After The Nudge Podcast Ep. 7 | Tours of Duty, Pride, and Purpose | Toyota
Welcome to After the Nudge Podcast. I’m Soledad O’Brien. And I’m J.R. Smith. So on this podcast, we chat with some of the nation’s most outstanding grassroots community organizations. They all received a nudge from Toyota in the form of a $10,000 grant.
Today we have Willie Bui out of Chicago of the Blue and White Foundation. He one of the things that’s near and dear to my heart is HBCU, which he specializes in. And welcome to the show. Appreciate you. Oh, thank you. Thanks for having. Me. It’s so nice to have you.
All right. Let’s start with the blue and white Foundation. It came out of a fraternity. Can you talk a little bit about the foundation and the fraternity that you came out of? Sure. I’m a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity and also a member of Pi Sigma alumni chapter based out of Chicago.
And we started a foundation back in 2015. The foundation is basically our not for profit arm of the chapter, and we try to support our underprivileged and at risk children in our community, and we give them opportunities to go along to HBCU tours. We currently have one going down,
Which is going to seven HBCU. At this moment we have about 45 students that’s participating in this, and we also have some of our members are going along with the tour as chaperons and their parents. Why did you feel like it was so important for these kids
To gain that experience of a HBCU and take these tours? I believe it’s really important that they learn about the history of HBCU use and see where it comes from. And actually they have on staff members at the schools that actually give a background of the HBCU school that they at.
Some are Tennessee State, Fisk University, more Morehouse. Also at Tuskegee University, just to name a few. Give us a sense of who the kids are who are doing these tours. What we we kind of put it out on our website and Facebook page, and we give the opportunity for students
And their parents to actually send their children on these tours. So we just try to reach all the community and give them the opportunity to come on this tour. So it could be anybody. Yes. Kids who have whose parents haven’t gone to college. It can be kids whose parents have gone to college.
Anybody who wants to join. Yes. Anybody that wants to join male or female. Is there a certain age he had been in high school. Or is it’s usually in the graduating year? Like right now, the seniors of high school are are employed to go.
But you actually can have juniors also coming along on this tour so they know what to expect when they get ready to graduate. Nice. What’s the philosophy or the mission of Phi Beta Sigma that made the fraternity members want to kind of reinvest in education?
Well, we are about culture of service and service for humanity, so we wanted to get a sense of the at risk children in our communities and try to give them an opportunity to advance and give them exposure to what’s going on outside of their community.
Because a lot of these kids, they really don’t know. They’ve never been some of them haven’t been downtown Chicago. You know, they just kind of stay in their own community. So if we can get in there and give them an opportunity to look and see
What’s going on outside of the community, we give them a better chance in life. I think that’s important for, you know, fraternities, especially HBCU, because so often you hear kids, you know, nowadays it’s always hazing or something in a negative aspect. But we don’t
I don’t think we highlighted enough community service that actually goes through these fraternities and, you know, foundations like this to where it’s more it’s more about the brotherhood and the beneficial of the community as opposed to the quote unquote, headlines of some negativity of some somebody doing something stupid on a on campus.
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And I think a lot of these fraternities and sororities on the Delta are throwing it out there. Right. So is your daughter putting out the Delta sign? But, you know, a lot of black fraternities and sororities really, I think, have a focus of investing into their community
To really make sure that the next generation is supported and helped. Because I think for a lot of folks, it’s hard to go if you haven’t had parents have gone through college. It can be really hard. And if even if you had had parents
Have gone to college, would be hard to pay for it. Exactly. Exactly. My my parents never went to college, but I definitely wanted to give my daughter an opportunity to go to college, even though it wasn’t a HBCU. But with the college that we went to was Southern Illinois University. That experience
Was something really great for for me, and I wanted my daughter to get that experience. And the black community in Southern Illinois University was so receptive. We still have we still have a great connection with there. We’re, you know, part of the alumni.
So we come down there every year, every other year for the Black Alumni reunion, and we all get together and have a good time. But we also raise money for trying to give back to some of the upcoming students. What are what are your goals for expansion like?
I know, you know, every year at a certain point you go to a certain level and you don’t want to feel satisfied. So where do you want to go in the next year or two? Or how much do you have a goal or how many kids you
Just want to pump out and get to HBCU? Or I guess we plan on trying to grow every year and increasing the numbers of students that are coming to the HBCU tours. But our also our foundation is trying to get a community center together
Where we can bring the young children into the the know, okay. We never make mistakes. And it’s a little shocking. So we try to bring kids into the organization and show them what fraternities and sororities is all about. And give them an opportunity to see what’s going on.
One way that you raise money for the students and their tours of HBCUs, etc., etc., is through golf tournament. And I have this theory that men will come up with anything possible so that they can link it to go up. Yeah, but I think this is for an amazing cause.
Tell me a little bit about that connection with golf and this foundation. Okay. We just started our golf well, we call it a golf outing right now we’re building up to a golf tournament. We just had one in August. We expected maybe 72 golfers and we ended up with 84.
So congrats. We definitely reached our goal. We raised money for it to help out with this tour. And it it really was great, the camaraderie. We had other people from other organizations like Omega Sci-Fi and Alpha Phi Alpha that actually participated in a golf outing also.
