Transcript- Episode 122: Empowerment in Action: Pasadena City College's New Initiative for Women in Business Episode 122

00:00:00 Salvatrice Cummo

I truly believe that our departments, specifically like a center, like the Women's Business Center, empowers so much. Empowers personally, empowers professionally, and then from, of course, from a strictly, like, economic lens, you know, it empowers people to ideate and create wealth and jobs and all those things that really kind of help build and sustain our communities.

 

00:00:29 Christina Barsi  

The workforce landscape is rapidly changing, and educators and their institutions need to keep up. Preparing students before they enter the workforce. To make our communities and businesses stronger is at the core of getting an education. But we need to understand how to change and adjust so that we can begin to project where things are headed before we even get there. So how do we begin to predict the future?

 

00:00:54 Salvatrice Cummo  

Hi, I'm Salvatrice Cummo, Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development at Pasadena City College and host of this podcast.

 

00:01:03 Christina Barsi

And I'm Christina Barsi, producer and co-host of this podcast.

 

00:01:07 Salvatrice Cummo

And we are starting the conversation about the Future of Work. We'll explore topics like how education can partner with industry, how to be more equitable, and how to attain one of our highest goals. More internships and PCC students in the workforce. 

 

00:01:20 Salvatrice Cummo  

We at Pasadena City College want to lead the charge in closing the gap between what our students are learning and what the demands of the workforce will be once they enter. This is a conversation that impacts all of us. You, the employers, the policymakers, the educational institutions, and the community as a whole.

 

00:01:40 Christina Barsi

We believe change happens when we work together, and it all starts with having a conversation. I'm Christina Barsi.

 

00:01:48 Salvatrice Cummo  

And I'm Salvatrice Cummo.

 

 00:01:50 Salvatrice Cummo 

And this is the Future of Work. Welcome back. This is Salvatrice, your host, and I am joined today by my colleague Leslie Thompson, who is our Director of Operations here at Pasadena City College in our division of Economic and Workforce Development. Hey, Leslie.

 

00:02:07 Leslie Thompson  

Hi. It's good to be back. I'm excited for the summer. We just finished up commencement on Friday, so now we're getting ready for fall. We got a lot of interesting things in the works, but we have some big news today. So why don't you tell us about our big, exciting news for the summer? 

 

00:02:24 Salvatrice Cummo  

Ooh. Are you sure you want me to say it, or you want to say it?

 

00:02:26 Leslie Thompson

No, I want you to say it.

 

00:02:28 Salvatrice Cummo  

We have been awarded the Women's Business Center. We applied for the center. Gosh, I would say probably over a year and a half, right?

 

00:02:38 Leslie Thompson  

It was a minute. Yeah, it was a hot minute.

 

00:02:40 Salvatrice Cummo  

Gosh, it feels like a really long time. Most recently, in May, they awarded us the center, which is super exciting because it's new to the San Gabriel Valley area. And we're absolutely thrilled because it's another extension to our work with servicing the business community. And it's like I'm tripping over my words because I'm super excited about it. But it is going to be a complimentary business assistant program with the small business development center. We've been hosting the SBDC since 2013. It's done very, very well. It's just celebrated its 10th anniversary last year.

 

00:03:18 Salvatrice Cummo

$40 million worth of capital infusion, over 3000 clients, et cetera, et cetera. But so we're really looking to duplicate that momentum with the Women's Business Center. And I couldn't be more thrilled, especially just kind of nicely where we're positioned here in the valley, in the San Gabriel valley, I should say. You know, the college is committed. The college is committed to fostering the entrepreneurial ecosystem and supporting, specifically supporting the student entrepreneurs here on campus. And so we're really, really, really excited about it.

 

00:03:53 Leslie Thompson  

It is very exciting. Let's talk about this. So we have, as you said, the SBDC, which has been wildly successful. We're going to say wildly successful because that sounds good, but it's been very successful. And as a reminder for those of you listening who aren't aware, the SBDC was started at PCC in 2013 by Doctor Salvatrice Cummo. So that was your baby for a number of years before you go to the main campus with economic and workforce development. So you're totally personally interested in the success of that program. So we already have this SBDC that's high functioning.

 

00:04:26 Leslie Thompson 

What's the value add of bringing a Women's Business Center? Like, why did we want the Women's Business Center so much? I know the answer, but maybe the listeners would like to know why we feel it's important to hone down even more narrowly on those we provide services for. There. Obviously, there's a number of benefits and values to a Women's Business Center, broadly. But why was it important for us to get this award so that we could stand this Women's Business Center up alongside the SBDC here at PCC?

