Square Pizza

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Welcome back to another episode of the #squarepizzapod. This week, Greg is in conversation with Maurice Jones, CEO of OneTen. One fun fact you will learn about Mr. Jones is that he grew up on a tobacco and corn farm. 

In this episode:

• Background
• Birth of OneTen
• Creating 1 million family-sustaining jobs for Black talent in America by 2030
• Board of  OneTen
• How leaders helped shape the vision of OneTen

Guest Question:

• Dewey Norwood, Senior Lead Diversity & Inclusion Consultant, Enterprise HBCU Strategy
  • 8 years from now, once you’ve reached the goal of 1M sustaining careers, what do you believe the societal change will be?
  • If you have to deliver a message to corporate partners on why they should join the OneTen family, what would you tell them? Why are non-degreed individuals so important in today’s society?

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GIVEAWAY - send us a message and let us know your favorite thing about the Square Pizza Pod. We are giving away SchermCo swag to the first three people that send us a note!

Welcome back to another episode of the #squarepizzapod. This week, Greg is in conversation with Reuben Ogbonna, Co-Founder & Executive Director of Marcy Lab School. One fun fact you will learn about Marcy Lab School is that they aspire to be incredibly transparent with their team, including sharing salaries. You will find out why this is important to them in this episode. 

In this episode:

• Advice for securing a major partnership
• Lessons learned from his experience with Teach for America  
• Marcy Lab School
  • Overview and outcomes
  • What makes Marcy unique from other alternatives to college programs, bootcamps, and workforce development programs
  • Gap between colleges/job training programs + employers
  • Sharing salaries

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GIVEAWAY - send us a message and let us know your favorite thing about the Square Pizza Pod. We are giving away SchermCo swag to the first three people that send us a note!

Welcome back to another episode of the #squarepizzapod. This week, Greg is in conversation with three guests, Jonathan Gardner,  Director of GardHouse, Jania Massey,  Founder and Executive Director of Stiletto Boss University, and Manuel Campbell, CEO of Aspire Community Capital. One fun fact you will learn about these three incredible individuals is that they served on a panel together recently about leading non-profits of small businesses as black lead founders and owners. 

In this episode:

• Positive changes or feedback since the panel
• What the funding community can do differently
• How to better support black-led nonprofits/organizations
• Advice to aspiring non-profit leaders

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GIVEAWAY - send us a message and let us know your favorite thing about the Square Pizza Pod. We are giving away SchermCo swag to the first three people that send us a note!

• Education PowerEd
• Culture to the Max book 
  • The inspiration behind writing book
  • Who is culture to the max for
  • How educators and families can work together to ensure equality in a classroom/school
  • Texas book ban 

Support the show

GIVEAWAY - send us a message and let us know your favorite thing about the Square Pizza Pod. We are giving away SchermCo swag to the first three people that send us a note!

Welcome back to another episode of the #squarepizzapod. This week's episode is a little different from the rest. This particular episode is a special mash-up of recent guests sharing what square pizza reminds them of.  Sometimes square pizza reminds you of nothing so it actually makes you think of something, or maybe it reminds you of a book, or times with friends at school. In our eyes, square pizza day was the best day of the week as it was for others. We hope you enjoy this episode!

Guest featured in this episode: 

• #81 - Abi Olukeye, Smart Girls HQ, Founder + CEO
• #18 - Munro Richardson, Read Charlotte
• #52 - Sharif El-Mekki, Center for Black Educator Development
• #60 - Nicole Jarbo, CEO of Goodbets Group
• #66 - Dan Lugo, President, Queens University of Charlotte
• #69 - Fidel Vargas, President & CEO, Hispanic Scholarship Fund
• #76 - Reyna Montoya, Founder, CEO, and Board Member, Aliento
• #82 - Brittany Young, Founder + CEO, B-360
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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GIVEAWAY - send us a message and let us know your favorite thing about the Square Pizza Pod. We are giving away SchermCo swag to the first three people that send us a note!

Welcome back to another episode of the #squarepizzapod. This week, Greg is in conversation with Brittany Young, Founder + CEO of B-360. One fun fact you will learn about Brittany and B-360 is the Mayor of Baltimore designated March 25th as "B-360" day to honor the five-year anniversary of their organization. The celebration includes a press conference and a proclamation from the Mayor. 

In this episode:

• B-360 history and overview 
• Awards: Kelly Clarkson, Steve Harvey, Ne-Yo, Ted Talk
• Fellowship experience at Camelback & Echoing Green
• Diverse funding model
• Ride for Change campaign
• Success and challenges

Bio:

Brittany is a retired engineer, educator, professor, and Baltimore native; she has programmed nuclear plants, developed medical devices, and planned satellite explorations, but finds the most satisfaction in her roles in education, problem-solving & service to her community. After the incarceration of her minor brother as an adult, she became empowered to create solutions to funnel talent which resulted in B-360. 

B-360 , is an organization that utilizes dirt bike culture to end the cycle of poverty, disrupt the prison pipeline, and build bridges in communities. Through STEM education, community engagement, workforce pipe-lining, and events the organization is changing the perception of engineers and dirt bike riders.

She was the first Black woman Baltimore native to have a TED Talk, the First Black person ever to receive the prestigious Bessie Stringfield Award, and is currently creating the first ever campus for dirt bikes and education in the country. If you visit Union Station Market in DC, she is currently on a mural 3 blocks from the White House focusing on successful Black women entrepreneurs. Outside of being a history maker she has some of the following accolades and accomplishments: Yale School of Management Lecturer, Baltimore 40 under 40, Echoing Green Fellow, Baltimore’s Woman to Watch, and transition team member to Mayor Brandon Scott. Her work has been featured in Johns Hopkins, CBS, Forbes, Teen Vogue, Afro-Punk, Broccoli City Fest, Toyota, Nike NBC Sports, and more!   