So we’re looking to grow it every year and making it bigger and bigger. And that way you can raise money for the HBCU tours. We try to do 2 to 2 tours a year. We do a fall tour and a spring tour. So that’s what we try to do. So the golfer, golfer.
So you know, he’s. Yeah. Next. Step. Closer to the pin. That’s me. What do you think the young people get out of the tour? I think they get a sense of like I said, they’ve never been out of their neighborhoods. Some of them never been out of any neighborhood.
So they get a sense of actually seeing what’s going on in other areas of the, you know, the world, you know. So by going to the HBCU and learning from the speaker that, you know, tells them about the different HBCU schools that they are at there
Understand that, okay, this this is a history thing. You know, this is something that’s not taught in in all our school systems. So they get to learn a little bit about what goes on. It’s interesting you say that because for me, when I was growing up, it was, you know, playing
Basketball and I had all these different scholarships, all these big power schools and stuff like that. And it was it was amazing. I would go to campuses and go to visits and it was it was beautiful. Yeah. But when I stepped on campus for the first time, HBCU,
It never felt like nowhere else ever felt like home like that. I went up when I finally experienced homecoming and I seen so many different generations of people that look like me who are successful or grandmothers or grandfathers or come back every year just to support the school and that true, genuine love.
I think a lot of our young our youth needs to see that. It needs to experience that. So for me, I appreciate you taking these kids on this tour, because if I would have experienced that at 17, 18 years old, I think I’d have a completely different outlook. Right? Yeah. Yeah.
And so while I might have had the same type of opportunity, but, you know, at that time, at that time when I graduated from my school, my, my, my, my mother was like, okay, you need to go to college. And I was like, okay, well, I’m not going to break the bank,
So I’m going to go to university here in Illinois, but I want to go to the farthest university from Chicago. So that’s how I wound up. It’s like you, Carbondale. You were voted on your organization online, nominated and then and voted on to get this nudge. Yes. Of $10,000.
What was that like when you were notified that you’d been selected? Oh, that was great. The organization that I’m in was ecstatic. You know, they was happy that we was able to get this grant because we knew we can do a lot with this grant. So that was a wonderful thing. Wonderful.
Where does this where does this grant help you guys in terms of resources continuously pushing forward to the next goal? Well, it helps us a lot by and which, you know, we’re definitely looking forward to the next grant so we can expand on it even more.
Like I said, we have about 45 students now that we’re transporting around. It’s a bus tour and they’re going from different seven different universities and colleges. So that will increase that. If we can double that, that means we I have two busses
And so we can use the extra money to further that effort. I love that you’re teasing your organization, teeing us up to say so. Then really, how can people who want to connect with you and want to help or volunteer or support you financially, what’s the best way for them to do that?
Well, we have a Facebook page. They can go to the the BMW Foundation and on Facebook, the Blue and White Foundation, or they can email us said BMW Foundation at Gmail. That car all good ways. I just Googled you and clicked read on that link. It took me right to your Facebook page.
Yes. Really, really easy. Yes. So we also trying to build a website, you know, get it up and going and get things going because, you know, nowadays that’s why I have my daughter here. She does content and so she kind of helps us. She actually did the video for the Toyota merch,
So that’s why I had to bring along with me. Well done. Have done right off camera here. You can’t see her, but she’s she’s grinning and she did a fantastic job. So are you optimistic? I know sometimes when we talk about people of color in education and of affirmative action,
As we’ve seen with the Supreme Court College getting more expensive, I feel like there’s often such bad news when it comes to higher education. Are you feeling optimistic for the opportunities that are available for people of color? I yes, I’m very optimistic.
I believe that as these days and times, as you’re talking about the Supreme Court and how they are overruling different things now, we definitely need to push education and make sure we out there, you know, promoting that. I actually once I graduated, I was looking into law enforcement
And I wound up turning to the fire service. So I’ve just recently retired, like two years ago from the Harvey Fire Department and where I was the deputy chief, but without the education, I wouldn’t have been able to get to that level of greatness in the department.
So education is very important to me, and I would prefer that, you know, every student at least get a chance graduating from high school, get a chance to go to even if it’s a junior college, you know, just to learn the experience and to know what can be achieved.
Even though I know college is not for everybody. You know, some people can go to technical schools and but if we can help, you know, in that effort, we’ll be more than happy to help. Long as you further your education.
It’s so nice to have you with us, Willie Bui and the Blue and White Foundation. Congratulations and thanks for joining us on After the Nudge podcast. Thank you. I appreciate you really. And never underestimate the power of a nudge. That’s right.
Willie Buie of Chicago’s Blue and White Foundation chats with Soledad O’Brien and J.R. Smith about how Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are creating brighter futures for urban, at-risk teens. The foundation, which started as a fraternity’s community outreach, leads high schoolers on tours of several HBCU campuses. See Terms & Conditions at AfterTheNudge.com: https://www.toyota.com/content/dam/toyota/after-the-nudge/after-the-nudge-term-and-conditions-2023.pdf
Watch more After the Nudge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjXa_vATOFQ&list=PLsOvRYzJPCwVt9i0-LgfJeUOKLDjBteqg&index=1
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In this episode of the After The Nudge Podcast, Soledad and J.R. Smith meet with Willie Buie.
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