 

00:04:51 Salvatrice Cummo  

You know, those are all really good questions, Leslie, and it's like, those are all loaded questions. But I think I'll compartmentalize them in three categories. The value for us as a community college, the value to the entrepreneur, and the value to the business community at large. So when I think about the community college, where does innovation start? Where do big ideas start? Typically on college campuses and simply just the way we're situated within the Sanguina Valley area, we house, or we have a vibrant entrepreneurial student body here at PCC. And to know that we are focusing our efforts around women entrepreneurs makes me very, very happy. It's not that they cannot access the existing business assistance that we have for entrepreneurs through the SBDC, but it does allow for comfortable space to be able to access the resources, do some knowledge sharing, and be intentional about the services that we offer women entrepreneurs. When I say that there are programs, even access to capital, there's specific access to capital programs that only apply to women entrepreneurs. And if we are developing our programming around this population, it harbors growth.

 

00:06:19 Salvatrice Cummo  

And that's what we want. We want growth within our community. To the business community, again, it's growth, it's economic growth, it's diversity of businesses, it's inclusivity of different perspectives of how to not only conduct business, but the ideas that are generated around problem solving that businesses do. And for the entrepreneurs, again, it kind of piggyback on both the value to the community college and the value to the business community. It's tailored, customized services to women entrepreneurs. And yes, you know, we have a vibrant, vibrant entrepreneurial spirit here on campus, but we even have a greater entrepreneurial spirit here in the San Gabriel Valley area, specifically in Pasadena. The last time I checked, in 2021 data shows that we have over 96,000 small businesses here in the San Gabriel Valley area.

 

00:07:19 Leslie Thompson  

Do we know how many of those are women owned?

 

00:07:21 Salvatrice Cummo  

I don't have that stat on the top of my head. But what I do know is that the majority of those businesses are Asian owned, and half of that is Hispanic owned businesses. So we know that the population that we are eagerly seeking to serve is there, and we are happy to serve. I would even go as far as saying, you know, the San Gabriel Valley area not only allows for that kind of tailored, customized approach, but it welcomes it, in a way, because of our partners. You know, this work doesn't happen without our partners. You mentioned earlier we received $150,000 to do this work to serve the San Gabriel Valley region of women entrepreneurs. That's not going to go very far.

 

00:08:06 Leslie Thompson  

No.

 

00:08:06 Salvatrice Cummo  

So our partnerships that we have within the business community is going to be essential. The relationships that we have with our municipalities, the relationships that we have with other economic development agencies and chambers of commerce and our faculty. And there's so many of us here that serve the business community. And so when we think about even long term value of the Women's Business Center, we're going to be able to have greater reach when we are able to do more braiding of services and programming, there's really no sense in us trying to do it all. And even our financial institutions, our financial institutions play a huge critical role in the Women's Business Center in allowing for financial education, access to capital, all that good stuff. I think, most importantly, though, if I can be honest with you, what I'm really excited about is this intentionality around building a Women's Business Center promotes and supports diversity inclusion in this space. And I agree. You know, we think about the stereotypes are associated with women owned businesses.

 

00:09:19 Salvatrice Cummo  

We know they're there. I'm not going to give them any power or energy here in this space with you and I, but we know that they're there. And so breaking through those stereotypes, having diverse perspectives on business solutions and just representation in certain spaces and certain sectors specifically, maybe in tech, just kind of how we're positioned here.

 

00:09:40 Leslie Thompson  

Yeah, I love that idea, too. And I think that there's a lot of good work that happens with SBDCs in general, broadly. But I think narrowing it down to Women's Business Center allows us to kind of address those gender disparities and also create networking and community spaces specific for women entrepreneurs. And also, like, there's some advocacy and awareness that's involved in that, too. Right? Or advocating for policies and initiatives that support women entrepreneurship. So there's creating this synergy in these spaces specifically for this work. That's really why I think it's important. I agree that, yes, the SBDCs do great work.

 

00:10:15 Leslie Thompson  

Yes, we were already doing it. But bringing the Women's Business Center to PCC is just going to amplify the work and just create greater opportunities for the kind of inclusivity that you're talking about, addressing those gender disparities that exist in entrepreneurship, creating that intentional space for networking and community building, and then again, that advocacy piece, those are the main, three main things that I think are really exciting about this new endeavor. And yes, $150,000 isn't going to go very far, but that's just the beginning. That's just the money we're getting to stand it up. We have the expertise, we have the partnerships, we have the drive. We have everything we need to make it work to go from there. It's going to grow from there, for sure. We're going to be onboarding our interim director.

 

00:10:59 Leslie Thompson  

Very excited about that. I know we're going to do an interview with her in an upcoming podcast. Do you want to share anything about like kind of how we're going to roll this out over the summer or any teasers?

