and I was working on a community, community based project. And he spent a day with me. Think about this. A bishop in the Amy Zion Church, spending a day with, at that time, someone who was just starting out in ministry, a preacher.
And when I met Bishop Walker and spent the day with him, he said, young man, you have so much to offer the Christian ministry.
He said, I need you to go to Livingstone.
He said, I don't know how much further you have to do to get your degree. I need you to go to Livingstone.
I really need you to go to Livingstone. And I said, salisbury, North Carolina. I'm in New Haven, Connecticut.
Everything I have is here.
He said, I believe that if you go to Livingstone, God is going to bless you.
I can't tell you what the future holds, but I know that if you go, God is going to bless you. He said, you have so much to offer that I have pastors in some of my marquee pulpits.
Can't do what you're doing in this community, but you got to get your paper.
So I came to Livingstone and I actually did. Well, I worked in healthcare, so I was A lab tech.
I worked at Duke in one of the laboratories. I was working for a private company that had the contract with Duke to find lab techs.
Long story.
[00:29:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: But I was working there.
And I would work there Monday through Friday.
Right.
But guess what? I was on campus every night. So I would drive from Durham to Salisbury four nights a week, all day on Saturday, graduated magna cold.
And. And it was in April of 2001.
They said, we need you to speak as an older continuing education student to motivate some of these students that are here on how to just keep your head down and show that grit and grind. We need you to speak and tell your story. And I told my story. And at that time, Katrilia Hunter and Dr. Katrina Julia Hunter and Dr. Alginia Freeman came to me, approached me for the same job the same day, but at different times. We want you to be on our team.
And Dr. Freeman was the president at the time, said, you know what they tell me that you're going to be a bishop in this church one day. But I see college president and I took the job at Livingstone.
I've had the added value of seeing this institution six different ways. I've been a director level employee. I've been assistant vice president, associate vice president, vice president, senior consultant, chief operating officer, and now president. I have seven lenses into Livingstone College.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: Pretty amazing story. So talk about, because I understand you're very involved in AME Zion. You served as a lay leader, pastor.
Tell why that's so important for you. Because as you mentor, as you, as a college president, you speak out. One of the things that I have discovered in regards to my own story, spirituality. Faith has played a vital foundation for the understanding of what your purpose is. And you seem very passionate working with youth and helping them to be able to be educated, to be able to know what their calling is. And you mentioned that earlier. So talk about the foundation and the importance of faith for you. And then. And then how that has linked into some of the stuff that you're doing. Because I know you're working with the youth knowing that you got the whole program and you've got some other programs. So talk about how and what you've learned and then pouring that into some of the kids through some of the things that you're doing.
[00:31:55] Speaker B: The scripture says. Right. Yeah. Faith is the substance of things hoped for.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: And the evidence of things not seen.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:32:04] Speaker B: Think about that.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:05] Speaker B: It's the substance of everything you hope for. Right.
And the evidence of things not seen.
How do you have Evidence. That's what faith is. If you can see it, it's not faith. If you see your way out of it, you don't have to be faithful.
[00:32:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: I tell everyone God has bailed me out of situation after situation, and now I'm to the point where I don't know when he's going to do it.
[00:32:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:32] Speaker B: I don't know how he's going to do it, but I just believe he's going to do it.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: And if it worked for me, it can work for you. And one of the things you have to believe beyond what you see, that's what faith is. So you have to believe beyond your situation. I've had situations, situations here as president that God has opened some doors that I probably never would seen open, but I would tell my team, I have faith. I'll give you one.
[00:32:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:01] Speaker B: My CFO is.
You know, I have a very diverse cabinet.
[00:33:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:07] Speaker B: He is a white male.
Okay. And he. He has said this, so he won't mind me saying this.
We were looking at the budget, looking at the balance sheet and the budget and balance sheet said, if we're going to get out of this $6.8 million deficit we're in, we're going to have to cut workforce.
And I said, no, we can't do that.
He said, we got to do something. I said, we're not going to do that. He said, why not? I said, it's too close to Christmas.
I said, by the way, let's give everyone a Christmas bonus.
He said. He said, okay, but in January, we're really going to have to come back and look at this budget.
And I said, okay.
I said, the Lord will provide.
And guess what?
We had a donor who I'd been cultivating, who wished to remain anonymous, had already given us our first largest individual outright contribution of $1 million.
But then in January, when we should have had layoffs, and I said, no, we're not gonna do that.
We kept working and keeping everybody employed.
God blessed us and he moved on. The heart of that donor, they gave a million. And then it came back in February and gave another million. Wow. Then March, another million. And then April, another million. June, July, another million. What I'm saying is, through my faith, others are now seeing this faith thing really works.
