November 21, 2025 • 29 mins
A Conversation with Gigi Assi / What You Need to Know About Immigration Crackdown in N.C. hear more about this story on today's podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
And we need you to stay tuned because we have
a great show in store where you stick around because
we are going to be talking to the one and
only Gigi Assi, a fantastic do gooder from the state
of Texas. We're excited to get a conversation going with her,
and then later on we're going to give you the
latest on the ice raids taking place in North Carolina.
(00:35):
If you've been following those around the country, trust me,
you need to get reacquainted with some of the more
extreme tactics that they are using, just in case you
haven't followed the stories as closely as we have. But
as always, we like to start off on a high
feel good feature some ebony excellence, if you will, And
today's story comes from the Atlanta Black Star. I'll share
(00:58):
and a now viral clip which shows in Indiana hospital
booting a black woman from the facility after she's an
act of labor. We see while she's being taken to
another hospital she delivered her baby in a car. Mercedes
Wells says she walked into the Francian Hospital and Crownpoint
just after midnight on Sunday, clearly filling the onset of labor,
but instead of receiving care. She says she was sent
(01:19):
home hours later, dismissed by nurses who told her she
wasn't progressing and should only return if things worsened. Minutes
after leaving, things did worsen. According to videos posted by
her husband, Leon Wells, the couple barely made it down
the road before Mercedes gave birth in the front seat
of their truck. The clip showing Mercedes clutching their newborn
baby mere feet from the hospital that turned her away,
have since spread across social media, sparking outrage and disbelief.
(01:41):
Leon later told NBC Chicago that the baby is doing well.
The hospital, now facing mounting scrutiny, issued a brief statement
insisting that the health and safety of our patients is
always our top priority that is a quote, and confirming
that an internal investigation is underway. Citing privacy laws, The
facility declined to answer any questions about why Wells was
dish charge or what staff assessed that night. So obviously
(02:04):
that is miraculous and showing how tough black women have
always been, even on their own. And so that feels
like a feel good story we had to share. And
now the guest of the hour. Gigi Ossi joined the
Southland Conference in twenty twenty five and serves as Chief
of Staff, supporting the Commissioner and overseeing the conference's key operational, administrative,
(02:27):
and strategic initiatives. In this role, gig manages priorities across departments,
strengthens communication and culture within the Conference office, and acts
as a primary liaison to university presidents, athletic directors, and
senior leadership. She also leads the coordination of all board
and leadership meetings, manages special projects, and assist in the
(02:48):
planning and execution of major Southland events. Furthermore, gig is
the founder and CEO of Prodigy Pathways, a national nonprofit
focused on expanding access to elite sports development and mentorship
for underserve youth with a deep commitment to equity and
long term impact. She launched the organization to close the
gap between talent and opportunity, pairing professional athletes with aspiring
(03:12):
student athletes to provide structured guidance, financial support, and legacy
driven mentorship. And she is our guest today.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
This is the QR code.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
He is Rams's job.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
And he is q WARD all right, So, Gigi Assi,
welcome to the show today. We've been looking forward to
having a conversation with you, and I must admit that
I am famously Our listeners know this, but I'm not.
I've always considered myself more of the music guy than
(03:46):
the sports guy. Q is a bona fide athlete or
former athlete. Wo'll get mad at me if I don't
say it the right way. But learning about you and
the work that you're doing is fascinating. And I happen
to know that your work and your background runs a
lot deeper than the intro that we read for you.
So what we do around here is we like to
(04:07):
start our stories at the beginning, So do, as a
favor talk a little bit about your background, maybe some
of the stuff that we left off. You know, you
can start you know, where you were born, how you
grew up, that sort of thing, and what led you
to the conversation we're about to have today, meaning the
sort of work that you're actively engaged in at the moment,
Just so our listeners have an idea of who we're
talking to today.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Of course, Well, I just want to start off by
saying thank you so much for bringing me onto your platform.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I really appreciate it. I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
I'm really excited that I got to meet the two
of you guys, so definitely appreciate this time. My name
is Gigi, and actually I like to always start off
with saying that Gig is my nickname. My actual name
is Hajad. It's Arabic. I'm Egyptian. Both of my parents
are Egyptian immigrants. They came to the States in their thirties.