 

00:11:11 Salvatrice Cummo  

Any teasers. Yeah. Well, I think before I share the teaser, I just want to really underscore that when we have diversity within any ecosystem, right, specifically here, we're talking about entrepreneurship and small business. We create a level of growth that is unpredictable, I think, because we're diversifying our talent, we're diversifying the competitive edge, we're diversifying our resources and our ideas, and ultimately, what are we doing? We're generating wealth for current generations and generations to come and sustaining our existing local economy. And with that comes job creation.

 

00:11:56 Leslie Thompson  

Right?

 

00:11:56 Salvatrice Cummo  

Like, let's not forget that with 96,000 plus businesses in the San Gabriel Valley area, they are the job generators. And so intentional focus is going to help, really just help sustain our local economy, more so than maybe other regions of LA County. I don't know. I can't speak to that. But going back to your teaser question, Leslie. Yes. Miss Lizzy Okoro is our incoming interim director for the Women's Business Center. And we are so excited to have her on board.

 

00:12:31 Salvatrice Cummo  

She actually is a current advisor. She's an entrepreneur herself. She has her own business, and with the expertise and the knowledge that she has, she was actually helping out as an advisor to the small business development center, to the SBDC, and then we stole her to come this way to help us build out the Women's Business Center. So, yes, technically, she will begin shortly, shortly after this June board of trustee meeting. And so we're super thrilled to have her on board. And she's absolutely, look, a future episode is going to tell you all you need to know about Lizzy. So I'm not going to spoil it, but just to kind of give just like highlights about what we're thinking about for the summer, we're going to focus on program building first, and then we do have our roadmap, if you will, if you want to call it a roadmap. But we're going to focus on the programming and then align the expertise to implement the programming.

 

00:13:31 Salvatrice Cummo  

We do have to do some operational things and infrastructure design, you know, and put in our CRM and have an outreach plan and a marketing plan and all that good stuff. We're a small business, too. So yes, we're building a center off of federal funding, but we're technically a small business within a business. So that's really kind of exciting. Much like we built the SBDC, we'll build the Women's Business Center. So hopefully the plan is that by the tail end of summer, we will have an official grand opening. Invite our business community and of course, the advisors that will be assisting with us in the programming. And then it's work.

 

00:14:14 Salvatrice Cummo  

It's just work. And the majority of our work is really going to come from our outreach efforts and our partners, because, again, we're going to be able to scale reach with our partners, period. There's no other way to do it, and we know that. And when there's a lot of work that comes with it, but that's okay. And you know what I'd love to do, too, is I think it'd be really kind of exciting for Lizzy. Just kind of tee up that episode, really, if I can just be honest, is for her to give her perspective as a woman entrepreneur and the resources, or lack thereof, for women entrepreneurs and how she felt in that space. And then inviting other clients and other entrepreneurs to have that discussion is going to be really fun. And we have already a good network.

 

00:14:59 Salvatrice Cummo  

The Women's Business Center has an amazing network. We're not the only Women's Business Center. There's plenty across the state and across not only California, but the United States. And so our network here in California is really strong. And so I look forward to really kind of chatting with those ladies who really helped and were instrumental in positioning PCC for the Women's Business Center.

 

 00:15:22 Leslie Thompson 

Sounds good. Sounds like we have a lot to look forward to.

 

00:15:25 Salvatrice Cummo  

You know, I look at our division. Our division has, this is now, what, the 8th pillar, 9th pillar. I lost count. I lost count. I lost count. But our portfolio continues to grow. And what's important to really note, I think, both for you and I and to the listeners, is that when we introduce another, I'm gonna call it department, center pillar, whatever you wanna call it, product. When we introduce them to our portfolio, we don't just introduce anything.

 

00:15:55 Salvatrice Cummo  

And what I mean by that is I feel strongly that all of our departments, all of our pillars, there's intersectionalities between all of it. They're intertwined, there's synergies between. Maybe that's the best word. There are synergies between all the pillars, because ultimately, of who we're serving. And we serve the student, we serve our employers, and we serve our faculty, too. And so I think it's really important to, like, underscore the value of that, because we could build all day, but again, we do more together. So if all of our pillars have some synergies, it's a win. It's already a win.

 

00:16:35 Salvatrice Cummo  

Even with your work with apprenticeships. Right? Like, what if we were to focus on onboarding more women to those apprenticeship programs that are supported by the women small business owners, right? Like, wouldn't that be great?

 

00:16:50 Leslie Thompson  

That'd be very cool. You're speaking to the intentionality behind our building, and I just want to underscore that as a way to kind of wrap up why we've engaged in this endeavor. So, to your point, nothing that we've done to date has been done lightly, that it's all been intentional, strategic, and to your point, to preserve, you know, synergistic integrity of the different pillars. It makes sense somewhere. And I think people, you know, look at the whole program chart there. They can see each pillar lends to the other and make sense. This is another one. So this one does make sense.

