We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yasmine Arrington Brooks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Yasmine, you’ve got such an interesting story, but before we jump into that, let’s first talk about a topic near and dear to us – generosity. We think success, happiness and wellbeing depends on authentic generosity and empathy and so we’d love to hear about how you become such a generous person – where do you think your generosity comes from?
I came to learn through my own life experiences and my personal faith and spiritual journey that what you put out into the world you receive back! I am also an innate empath. Generosity usually stems from a sense of compassion and empathy for humanity. Ever since I was in grade school, even until now, I have been fortunate to be a beneficiary of many folks’ generosity, and I see my generosity as my way of paying it forward.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am the founder and executive director of ScholarCHIPS, Inc., a grassroots nonprofit organization (www.scholarchipsfund.org) I founded as a passion project when I was a junior in high school. ScholarCHIPS’ mission is to provide college scholarships, mentoring, mental health support, and a robust support network to college-bound young adults with incarcerated parents, inspiring them to complete their college education. Since 2012, ScholarCHIPS has awarded over $500,000 in college scholarships to 88 scholars, now with 45 graduates! ScholarCHIPS was recognized as a 2023 CNN Hero and a 2023 Top 10 CNN Hero.
I have dedicated my life to working alongside and supporting young adults like myself who have experienced the traumas of having an incarcerated parent, who also wants to pursue their college education. Most of our scholars are the first in their families to attend and graduate from college. This work is near and dear to my heart because I, too, am the child of an incarcerated parent. I share a lot of similar lived experiences as our scholars do. It is so beautiful because we are creating a community of people with some of the same personal, academic, and career goals who are healing together, growing together, and supporting each other along the way!
This year (2024) was the first year that ScholarCHIPS expanded our application eligibility to students outside of the Washington, DC Metropolitan area and we received over 120 applications from students in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, New York, DC, Maryland and Virginia to name a few.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back on my life journey thus far, the three most impactful qualities that were critical for me to develop were resilience, faith, and generosity. With my resilience I was determined not to let any setback or obstacle stop me from accomplishing my goals. Anytime I faced a challenge, I would analyze the situation and my options, ask for help or advice from people wiser than me (if needed), conduct research, think outside of the box for creative solutions, pray, and proceed with pursuing my goals.
My faith also helped to keep me grounded and hold onto the belief that there is always hope as long as you remain positive and never give up. My faith also helped me to not only keep going for myself, but to realize that my life is so much bigger than me and that there are a lot of people out there who are depending on my success and who I will one day support and encourage! Finally, my heart and compassion for people always helped me to think of others along my journey. No matter what stage of life I was in or am in, I always think of and find ways to help people and pour into others, whether it’s through encouraging words, a financial gift or donation, a hug, etc. When I help or uplift someone else it gives me a sense of meaning and encourages me also!
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
Honestly, I always try to live as though it’s my last day. I always think to myself What do I want my legacy to be? If I were gone tomorrow how will the way I lived my life positively impact my family, my community, my world and young people who have experienced adverse childhood experiences? To think about my mortality seems daunting at times, but it helps me to stay focused and gives me a sense of purpose for why I work so hard to grow ScholarCHIPS and establish legacy and an inheritance for future generations. But don’t get me wrong I actively practice mindfulness and try my best to live in the moment and remember to laugh and have fun!
The current challenge I am facing is figuring out how to establish long-term financial sustainability for my organization as well as discovering ways for me to establish generational wealth for my own family and generations to come. I have never seen this done before up close (in the way/s that I imagine) and I do not come from a wealthy background or a family with a lot of assets, so I am basically starting from scratch. I am always seeking out education on various ways to do this through books, mentors, podcasts, financial advisors, YouTube (University lol), etc. I have a long way to go, but I am much further along in my journey from where I started.
Finally, if I knew I only have a decade left, I would travel to all of the states and countries I’ve [we’ve] always wanted to explore with my husband, and take lots of pictures and maybe start a travel blog. I would also start my own fashion clothing line, something I have always wanted to do! It all sounds fun, but I guess I should get to setting some goals and planning (lol)!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.scholarchipsfund.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scholarchipsfunddc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScholarCHIPS
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/scholarchips
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/scholarCHIPS
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ScholarCHIPS
- Yelp: N/A
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/millennialmindsyazzie
Image Credits
Roy Cox Photography Ruben Photography