I am a first generation, so I was born in
(04:56):
the States, but everything about me is very heavily embedded
in my culture and my upbringing, and so you know,
I definitely carry that through just how I live my
life and how I identify in America. So I guess
I'll start from the beginning of where product you kind
of launched and kind of the upbringing that I had
in America. Growing up as an Arab Muslim in the
(05:18):
States definitely was very polarizing identity to have, especially just
given some of the circumstances in America, and you know,
consistently felt like I was on the outskirts of a
lot of American structure, American societal structure, how the college
system was mapped up for children in high school and
just how to play sports and how to get to college,
and all of those things were things that I had
(05:40):
no idea how to navigate. And early on one of
the biggest frustrations that I faced was I had a
passion and love for sports, and I found it to
be a major connector for a lot of my peers
who played together there, and I had a natural skill set,
but I didn't have the resources or funding or understanding
of the structures in place to really help foster stared
(06:00):
that that love so basically grew up having to sit
out a you one year my fresh my freshman year
of high school, sitting out AAU because I couldn't afford it,
didn't know that I could apply for financial aid, didn't
really even fully understand that playing a college playing a
high school sport and really really putting my focus into
that could actually help pave the pathway to college, not
(06:22):
just financially, but also just helped me get to a
better school or better you know, better programs, bigger opportunities.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I didn't really like.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
To me, the end goal was college, but I didn't
think outside of like what schools did I want to
go to? And like where I would end up and
what programs at the schools were available. What you know, Majors,
I wanted to look at it was just go to college,
because that's all I knew, was like I had to
get to college. And so as I grew up, you know,
obviously I started to figure out the landscape myself and
(06:50):
definitely frust Definitely a point of frustration was just lack
of resources, lack of mentorship, lack of guidance, two parents
that are immigrants that just don't understand the system. And thankfully,
I think that adversity helped me get to where I'm
at today. I just really had to grind and work
hard and figure things out. But it's always been in
the back of my mind of like, wow, I wonder
(07:10):
if there was somebody out there who had just take
taken a little bit of time to look at the
interests that I had and foster that and help me,
wouldn't the outcome have been a little bit different.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
I'm blessed and grateful to be at where I'm at now,
but I always had that though on the back of
my mind of like, well, what if there was something
in place to kind of help students similar to me
who came from underserved communities so much to just kind
of hold their hand and help guide them and show
them what's available. And so that was kind of the
birth of Prodigy Pathways. I created this nonprofit this year.
(07:41):
It's actually pretty young, but it's had exponential growth and
so much support. I'm really really happy and blessed if
the community has all kind of came in and helped.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
And it really does take a village.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
But essentially, what Prodigy Pathways does is it's a one
on one mentorship program that pairs professional athletes with young
student athletes. And it gets divided and how into two components.
There's the mentorship piece, where really it's a touch point.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
It's an access point. It's a pillar to look up to.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
It's a mentor, it's a friend in the industry that
the child gets to experience. It's access so they get
to go to games, they get to go to an
open practice, they get to maybe do an off season training,
and maybe a zoom called very low touch points. And
then on the other piece is a scholarship fund that
gets donated to each student. In that scholarship fund, we
(08:26):
cover performance enhancement training specialized.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
To the sport that they play.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
They get about seventy five to eighty sessions a year.
We also pay for their gear and equipment because that
can be really expensive. And then to level the playing field,
which is something we're seeing a lot now is a
lot of youth sports are tied to programs like AAU
or seven on seven and those are acquired, caught or sorry,
our heavy costs that families have to take in. And
(08:54):
you're looking at the average family spending anywhere between five
to six thousand dollars a year just for one child's
youths and it's just one sport, and so you know,
it's a lot of money. Five six thousand dollars. It
can change a family, can make it or break it
in other ways. And so we really try to help
these families kind of mitigate these costs. And so we
cover the AAU travel expense and all that, and then
(09:16):
on top of it, just in terms of figuring out
when you go to college, like sports can't be the
end all be all, so really trying to help them
understand like, yes, you can go to college and play
a sport, but what are you interested in? And so
we'll do surveys with these kids and figure out what
they're interested in, and then we'll have them meet with
professionals in those respective industries and they get a kind
of like one on one interactive type of hangout or experience.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And so we call that the Career Discovery Lab.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
And then lastly, we just work really closely with a
couple of programs in Houston specific University of Houston and
Rice University. A couple of student athlete organizations offer free
tutoring for some of our kids so that they can,
you know, maintain their academic eligibility. And we also partnered
up with Honest Game, which is another nonprofit and they
do NC double A compliance report to help kind of
(10:04):
guide what the NC DOUBLEA eligibility needs your academic eligibility
needs to be in order to go to specific schools,
and so it's kind of like a direct pathway to
see like what deadlines are coming up, what do you
need to have submitted, and what GPA you need to
have and then and then what courses you can take
to help get your GPA.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Back on track.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
So it's a it's a very extensive program. Like I said,
we put a lot of thought into it, but that
was really basically the birth of Prodigy Pathways.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
This has been the qr CODE Community Impact segment, produced
by rams' Jah, hosted by our new hostse I See.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Rams is already getting ready to give you your own show.
G So just sorry it was really long.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
That was actually really incredible. Yeah, we we joke that.
You know, our entire platform is dedicated to giving people
from the community, especially those who intend to give back,
a platform. But as you can imagine, most people are
not you to having long form conversations about what they do.
So sometimes we'll ask a question and the answer will
take like five seconds, and then we have to kind of,
(11:09):
you know, help that person make it work. Again, you're
going to get an email from Rams about producing the
show for you, so just go ahead and prepare yourself
for that. A lot of the work that Rams and
I did long before we were you know, kind of
thrust into the activist space was about creating access, access
(11:29):
to resources, access to education, access to food and toiletries,
access to shelter that a lot of people that come
from where we all come from don't have access to.