 

00:17:23 Leslie Thompson  

So thank you for bringing up that kind of intentional connectivity with the other pillars. So the Women's Business Center, no exception, like all the other pillars that we've added one at a time over the last, what, six years, it's been intended strategic. So this is another move in the right direction, and I'm really excited to see what happens with it. I just feel like there's so much opportunity, maybe apprenticeships, maybe other stuff. There's no end to the possible, like opportunities for partnership and growth for our students.

 

00:17:53 Salvatrice Cummo  

And I also think, too, it's an awareness piece, too. We get so stuck in the. This is probably the wrong word, but we get really excited about, like, building, building, building. And it's like, okay, well, does everyone else know that we're building, building? Does everyone else know what we're doing? And I. I think that something like the Women's Business Center forces that intentional awareness building. Forget about implementing the program, just building awareness around what we are doing as a division and how we serve our campus and how we serve the business community and how we serve the region at large. Just like anything else, our love is in the work. And sometimes we don't really get to talk about the work because we're too busy actually implementing and doing it.

 

00:18:39 Salvatrice Cummo  

So.

 

00:18:39 Leslie Thompson  

Doing the work.

 

00:18:40 Salvatrice Cummo  

Yeah. Along that same thread, Leslie, you and I have had this conversation about how EWD, its respective departments and pillars affects people's lives. And one of the words that we talk about a lot that really sits in our heart is the word empowerment. I truly believe that our departments, specifically like a center, like the Women's Business Center, empowers so much. Empowers personally, empowers professionally, and then from, of course, from a strictly, like, economic lens, you know, it empowers people to ideate and create wealth and jobs and all those things that really kind of help build and sustain our communities. Actually, here's another thing. It empowers community growth and community engagement. All of our work does that.

 

00:19:34 Salvatrice Cummo  

It empowers in some kind of capacity. And so I kind of want to close on that thought, you know? Yes, it's awareness. And we talked about awareness and something like our center, like the Women's business center, there's a level of empowerment that is pretty magical. I'm really excited to kind of witness all of that. And you and I being founders of the Women's business center with Lizzy coming on board and doing some of this work. So I don't know, is there anything else that you can think of of when I say the word empower, what, does that strike a chord with you in our work?

 

00:20:07 Leslie Thompson  

It does because we've examined at different points, like how is the EWD as a division leveraging its resources from any monies that we have to network to expertise within the division and the ranks, like any of our resources to empower students or faculty or even employees within the division and around the campus, like, how do we leverage those resources to empower others? Yes. To your point, I think that the Women's Business Center obviously is an opportunity to empower a group of individuals in the community to achieve their dreams. I think that's great. But when I think of the term of empowering, I just think that that's something that we seek to do in many different ways, leveraging different resources at different times. Sometimes it's just, hey, we're going to pick up the cost for this thing that you want to do in your programming or this event for students. We're going to pick up the tab for that. Or we're going to deploy our team or our talent for this, that, or the other event or partnership that you need. Or we're going to reach out to our network and we're going to connect you with somebody who can help you build this or that.

 

00:21:08 Leslie Thompson  

I mean, that's what we're just trying to do. We're trying to empower those around us by leveraging the resources we have. And we continue to try to build our resources either through applying for new grants, seeking new partnerships, hiring awesome people to run our programs. Like Lizzy. Right? So we're just building our resources as we go so that we can leverage them to empower those around us. That's it. That's all of it. Like, it's not.

 

00:21:32 Leslie Thompson  

I don't think it's a big mystery. Again, nothing is done lightly. It's all intentional and it's all strategic. And it is to that ultimate end goal of being able to empower those around us. So I think that's a great note to end on with this idea of empowerment, particularly since we're talking about the Women's Business Center, which I'm so excited we're standing up.

 

00:21:50 Salvatrice Cummo  

Yeah, me too. Me too. I think we will close the show by saying that empowerment is the key to growth. And we look forward to, again, our conversation with other women entrepreneurs. And Lizzy, of course, at the helm of leadership of that center. Thanks for chatting with me, Leslie. Look forward to doing this again, I'm sure.

 

00:22:13 Leslie Thompson

Yeah, absolutely.

 

00:22:14 Salvatrice Cummo  

All right. Thank you.

 

00:22:15 Leslie Thompson  

Thank you.

 

00:22:18 Salvatrice Cummo  

Thank you for listening to the Future of Work podcast. Make sure you're subscribed on your favorite listening platform so you can easily get new episodes every Tuesday. You can reach out to us by clicking on the website link below in the show notes to collaborate, partner, or.

 

 00:22:34 Salvatrice Cummo 

Just chat about all things Future of Work.

 

00:22:37 Salvatrice Cummo  

We'd love to connect with you. All of us here at the Future of Work and Pasadena City College wish you safety and wellness.