I got another announcement I can't do right now that I'll be making this week. But now I have others understanding that faith is indeed is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
[00:35:02] Speaker A: Yeah, that's amazing.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: You don't know when he's going to do it.
[00:35:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:07] Speaker B: Just know he's going to do it.
[00:35:08] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: And in our African American.
How should I say this? From our African American church, Speak lens.
You know, we say he may not come when you walk, but he's always right on time.
[00:35:25] Speaker A: That's right. That's right.
Talk about.
Because not only have you served in multiple capacities at the church, you've served in multiple capacities here at the college.
And you have been so successful at raising money. Talk about the. I think the miracle on Monroe Street.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: Monroe Street. You're sitting right in the middle.
[00:35:46] Speaker A: Talk about that.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: Think about this. An institution that was founded by the descendants of freed slaves who gave birth to an audacious idea that we're going to start a school up out of slavery. Some who couldn't read and write said, we're going to start a college that's 1879, 145 years later with minimal investment from the state. We're a private hbcu, so we've lived off of tuition and fees, philanthropic support from the AME Zion Church, private gifts and grants. And yet with everything around us that says we shouldn't survive, we're still here. This is the miracle in Monroe street that we're still surviving, but we're also thriving in this environment.
We're doing what our ancestors envisioned. They never envisioned that a place like Livingstone would be there just to award degrees.
They knew that places like Livingstone were going to be places where they could send their children and their children's children to be equipped and empowered and educated.
But equipped and empowered was more important because then you could take what you learned and bring it back and make our community stronger.
[00:37:08] Speaker A: We will be right back after these announcements.
I see a common thread here. And you had mentioned the hbcu. What does that mean?
[00:37:21] Speaker B: That's our birthright.
[00:37:22] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:37:23] Speaker B: Historically black colleges and universities.
[00:37:27] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:37:28] Speaker B: Institutions found before 1954 for the purpose of educating African Americans. That's just our birthright.
[00:37:38] Speaker A: So almost they were given an opportunity. A seed was planted and they broke through the asphalt.
[00:37:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:44] Speaker A: To be. To be born.
[00:37:45] Speaker B: But was the seed planted or was the seed discarded?
Thrown away.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:52] Speaker B: And somehow found its way in the.
[00:37:55] Speaker A: Ground and said, good soil.
[00:37:57] Speaker B: Good soil.
But although the asphalt covered it. But maybe there was just a crack in it.
Right. And enough water got in and enough sunlight got in for the process of photosynthesis.
Now the stalker corn emerges.
[00:38:12] Speaker A: Interesting.
And you're probably familiar with the parable of the sower about the seeds that were sown. And I see the seeds that were sown back in the 1800s with this church and a lot of it was ported to you. It fell in good soil. And of course, when it falls into good soil, you know, blessings and blessings and that's what has happened. And it's interesting, as you were growing up, God put mentors and people, your fourth grade teacher, your foster parent, all these people in your path to give you a sense of hope. Because when you're talking about faith, there is a sense of hope. And actually in that particular verse, it talks about hope and the hope. And I think about a couple different verses. My people perish for lack of vision. You were given a vision because when you were asked to come here and someone said, I see you as the college president or you said that to yourself and it was a future oriented, but you were so poured into it and given such a sense of belief that you could accomplish so much. And when we think about some of these foster kids and some of the insecurities, some of the self esteem issues and the bullying that goes on, what advice would you give to them who are struggling? And I don't know about you, but today's age is so much different than it was for you. And I think you and I are about the same age. It was hard, but we don't struggle with some of the Internet stuff and some of the cyberbullying that goes on that we had to deal with. Ours was more playground bullying, other things than racial bullying.
[00:39:39] Speaker B: You could escape it. That's one of the things I said in 9 Admiral Street. Even though I went through being bullied and everything, I could escape it because guess what? Once I made it to 9 Admiral Street, I was safe, there was a sanctuary. Right. And then next day, you know, it was there that I could really buck up for the next day. Right. Deal with it the next day.
[00:40:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:01] Speaker B: I tell young people now, and that's why I started a program here when I became president, that I wanted a program to help young men and women who were trapped in the foster care system truly realize emancipation.
Here's why. 85% of young men and women who are in foster care are like me, wanted to go to college.
So the challenge is only 3% go, only 1% will graduate.
What happened to the other 82%?
I mean, the masses are here.
Only 3% go and only 1% graduate. So even if you're part of that 3%, only a third of you are going to graduate.
