What's Going On: Children’s Scholarship Fund Philadelphia, The Trace. CEOs You Should Know

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Good morning, and welcome to what's going on? A show
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about making a difference in our lives and our communities.
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I'm Lorraine Ballad Morrow. Today we'll hear from Keisha Jordan,
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President and CEO of the Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia, about
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how families can apply for scholarships that open doors to safe,
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high quality K through eight schools, with a priority deadline
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coming up November fifteenth. In our special segment, CEOs you
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Should Know, iHeartMedia Division President Paul Corvino chats with Yin
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Wu Ronnie, CEO Milk PEP, the organization behind the iconic
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Got Milk campaign, about how they're reimagining a classic message
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for a new generation. But first, we're talking about gun
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violence today and the progress Philadelphia has made in reducing it.
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Joining us is Mensa Dean Philadelphia staff writer for The Trace.
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He is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and award winning journalist
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who has spent years covering the issue of justice, corruption,
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and community safety. He's going to talk to us about
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The Trace and also about an upcoming event, a conversation
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about this issue that's facing us in that America's gun
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violence crisis. Mancie you've been reporting on gun violence in
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Philadelphia for so many years, we've seen a historic decline
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in shootings. What are some of the factors driving this
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drop and what do you think has changed on the ground.
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Well, hello, Lauren, and thank you for having me. Well,
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there are many factors involved in the drop in gun
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violence in Philadelphia in recent years. As many of your
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viewers know, we hit a record high of homicides in
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Philadelphia back in twenty twenty one. There were five hundred
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and sixty two homicides. Ever since then, the numbers have
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been going down steadily. In recent years, they've been going
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down dramatically. City officials, state officials, and national officials have
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identified a handful of reasons why.
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That is.
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Among them, returned to normalstly after the COVID upheaval. Schools
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were shut down, after school programs, business is, there were
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a lot of idle people. Unfortunately, you know, idle mind
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is the devil's workshop, And so as we got back
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to normalcy, those gun numbers started to go down. In
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addition to that, the city invested millions upon millions of
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dollars in prevention efforts on the police side and the
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community side. On the police side Operation Pinpoint, where they
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used data to figure out where to send officers reinforcement officers,
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and they sent extra officers to the high crimes police districts,
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the twenty second, twenty fourth, twenty fifth, and thirty ninth districts.
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They also implemented more community police beats that was started
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by Mayor Parker. Some three hundred more officers were sent
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out to community business corridors, communities you away from center
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city to get more officers just out circulating amongst the people.
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And they also had engaged existing community groups who are
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working for decades in these communities in some cases, and
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they funded these groups to do more grassroots prevention work
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with the young people to stop them from getting involved
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in gun violence. One program that specialized in this that
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the city stood up is called Group Violence Intervention. They
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got that program going. It's a program that's all over
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the country. The model is and so Philadelphia had that
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before and then reintroduced it under Americ Henny and it's
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been going, you know, continue to buy Mayor Parker. And
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what they do is they send a team of people
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to individuals who have been identified as likely to get
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themselves in trouble. And before they do that, they visit
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them at home, where they meet people in group settings
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and they give them alternatives to continuing in crime. That
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program has been so successful, according to city officials, that
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they started a juvenile group violenced intervention program as well.
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It sounds like there are strategies that are beginning to work,
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and we're also seeing also a return to somewhat of
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normalcy after the COVID pandemic, which certainly had a huge
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impact on everybody's well being. Now, The Trace is the
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nation's only newsroom dedicated exclusively to reporting on gun violence.
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And you have an event called the Safer Together Forum
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on Tuesday, November eighteenth at WHYY Studios. What can attendees
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expect and why is this event so timely right now
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for Philadelphia.
