Dropout Summit seeks to teach lessons not learned in school

Paris Alston: This is GBH's Morning Edition. There's a lot that traditional American public education doesn't teach us: Things like emotional wellness, how to build relationships, and financial literacy. Kurt Faustin is a mental health advocate and CEO of the Dropout Academy, a group that looks to educate people on those topics and fill the gaps of the life skills not learned in school. He also runs the Dropout Summit, an all-day conference that's happening this weekend in Boston. He joined me recently to talk about how he's making that information more accessible. Kurt, thanks for stopping by.

Kurt Faustin: Thank you for having me. How are you doing?

Alston: I'm doing well. Glad to have you here. So first off, tell us, what is the Dropout Summit and who is it for?

Faustin: Yeah, the Dropout Summit happens every single year. And what we do is we mix in education, entertainment, networking, all of that stuff in between, where we are bringing subjects on mental health, entrepreneurship, relationships and more to the city of Boston so people can learn and grow, connect and really thrive to the next level.

Alston: So part of your tagline is: Folks are about to get schooled, but they have to drop out first, right? Tell me what that means.

Faustin: Yeah. So we want people to drop out of a mindset. A lot of people want to grow to a next level, but before you go to the next level, you have to identify the roadblocks that are stopping you from growing. So that's what it's all about. What is stopping you from growing, specifically for the Black and brown communities? That's why we bring up the mental health. That's why we bring up entrepreneurship. We bring up relationship building, education, civic engagement, things of that capacity. That's the mindset. There's a thinking pattern that we have that's not necessarily as positive as it should be. So how do we remove that and grow, grow to the next level?

Alston: And this is different than like reading, writing and arithmetic. I don't know if you heard that phrase. That's a phrase we use down South. But like, the math, the science and the typical reading and everything that you learn in school. These are skills that we weren't necessarily taught in our education, or aren't typically.

Faustin: You're right. The current educational system is honestly limiting us. I mean, we could look at the statistics, right? They say by the year 2053, the Black wealth, the net worth of the Black wealth is going to be $0. So if we don't change something, what we want to do, $0 by the year 2053. I mean, we could go even deeper. They will teach us to go to school and graduate and to become the best version of ourselves, right? They give us give us that model. But unfortunately, half of the people that graduate, half of the Black graduates will fall into debt. So we have to change something, we have to change something when it comes to policy. We have to change something when it comes to relationships. We have to change something when it comes to mental health, entrepreneurship. That's what it's all about for us, to graduate to the best version of ourselves.

Alston: I want to zero in on that. And the statistic you mentioned, because I was reading that the TIAA Institute's Personal Finance Index, which is shortened to the PFIN Index, found that in a survey they did, Black Americans only answered 38% of personal finance questions correctly, compared with white Americans answering 55% correctly, and that Black respondents scored highest in knowledge on borrowing and managing debt. So it all lines up with what you're saying here. And a lot of times it's not just that we don't have the financial knowledge, but it's also that it can be really difficult to talk about, depending on a person's financial background. So how are you addressing that and sort of meeting people where they are while also giving them these tools?

Faustin: Yeah, I really believe people don't do what they know. People do what they feel, right? We're emotional human beings. We tend to express, we are an expression of the emotional state that we're in. And right now, unfortunately, we're not in the best emotional state. We have a lot of anxiety, fear, stress, overwhelm-ess, anxiousness, everything to that capacity. And our behaviors are really lined up to the emotional state that we're feeling. So if we can change people's emotional state, then they'll be more aligned to the knowledge that they have and they'll act on the knowledge that they have. Because many times, you're right, people already know what to do. They just not doing what they know.

Alston: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And as you're saying, the mental health piece of this is really big. Something that can also be a fraught conversation.

Faustin: Yeah.

Alston: And both of these conversations are not just specific to Black and brown communities.

Faustin: Absolutely not.

Alston: This is for everybody who this can be difficult for. And while you're changing the narrative with this here, I guess, what is some of what we would call a free game, right? Like something you can let people know who are listening right now, some of the basic steps that they can take to start getting on that path?

Faustin: I'm big into my numbers lately, right? There's a Harvard Business Review that states 85 to 87% of your success will be dictated not on technical knowledge, but on emotional intelligence. And what is emotional intelligence? That is self-awareness. That's self-management. That's relationship management and empathy, right? Those are some of the main pillars of emotional intelligence. So I would challenge anyone: If you're not satisfied with where you are right now in life, to truly assess the people that you're around. Because people are a huge influence in the emotional state that you feel on a consistent basis. Many times we're so tied into the people that we used to grow up with, and they're aligned with the old identity that we aligned ourselves with versus the future version of ourselves. And we don't do a great job of building and growing our networks. So I would implore everybody to connect to somebody new, send them a message on LinkedIn, send someone a message on Facebook, Instagram, whatever the case is, growing your relationships and exposing yourself to new conversations will completely change the game.

Alston: Mm hmm. And we should mention here, because we are talking about economic mobility, this is a self-investment, right? We know that you have tickets starting at $150 in person. There's also $97 ticket for the event recordings. What would you say is the wealth that is being shared by those in attendance?

Faustin: This is great because the people that we have coming in, it's not just me, but we're bringing in certain experts, right? We're bringing in was a guy by the name of Wallstreet Trapper, whose real name is Leon Howard. And he learned, he built a multimillion dollar Wall Street investment community while learning it in prison, right? Just to hear that story is amazing. We're bringing in another guy by the name of 19Keys who will speak about consciousness, business development, everything in between. We're bringing another person by the name of Nicky Saunders, and Tiffany James, who is the founder of the Modernblkgirl. So we're really excited that we're bringing in experts to really speak and teach and connect with the audience to really pour into them. I really do. I believe that a lot of times the issue is not a lack of resources, is a lack of resourcefulness. So if we can really change the dynamics of how people feel and look like and feel like, and expose them to new information, education — we know we could change the game here in Boston.

Alston: Well, that is Kurt Faustin, who is a mental health advocate, also CEO of the Dropout Academy and curator of the Dropout Summit going down this Saturday at Big Night Live. Kurt, thank you so much.

Faustin: Thank you.

Alston: The all-day conference will feature speakers like Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and business Development coach 19Keys or Jibrial Muhammad, as you just heard. You can find tickets and more info about it at DropoutSummit.com. You're listening to GBH News.