So here's what I'm Saying, or here's what I like to do. I said, there's some barriers to college admission and persistence. There are foster care programs with colleges all over the country. Country. But what makes us different is that here we're leveraging hope, healing, opportunity, preparation and empowerment.
And I started a program called the HOPE Program here on the campus of Livingstone College. I gave you the acronyms. One of the areas where we. We. We help unpack is mental health.
Mental health. Hope.
85% of young men and women who are in fall foster care require some mental health services, but they never get it.
I carried that until I was in my 40s.
Never talked about it.
[00:41:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:38] Speaker B: Never talked about my experience. Never talked about what it felt like to always be under constant threat of the state coming in to get you.
I believe that there are other young people that are carrying things.
[00:41:49] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:41:50] Speaker B: You know, why wasn't I good enough to remain with my family? I didn't know the story.
I didn't know the story. I didn't know the story that I was, you know, scheduled to live with grandma and grandma dies. And that's the only reason why you were put in this system. I didn't know that. I wish the state would have found a way to keep my mother and I together, but it wasn't part of God's plan.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:42:14] Speaker B: God's plan always prevails. Right. And so the HOPE program is one that I believe is going to be a game changer for young men and women who have aged out of foster care. Because if you come to Livingstone College in this program, you never have to leave.
So in summer breaks, guess where you are. You're on this campus.
Christmas break, you're on this campus. Thanksgiving breaks, you're on this campus. Once you're here, you're here until you graduate. And when you graduate. I started something here called the Career Readiness Institute. And here with the Career Readiness Institute, we make sure that all of our students have access to employers and really what employers are looking for aligned with the academic curriculum so that when they graduate, they're no longer unemployed and underemployed. We're teaching them how to navigate the corporate spaces.
We're teaching them how to navigate the nonprofit space. But we're also teaching them that if you want to go off to graduate and professional school, here are the things that you're going to need to know. And so we're doing that. So think about that. To somebody who is emancipated now, they can really realize emancipation, because what they're doing now is not emancipation. They're just training, trading one system to another. What happens to the other 82%?
[00:43:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:35] Speaker B: Nobody. Nobody cares. But here's what happens. Three Ps. Poverty, prison and prostitution.
[00:43:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: Yeah, that's real. And so again, God has just placed people in my path. So one of the things we talked about when we talked about my fourth grade teacher, my sixth grade teacher, and others, I'm in this role today, today because of my last mentor and friend, Peter J. Aranda, someone who was a Native American and Hispanic. We work for an organization called the Consortium for Graduate Study and Management.
He did something that really changed my trajectory. He talked about God putting people in your path.
[00:44:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:21] Speaker B: So I've been blessed as it relates to fundraising acumen.
[00:44:26] Speaker A: Yeah, you sure have.
[00:44:27] Speaker B: As a practitioner I've raised in my career. And you could always trace it. You can always go Back to the 990s of the organizations I work for. And if you use a pen and paper or a calculator, you'll add it up. And everywhere I've been as a philanthropic leader and what I've been able to do as the philanthropic leader, you come up with over $500 million in gifts and grants in my career. Right.
I'm working with Peter Aranda, and the organization is soaring now.
[00:44:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:58] Speaker B: So one day we're out and we're having dinner, and he says, what do you want to do next? I said, I want to be a college president. He said, really? I said, I want to be an HBCU college president. He said, okay. He said, all right, I'll get back with you. It's good to know. He said, I just want you to stay with me a few more years. He said, because I have, you know, a number of corporate partners and a number of institutions that we represent.
Keep asking me, how you going to keep this guy?
About a month later, he comes up and he hands me a notebook, and I said, what's this?
He said, that's your development plan. I said, no, I'm the development officer. I give you development plans.
He said, no, this is your personal development plan.
He said, you told me that you wanted to be a college president and you were specific about HBCU. He said, Right now there are about 25 openings for college presidents. He said, what I did was I took a look of. Took a look at, you know, their announcements and what they're working for and is looking for in their skill sets. And so I developed a action plan for you so that whenever you're ready for your first interview, you'll have a skill set. So he took all of the requirements, or better yet, all of what those institutions were looking for, and he created a development plan for me. He said, you need to understand that you're not just going to be president, you're going to be president and CEO.
[00:46:30] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:46:31] Speaker B: He said, you can do the president part. Yeah, I need to teach you how to be a CEO.
And he helped me become the CEO I am today.
[00:46:39] Speaker A: Yeah. That's pretty amazing. Yeah. Well, it's so interesting when I look back at everything that you have said and I've shared my story and I can just imagine when you were 14, if I was to ask you this question. I said, you know, Anthony, what do you want to do in your life? What do you think your purpose is? Would you know? Would you think you would have known by then?