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The Safer Together Forum is the first time The Trace
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has done this in Philadelphia. It will be November eighteenth
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from to seven thirty pm. It will be held at
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the WHYY Studios. It will be a form where there
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will be a lot of speeches of workshops featuring policymakers, academics,
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community people who are engaged in by prevention, people on
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the front lines, people on the policy side, people on
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the grassroots side. Some of the featured people who will
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be there a Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, Austin Davis. Adam Gear,
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Philadelphia's first director of Public Safety, will also be there.
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So it's going to be again an all day affair
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where people who are interested in learning what's going on
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in Philadelphia with regard to public safety, what's working, and
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what's coming down the pike, and people who have their
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own community programs. People who want to get involved in
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the community should certainly check this out. Just trying to
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build on the momentum that's out there. You know, gun
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violence is down, and we at the Trace are trying
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to always figure out why that is, what's working and
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amplify what's working for the public good.
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If people want more information about this event, but also
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if they'd like to follow the Trace, which is a
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wonderful website that provide it's very in depth information about
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the whole issue of gun violence and violence in general,
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how do they find out more?
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Just go to thetrace dot org. That's the tr Ace
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dot org and you just go to the search engine
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and type in safer together all the information should pop
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up for you on that. If you even go to
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Google and just type in the Trace Safer together, looking
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forward to convening people who are interested in keeping Philadelpia safe.
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Fantastic appreciate all the work that The Trace does. It
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is once again the only newsroom dedicated to exclusively reporting
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on gun violence and the solutions to prevent it. We
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were joined by Mensa Dean, Philadelphia, staff writer for The Trace,
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a Pulitzer Prize finalist, award winning journalist who spent many
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years covering issues of justice, corruption and community safety. Mensa,
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thank you so much for joining us today.
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Thank you, Loran.
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And we're live here outside the Perez family home, just
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waiting for the and there they go, almost on time.
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This morning.
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Mom is coming out the front door strong with a
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double arm kid carry. Looks like Dad has the bags.
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Daughter is bringing up the rear. Oh but the diaper
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bag wasn't closed.
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Diapers and toys are everywhere.
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Ooh but mom has just nailed the perfect car seat
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buckle for the toddler. And now the eldest daughter, who
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looks to be about nine or ten, has secured herself
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in the booster seat. Dad zips the bag closed and
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they're off. Ah, it looks like mom doesn't realize her
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coffee cup is still on the roof of the.
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Car, and there it goes. Oh, that's a shame that
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mug was a fam favorite.
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Don't sweat the small stuff, just nail the big stuff,
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like making sure your kates are buckle correctly in the
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right seat for their agent's eye.
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Learn more at NHTSA dot gov. Slash the Right Seat.
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It's NHGSA dot gov. Smash the Right Seat, brought to
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you by NIZZA and the AAD Council.
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A great education can change everything, but for many Philadelphia families,
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financial barriers make that dream harder to reach. The Children's
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Scholarship Fund Philadelphia is helping bridge that gap by providing
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thousands of scholarships so children can attend safe, quality K
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through eight tuition based schools. Joining us right now is
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Keishy Jordan, President and CEO of the Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia.
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She's going to share how families can apply for scholarships
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for the twenty twenty six twenty seven school year and
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learn more about upcoming opportunities. So Keisha. For listeners who
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may not be familiar, what is the Children's Scholarship Fund
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Philadelphia and how does it help families across the city.
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Sure. Thank you so much, Lorraine for talking to me
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today and giving me a chance to talk about our
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scholarships with your listeners. Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia is a
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twenty four year old kindergarten through eighth grade private school
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scholarship program. We are the largest kindergarten through eighth grade
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focused private school scholarship program in Pennsylvania, and we specifically
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focus on families in Philadelphia. So we provide scholarships of
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up to thirty three hundred dollars per student for up
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to three students in a family, and the family can
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then use those scholarships to attend pretty much any private
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school in the Philadelphia region that they choose.
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You've expanded the scholarships reach to more than sixty five
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hundred students, which is incredible growth. What's driving the success
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and why is access to tuition based schools so important?
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Yeah?
