Our first Youth Networking event was held at Andco on Thursday, September 27, 2018, and it couldn’t have gone any better.

Before I get into the details of that night, I need to thank the people who made this possible. Thank you Papa John’s for sponsoring the event with pizza, Andco for providing the beautiful space, Content Creators Academy alumni, Carlos Hernandez for creating the poster, and Lynn and the rest of the Chicpeajc staff. All of you guys are awesome!

We’ve been planning this event for a month. Cris came up with the idea. We then presented it to Lynn and she loved it. Throughout this entire process of putting this event together, I hadn’t heard one person tell me that this is a bad idea.

The night started off with delicious pizza and different drinks. We played a video advertising Content Creators Academy. For about 30 minutes, everyone ate and drank one of the sodas or juices we have. I sat at the entrance signing people in and letting them write their name tag.

Once everything started, Lynn got on the mic and started explaining her story of why she decided to get into business herself. A personal story of how people started is the most motivating story for me to hear. When I first met my mentors in 2017, Nick and Stephanie Nwoke, I asked a thousand questions. I asked Nick to tell the story of when he retired his mom. After hearing that, I started dreaming bigger and shortly after got into business for myself.

I met Lynn a few months after and hearing her story never gets old or uninspiring. When I heard her story, I was excited to start working with her.

She called up Angela McKnight to say a few words. I’ve always known Angela as a community activist with a heart of gold. She definitely has the best interest when it comes to the youth. While we had those 30 minutes to settle in, she already decided she wanted one of the teenagers that she met there to intern with her.

Next, Lynn called up Clarence Collins, or as Jersey City calls him, Coach C. I can’t tell you how much he does for the youth. In a nutshell, if he finds something that’ll get his students out of trouble, he will make sure all of his students are on it. I have known him for the past 3 years since I was in high school. Trust me when I say he devotes his life to the youth.

Last but not least were Nick and Stephanie Nwoke. I never take for granted my close relationship with my mentors. They’ve always been open about where they came from. Nick never sugarcoats that there are some parts of Jersey City that aren’t so pretty and he’s fortunate enough to have a business that got him out of there. Stephanie comes from an immigrant family that comes from a lot of financial struggle. He found a mentor who taught them how to gain a passive income and now hasn’t had to worry about their boss calling them for the past 8 years because they retired at the age of 20.

Although they’re fortunate to have enough money to buy the finest things in life, they’re some of the most humble people I’ve ever met. They were humble enough to donate $2,500 to Content Creators Academy.

Lynn literally signed the check immediately and started dancing. That moment was so funny but also very heartwarming. She was considering shutting down the program because of the lack of funds. In a world full of negativity, positive things like this are always appreciated.

Once they took a picture, Lynn had all of the mentors in the room speak for a minute to share their background and why they’re in business for themselves. We had a wide variety of backgrounds there from social media influencers to bodybuilders who owned 3 gyms. When that concluded, we had everyone off their feet and connecting with all the entrepreneurs.

At the end of the day, it’s not what you know. It’s who you know. These networking events are here to expand your network which will eventually lead to your net worth.

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Special thanks to our sponsors BCB Bank, Nick Nwoke and his wife Stephanie, and Party with Purpose. And a big thank you to everyone who donated to CCAJC, including on our GoFundMe! 

If you have laptops or cameras that you’re interested in donating, please reach out to us: info@ccajc.com.