[00:47:00] Speaker B: Never.
[00:47:00] Speaker A: Never.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: That's why I think Living Stone College is important.
[00:47:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Amazing story. Well, Dr. Davis, I want to go ahead and give you this book. This was my first book and I hope one you can share with other some other kids. And it's basically about how to discover and embrace your life purpose. And I have had a similar story shoe different. But God took me through a lot of trials and he did not reveal his purpose for me. It was in the trials, looking back and recognizing what he had already done, allowing these things to help me. And I know with your mission and focus and legacy is reaching young kids to give them a sense of hope, give them a sense of purpose to be like you, to be chosen, to be called, to make a difference that will change the 3% and make it 93%.
[00:47:48] Speaker B: Right.
[00:47:49] Speaker A: So I'm going to give you a chance to kind of share with the audience about Livingston College and anything you want to share about uproar that you think they need to know.
[00:47:57] Speaker B: Well, I think we've unpacked in the interview. Well, I want to say this about this book first. What I'd like to do is your purpose, your life. Discovering and embracing your purpose in life. I want to make sure that I only have this one, but I need you to leave me some of these.
[00:48:12] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:48:13] Speaker B: For my library.
[00:48:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:48:14] Speaker B: And we need to bring you back at the appropriate time. And I'd like for you to have a book signing here.
[00:48:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:20] Speaker B: And I'd like for this to be one of the books. I'm working on something as a college president, what we're doing here at Livingstone College, helping young people unlock their potential.
I want your book to be one of the books That I say is required reading before you graduate.
[00:48:36] Speaker A: I appreciate that.
[00:48:37] Speaker B: So I want you to do that. I think that this is powerful.
[00:48:40] Speaker A: Wow. It is very powerful.
[00:48:42] Speaker B: God is moving while we're here together.
Livingstone College. I believe if you're looking for an hbcu, a place to help you unlock your potential, unleash your power and unveil your purpose. Livingstone College is that place.
We're the hopes and dreams of our ancestors.
We have very diverse campus. I have students who are white. I have students who are Asian. I have students who are black. I have students from several countries in Africa. I have students from the Caribbean. I have students, students from Europe. On the campus of Livingstone College, we are no longer a struggling, but a surviving HBCU. We're a thriving HBCU. While many HBCUs are living in deficits and declines, we're actually commanding our rightful place in this landscape.
This year alone, more than 7,000 applicants. We've never seen that here.
We're on track to becoming the premier private HBCU based on what we were able to do. Yeah, we went to school districts. I have to tell you this.
We went to Brogdon, Mass. Yeah, Brogdon, Mass.
Suburb of Boston.
Really? Not a suburb.
[00:49:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:56] Speaker B: But a community north of Boston, South. I can't remember. My geography is messed up. But here's what happened. We pull up the 11 police cars outside.
We said, man, we picked a bad day to come.
They said, no, it's a normal day.
[00:50:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:11] Speaker B: 11 police cars have police escorts to escort us to the auditorium.
[00:50:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:16] Speaker B: This is April, and I do a presentation, show them the video of Livingstone.
And I asked them, how many of you here have a GPA of 3.7 or above?
Students raised their hand by 2/3 of the auditorium. I said, wow.
[00:50:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:35] Speaker B: So how many of you know where you're going to go to college in the fall and how you're going to pay for it?
Crickets. Everybody raised their hand and we had several media outlets there because they said, colleges don't come to this high school.
And I was able to offer an opportunity to come to an hbcu. And here's the story that I shared. The Supreme Court did schools like Livingstone a favor. They said, you can no longer use race as a basis for admission. And that's going to impact diversity on some of our most prestigious colleges and universities in the country. Yeah, I said that the colleges and universities who raised who really value diversity are gonna figure it out.
But for those who say, ah, we don't have to do those diversity programs anymore. I tell students you don't have to go where you are tolerated. You can come to an HBCU Livingstone College, where you will be celebrated.
[00:51:35] Speaker A: Yeah. That's awesome. I love it. You gave them hope.
[00:51:38] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:51:39] Speaker A: Well, Dr. Davis, it's been a pleasure. Thank you. We started as strangers, but I think we ended as brothers.
[00:51:43] Speaker B: We ended up as brothers. And really, I need to this book, and I want to make this without saying required reading.
It's going to kind of be required reading. And so I haven't told my faculty that yet, so I don't want to get any trouble. But my goal is to give them a set of books they have to read before they graduate, and I want this to be part of their educational setting.
[00:52:04] Speaker A: I appreciate it.
[00:52:05] Speaker B: All right.
[00:52:05] Speaker A: Thank you, sir. Thank you, my friend.