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So, Lorraine, I have some even updated data for you
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because we are just now reassessing how many students we're
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serving this year, and we are seeing this year in
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eighty seve six percent retention rate, meaning eighty six percent
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of students are returning year over year. We've never seen
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anything like it, so we are now actually newly you're
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one of the first to hear, serving over sixty eight
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hundred students this year. So you know, why is that
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growth happening? Why is there that need? We're still trying
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to understand that, but what I can say is that
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we still have so many families every year applying for scholarships,
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more than we can give out, and so, you know,
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I think there's still a need. Families tell us that
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what they want is quality, equality, academic program, they want safety. Interestingly,
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we see families looking for religion or religious values in
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a school that they're choosing, and so we've made sure
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that we do everything we can as CSFP to make
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the scholarships possible for family. So since twenty twenty two
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when we launched the Breaking Barriers campaign, we've now guaranteed
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every scholarship through eighth grade, So no matter what year
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a student enters, they're going to receive that scholarship through
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eighth grade without having to reapply. So that gives families
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the confidence that once they're in our program, they can
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stay at their partner's school. And that's so important because
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all the achievement data says the longer the student is
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in their partner school, the more likely they are to
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be proficient in math and reading and graduate high school
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on time and get into the high school of their
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choice and go to college or whatever their famili's dreams
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are for them. So that's been an important piece of
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our growth, I believe, is sticking by families through eighth grade,
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providing the help with how to select your child's school,
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other resources, giving camp scholarships to our families, having a
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parent leadership program. I think what we're seeing is that
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families are looking for exactly this type of help and
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so an organization that's going to be there for them,
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and we just are really grateful to be able to
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be that resource for our families.
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And I think the other secret sauce for the children's
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scholarship in Philadelphia is that it's not simply that you're
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giving money to these families, but you're really engaging the
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parents and the community the village around that child. And
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I think that one of the markers for success is
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parental involvement.
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Right, Yes, for sure, the more a parent is involved
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with their child's school, the more likely their child is
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to be successful. And we just recently conducted a study
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and learned that the families who receive CSFP scholarships tend
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to be more resource meaning finding the resources. They are
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families who are out there looking for things. They spend
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more hours than the national average searching for a school
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for their child. So you're absolutely right. A family that
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engaged doing their homework, partnering with an organization like ours
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is getting the opportunity to see success for their child
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through scholarships.
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There is an important priority deadline on November fifteenth. Why
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is that date so crucial for families hoping to receive
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a scholarship?
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So that is our priority deadline. So we will pull
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a lottery in December and then again in March, and
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so in order to receive a scholarship in December, which
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is the most in demand time, it's important that we
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have as many families as want to be in the
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lottery registered by November fifteenth. So you know, there's still
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a chance to receive a scholarship after November fifteenth, but
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the best chance is to apply before then.
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And what that.
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Does, Lorraine, is to help families to start the application
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process because applications for private schools do start now for
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the next school year. It also gives families the best
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chance of applying for financial aid and other scholarships. So
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it really is the starting early gives families the ability
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to jump start the process and know that they're going
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into this journey with CSFP by their side and a
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scholarship that they can utilize to be able to make
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the private school possible.
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And I think it should be pointed out that your
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application process is pretty simple when you think about applications
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in general. You know a lot of times there are
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several pages and you have to fill out a million blanks.
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But the cf Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia application is pretty
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user friendly.
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Thank you. I think so too. It's really just contact information.
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It's free. It just takes a few minutes, and so
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you know, it is in a family's best interest if
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they even think that they might want to consider private
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school for next year, especially if they have a younger
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child entering kindergarten in our first grade for the first time.
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It is it only takes a few minutes to do
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the application.
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Fantastic. So, finally, how can the community support CSFs? I
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keep stumbling over that, how finally, how can the community
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support the Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia's mission and where can
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families find out more information or connect with you online?
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Yeah, so for families, the very best way to connect
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with us is through our website CSF Philadelphia dot org.