Brittany is a champion for Black joy, Black women, and true systemic change and providing digits and skills access to people just like her. Brittany’s life goals are to show people how smart they truly are and to unlock innate genius. When she is not advocating for change through B-360, you can also find her advocating for caregivers and supporting her brother who lives with down syndrome. 

Support the show

GIVEAWAY - send us a message and let us know your favorite thing about the Square Pizza Pod. We are giving away SchermCo swag to the first three people that send us a note!

Welcome back to another episode of the #squarepizzapod. This week, Greg is in conversation with Abi Olukeye, Founder + CEO of Smart Girls HQ.  One fun fact you will learn about Abi is her love for tv shows, especially Ozark.   

In this episode:

• Big picture vision for the Smart Girls HQ
• Why outreach and community service is so important despite all the growth 
• Things learned as a IOT strategy development at Fortune 500 
• How to write a proposal (received $256,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) & VELA Education)
• Leadership Charlotte experience 
• Bridging the gap of racial equity and equality in education

Abi Olukeye is the founder and CEO of Smart Girls HQ, A learning platform to facilitate STEM career education with a focus on female learners and non-traditional learning spaces. Core offerings include parent education for STEM informal learning at RaisingSmartGirls.com and Dear Smart Girl kits, a project-based career-focused STEM curriculum for girls. Her vision is to create an ecosystem of products that when used together are a powerful catalyst for sustaining long-term engagement in STEM for young girls. Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education through Small Business Innovation Research(SBIR) Awards, the NC Idea Foundation, and the Vela Education Fund.

Previously, she led Internet of Things (IOT) strategy development and digital transformation projects at a diversified Fortune 500 manufacturing company. She has over fifteen years of professional and leadership
experience spanning new product development, technology commercialization, process improvement and
strategy.

Abi is a member of the Computer Science K12 Standards Committee for North Carolina and serves on the board ofCSEdResearch.org. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Virginia Tech and MBA from Indiana University. She and her husband live in Charlotte, NC, and have two young daughters who
greatly inspire her work.

Support the show

GIVEAWAY - send us a message and let us know your favorite thing about the Square Pizza Pod. We are giving away SchermCo swag to the first three people that send us a note!

We are excited to bring you this episode of the #squarepizzapod. To kick off year 3, Greg is in conversation with  Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues. He is also known as the Godfather of Smallball. He played 14 seasons in the NBA, with 10 of those being with our beloved Charlotte Hornets. One fun fact about Muggsy is that he was a wrestler in high school and how that sport influenced his basketball career.

In this episode:

• Muggsy's reflection on spending 14 seasons in the NBA
• Stories and insights covered in his new memoir
• The work of the Muggsy Bogues Family Foundation
• His first love in sports (hint: not basketball)
• Why square pizza reminds him both of UNC basketball and cheese...

Muggsy Bogues is vital to the NBA that he transcends the game itself, as seen by how the game is now played. We hope you guys enjoy this episode!

Bio:

Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland played for the legendary high school team, the Dunbar Poets who won 59 consecutive games and ranked as one of the top high school teams in the United States. Bogues went on to graduate from Wake Forest where the school later retired his jersey number. Muggsy was selected 12th in the first round of the NBA draft by the Washington Bullets. He retired from the NBA ranking 16th among all-time assist leaders. He gained plenty of attention with his unique ball-handling skills; he could maintain a legal dribble so close to the ground that his knuckles dragged on the floor and with his high jumper range of 44-inch leaps on the court.
 Throughout his career, he stayed busy starting in commercials and major productions like Space Jam, Eddie, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Muggsy retired from professional play ranking at number 16 among all-time assist leaders in the NBA and still remains the shortest player in history. Since leaving the NBA, Muggsy has worked with his nonprofit the Muggsy Bogues Family Foundation based in Charlotte, NC where he resides with his family. Muggsy is also an Ambassador for the NBA traveling the world educating youth.
 
www.boguesfoundation.org 

Support the show

GIVEAWAY - send us a message and let us know your favorite thing about the Square Pizza Pod. We are giving away SchermCo swag to the first three people that send us a note!

We are excited to bring you this episode of the #squarepizzapod. This week's episode is from a recent webinar hosted by Greg and Rachel Tutwiler Fortune from the Jacksonville Public Education Fund. We recently concluded a partnership with them. The two main objectives of the partnership were helping them, and their community partners think and build out a strategy around measurable goals for diversifying the teaching force in Duval County Public Schools and supporting male educators of color. 

In this episode:

• Learn about the work of JPEF 
• 1,000 x 2025 campaign: A pathway to recruiting, retaining, and developing male educators of color in Duval County. 

Support the show

GIVEAWAY - send us a message and let us know your favorite thing about the Square Pizza Pod. We are giving away SchermCo swag to the first three people that send us a note!

We are excited to bring you this episode of the #squarepizzapod. This week, Greg is in conversation with three Charlotte Lab students, Ara Jenkins, Ahmir Lee, and Aliyah Walker, who are in 10th grade. One fun fact: they will be the first graduating class of Charlotte Lab School.

In this episode:

• How they chose Charlotte Lab 
• What it's been like attending a school during covid 
• What they enjoy about school
• Importance of relationships in education and business 
• Advice for district leaders 

Listen to kids. They have the answer. 

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