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You can click on scholarships. There's a button to apply. Also,
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there's a lot of great information there. There is, there
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are resources, there are other scholarship programs, there's a list
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of schools. There is a tool that families can use
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to search for a school using whatever criteria they want.
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So that's really the best resource. We also have live
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chat that is there on the website for any questions
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and for the general community. You know, there's lots of
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ways to get involved.
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We are an.
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Organization that raises millions of dollars every year and gives
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it back out as scholarships, so you know, donations are
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very much needed, and on our website of course is
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a donation button or there's contact information. We're also, you know,
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often looking for volunteers. We have a great event in
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which volunteers get to call the families who win the
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lottery and give them that great news that they're going
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to receive a scholarship. Through eighth grade, which is a
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very joyful occasion I've had, and we have other events
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and lots of ways that we invite the community to
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get involved. And you know, lastly, I would say to
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spread the word please. You know, exposure for us is
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really important, both for the general community as well as
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for parents, So please share and our website is the
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best resource to do that.
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Well.
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Fantastic And I know those phone calls must be so
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much fun for the volunteers because of the shouts of joy.
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It must be amazing, must be yes, really.
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Funny you were invited, Lorraine. It would be lovely to
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have you on a team. Companies use it as a
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team building events. They bring a team and we serve
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dinner and they get together. So oh would love to
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see you there.
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What a great idea. I may take you up on that.
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I thank you so much. The Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia
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is bridging that gap, providing thousands of scholarships so children
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can attend safe, quality K through eight tuition based schools.
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Keisha Jordan, President and CEO of the Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia,
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thank you so much for joining us today.
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Thanks for having me, Lorrain.
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Cidadel Credit Union has been celebrating local teachers for twenty
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five years. This year they're awarding over one hundred thousand
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dollars in grants, and your favorite teacher could be next.
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00:17:56.960 --> 00:17:59.240
If you know an educator who goes above and beyond,
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share why they deserve to win the Citadel Heart of
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00:18:01.599 --> 00:18:04.599
Learning Award at Citadel Banking dot org slash Teachers.
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This is CEOs you Should Know. It is Paul Corvino,
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Division President of iHeartMedia with another episode of CEOs you
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Should Know. Today, I'm joined by Yin Wound Ronnie, the
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CEO of Milk PEP, the organization behind milk processing and
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education initiatives and famously known for the iconic got Milk campaign.
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Welcome Yin, Thanks so much for having me before we
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get started, and we learned about your journey and how
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you eventually became the CEO of this renowned organization. What
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I'd like to do is a quick Q and a
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rapid fire question which gets the mouth moving the brain work.
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Are you ready to go have some fun?
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Yes, let's do it.
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Okay, Skier Beach vacation beach from Singapore. Beatles are stones,
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Oh Beatles.
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But that's a hard one.
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Tom Brady and Michael Jordan, Oh my god.
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I don't do sports. Oh kind of neither, sadly.
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How about Sean Connery or Daniel Craig.
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Oh my, these are hard ones.
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Give you a Craig to go in your milk, cookies
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or donuts.
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It's both an option for cookies.
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I guess if I had to pick that is that
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is a tough choice.
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That is a tough choice of anything is fine in
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my book.
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Yeah, I agree with you on that. So what drew
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you to the company. What was it about Milk PEP
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that said, yeah, that's an organization I'd like to work for.
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I mean, first and foremost. In the recruiting process, I
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was lucky to meet several board members, many of whom
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I still work with today. And I did not know
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a lot about agriculture or dairy. But these were like
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good human beings, like who believed in a wholesome product
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that was nutritious, affordable, accessible, and so I was just
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really drawn to the culture of the people that I met.
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Was part one, Part two. Frankly, the challenge seems kind
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of impossible. You know, milk had been in some slight
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decline and then a steep of the client for decades,
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and it just seemed like, how do you help make
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a difference doing that? And as my husband would say,
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I impossible challenges. I love to run into the fire.
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Because I kept saying to him, I can't take this
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job because it's impossible. He said, well, that's why you
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should take the job, because you love heart thorning problems.
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You know got milk obviously, as you said in the beginning,
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is one of the most iconic campaigns in the world
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in the US, and so as an advertising door student,
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you know, advocate to be able to be part of
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that legacy and heritage obviously was also interesting.
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What is the function? What is the goal of milk PEP?
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Yeah, I mean PEP stands for process or education program.
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But really our charter is very singular. It's meant to
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increase the per capital consumption of dairy milk fluid milk
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basically only that, not all the other forms of dairy.
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Because it had been experiencing a long decline, the industry
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got together and worked in Congress to create basically a
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congressional charter. Whether they're assessed or taxed on the milk
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that is processed creating basically a war chest for US
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to spend on advertising and promotion to encourage America to
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drink more milk.
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And how are you measured your success?
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You know, basically on how much milk is processed, and
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that's how a budget is created. For every hundred weight
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of gallon twenty CENTSUS assess creating a war chats of
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about eighty million dollars, and success US is having Americans
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drink more milk.
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And I think I so recently that milk is making
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a comeback. It is, and I guess you've got a
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lot to do with that.
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Yes, I mean, milpep definitely played a role. I think
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we are very focused on sentiment and attitude and upper
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funnel things, but frankly, the whole industry contributed to it.
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Twenty twenty four was the first time that milk has
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grown in fifteen years. But a lot of things went right.
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But I think we are very pleased with the changing
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sort of popular narrative about milk because when I walked
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in the door. You might remember five years ago, all
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the headlines in major pubs were pretty negative. You know,
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Jerry was taking a lot of heat. Environmental issues, oats, oat,
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and almond and all the alternative milks were kind of
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grabbing the headlines. I'm proud to report that this this cycle,
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the last couple of years, we've seen a much more balanced.
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Upon what turns it around.
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I mean, I think probably Milt Pep's investment and cultural
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relevance helped. I think it's a little bit of trends.
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As you know, cycles common cycles go. Frankly, the rise
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of whole milk has been very helpful. You know, fat
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went from being an enemy to a positive, so trends.
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There was a lot of misinformation about milk, yes.
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I mean there still is.
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I mean there are definitely are parts of the population
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that reject milk for reasons that always not always is
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based in science. I think the industry has done a
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better job of organizing itself to get some of the
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more scientific truths out there. But honestly, this sounds like
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a cop out from an advertising.
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Person, but some of it is just the vibe. Like milk.
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Pep really tried to invest in that balance between fact
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and perception and to bring interesting celebrities back to bear
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to do interesting great, interesting platforms and properties that just
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made milk seem more contemporary. More relevant, more part of
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today's cultural narrative.
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So how do you reach the market? Yeah, I know
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you have a lot of events that you have. You've
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got these marathons or running events. Tell us a little
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bit about that.
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Yeah, we have a pretty i would say, robust of
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omni channel plan, you know, a very big investment and
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always on digital online video CTV, all the normal pieces.
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But we also sponsor or have built from the ground
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up two major events. We made a commitment to support
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female in sports. Milk has been in sports for ten
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thousand years. Honestly, MILKPEP has been supporting athletes for the
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thirty years of existence. We made a bigger bet on
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females given out business needs. As you can imagine, women
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are still the primary shopper, the primary influencer on children.
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So we started off actually by hacking the New York
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City Marathon. We went on an official sponsor another sports
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drink was but we supported all the female runners of
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the twenty twenty two New York City Marathon, created a
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great event for them, expos and almost twenty five percent
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of those women's signed up, And we were really touched
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by the sort of the outprog on support then the
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following year we did the same thing at three national races,
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twelve local races, and we realized, to my surprise, there
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was no full like marathon in the country for just women.
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Lots of five ks, ten ks, half marathons, and so
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we sort of opportunity to build a race by women
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for women from the ground up. So we launched every
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Women's Marathon as it's called in twenty twenty four in Savannah.
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We were reprising it in Scottsdale just a few weeks
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in November, and it was a huge undertaking. It was
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a year round effort where we were really creating a
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community of runners explaining how milk can feel a performance journey,
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and the first event was a huge success, so excited
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to replicate it this year. Our second major platform is
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in e sports, similarly a lot of inequity and competitive gaming,
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so we created from the ground up the largest Fortnite
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tournament only four female players. Again October of last year,
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focused on women on women, and so the next event
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actually is happening as we speak, is kicking off today.
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The tournament will be tomorrow as part of TwitchCon. So
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we have had many qualifiers and we have one hundred
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young women competitive gamers coming to our tournament and trying
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to address some of the inequity they face. In fact,
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the top paid female competitive player in America makes as
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much money as a five hundredth male player, So the
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inequity in esports is probably even worse than in regular sports.
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So we're trying to do our part and again positioning
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ourselves as the performance strength for gamers with key benefits
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like focus, hydration, and recovery, because our position is the
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esports are also sports.
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What would you that's interesting just what you just said
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about what's focus, hydration and recovery is what are the
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major that what's the major value proposition of milk today?
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Oh my, it's a great question.
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One of the blessings of male If you go to
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our website Gonna Need Milk dot com. It has so
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many natural benefits. So it's thirteen essential nutrients that create
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literally a plathora of like a dozen or so benefit errors.
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Having worked in CpG food for a long time, it's
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unusual to be able to claim the number of things
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we can. Obviously, the protein is a big part of
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it right now. So protein creates muscles, it helps kids
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grow to the right height. The balance between the protein,
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fat and sugar helps endurance athletes and runners recover after races.
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It hydrates better than water, It helps build strong bones.
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I mean, it is really like swimming in a benefit
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in a sea of wonderful benefit. So, based on the
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audience and the platform, we tend to highlight a bunch.
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We have some new research that shows that milk also
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contains nutrients that can help with brain health, can help
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with depression and anxiety, can help with focus. So it
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is almost and I don't say this lightly because I've
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been in marketing a long time.
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It's a wonderfood.
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It's like a superfood. It's like the original superfood. It
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is all natural, it is not fortified for the most part,
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and it's just it is a lot of bang for
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the buck. And especially in this environment where I think
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affordability is top of mind, it's a huge blessing to
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have a product that has this many benefits that you
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can surface and frankly, we have the opposite problem of
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trying to figureut where to focus our dollars.
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Let me ask you if you could talk to your
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twenty one year old self, graduating just coming out of
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Yale what advice would you give that twenty one year
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old on how to eventually wind up in a position
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like you're in today.
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I think it's a great question. I mean, my journey
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has been a lot about maybe learning to be more confident,
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on betting on myself. And I think I was raised
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in Asia. You know, I'm a third child.
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I think I spent a.
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Long time trying to meet the needs of others and
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it's great to be a service oriented I hope I
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always will be. On my journey, I've learned to have
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more confidence than myself and to bet on my own abilities,
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my own intuition, my own decision making.
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Well, thank you so much. Really enjoyed this conversation. Once again,
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we're talking with Yin Wound Ronnie, the CEO of Milk PEP. Again.
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That's the organization behind milk processing and Education Initiatives. Again,
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they were famously known for the Got Milk campaign. Thank
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you so much for joining us. This is Paul Corvino,
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Division president of iHeartMedia saying thanks for listening to another
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episode of CEOs you Should Know.
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Listen to CEOs you Should Know on the iHeartRadio app.
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00:28:31.559 --> 00:28:33.960
You can listen to all of today's interviews. By going
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00:28:33.960 --> 00:28:37.319
to our station website and typing in Keyword Community. You
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00:28:37.359 --> 00:28:41.880
can also listen on the iHeartRadio app Keywords Philadelphia Community Podcast.
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Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Lorraine Ballard. I'm
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Lorraine Ballard Morril and I stand for service to our
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community and media that empowers. What will you stand for?
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You've been listening to what's going on, and thank you.
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Sam a running
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At some I never running