For you, learning on the job, literally, you know, looking back,
like man, had I just known about this path, maybe
(11:49):
some part of my life would have been different. And
now you're in a position where you're creating that not
just access point, but that those data points and that
information that people you know tend to go through their
whole lives without knowing about, you know, myself growing up
without my father. There's so many things that I wish
i'd known when I was on my academic and athletic path.
(12:10):
What drove you to say, I don't want to just
have these regrets in my life. I don't want anyone
to have them, So let me do something about it.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
That's a really good question for me personally.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
And maybe this is just internalized, you know, dealing with
what you have to go through single mother and you
know again also absentee father to an extent, and just
having to struggle. My main driver was, I never want
to be in this position again. I never want to
be put in this position. I never want to feel
like I'm reaching out for help from other people and
(12:52):
I can't take circumstances into my own hands and control things.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So that's been my main drivers's setting myself up to
never have to be and put in that position.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
And while I do think that that adversity that I
have is great. It helped me get to where I
needed to get to. I also think about the moments
that it has really affected my self confidence in specific
moments when things don't work out for me the way
that I want them to work out. Sometimes internally I
(13:22):
internalize it and I'm like, of course, why would it
work out for someone like me? Look at where I
came from. That's this is just not meant for me.
And I hate having that insecurity. Sometimes I hate having
that feeling, and I can, I always I can. I
can empathize with that as a as a child, the
child having to experience that, that's tenfold because you're still
(13:44):
your cognitive development is not there yet. So when I
do feel down on myself, I'm able to reflect internally
be like Gigi, that's not right, Like you know, keep
pushing forward. But that's because I'm an adult. But kids
don't have that maturity level yet. They don't have those
work life experiences, they don't have that thought process yet.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Some do, but most don't.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Right, they're just children, and so when they have those feelings,
they're dark, they're heavy, and they can make or break
the direction that a child chooses to go in. And
I wish I could say that even with Prodigy we've
had one hundred percent success rate.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
We haven't.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
We've had kids who've joined the program who are just
dealing with a lot of stuff on their end internally,
and it's made or break the decisions that they've made
in terms of like what to do.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Next next, And so I guess I don't know.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
If this is a long winded way of answering, if
this is answering your question properly, but I think for me,
it's just not wanting other kids to feel the way
that I felt growing up because I was able to
get out of it.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
But that's not the case. Like mental health is really,
really tough.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
And that's also something in our communities that we don't
necessarily promote. At least in the Arab Muslim Air you know,
Air Muslim community, we don't promote mental health awareness. I
can't speak for every other community, but I've seen it,
and so as children like it's hard to it's hard
to understand your emotions, it's hard to understand what you're
thinking when you're also not having the proper resources to
(15:09):
help you advocate for yourself and get yourself out of
these ruts.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I don't know if that.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Makes sense, but you know, I think that's that's probably
my main driving factor.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I think that, you know, the where there is a
possibility to connect across lines where people usually get gummed
up caught up. Those opportunities are I don't know if
they're overlooked generally speaking, but there are not a lot
(15:41):
of people that do things that address them. You know.
I worked on a campaign that had to deal with
sexual health once upon a time, and it was targeted
towards young people who were just stepping into that facet
of their life. And you know that it's really easy
to fumble, you know, the next twenty years of your
(16:02):
life by playing that moment wrong, you know, and I
can only imagine, you know, the pitfalls that might appear
on the pathway for a young athlete where their physicality
is very important and there's the potential not just to
take care of themselves, but to uplift their entire families. Now,
(16:24):
one of the things that I did see that kind
of stood out to me was the mentorship part of it.
And when I saw the website, I saw that there
were like, like some football players that I'm sure that
these student athletes get to meet these football players and
they get to, like I guess, work with them, is
how you articulated earlier. Forgive me again, I'm not really
(16:47):
yeah no, but I just I can imagine how important
that was, how important that must be. And so you
mentioned earlier about the ath about working in Houston. And
I'm not sure what teams these athletes work for, but
(17:07):
I wanted to ask a question that I think is
really important, at least to our listeners here. Do you
have do some of the athletes that I saw on
the website do they exist outside of Houston. The second
question is, if not, are there plans to incorporate other
professional athletes at other points around the country, because obviously
these pitfalls for student athletes exist around the country based
(17:32):
on what I know.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
So your thoughts, Yeah, So we have two players who
are currently in Houston.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
We have one player that's in Indianapolis.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I have another player that's in San Antonio, and we
have another player that's in Boston, Massachusetts, and one in
New York.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
So they are nationally, you know, spread out.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
It's because I'm here in Houston that the kids are here,
just because it's easier to kind of coordinate everything right
now as Prodigy Spans. I would hope to actually incorporate
kids nationally everywhere, but this is a bigger conversation for
a bigger group, you know. I mean like to have
this potentially be bought by the NFL, like the model,
be bought by the NFL and NBA and get actual
(18:13):
resources put into this and backed up to really expand
and do this right. But you know, the athletes are
all over because again you know the touch point is
is like when they are playing in Houston, they can
go to a game, the zoom calls the conversations. One
thing that we've been working on is like the sponsorship
side or corporate sponsorship piece, and so working with organizations
(18:37):
like Dick's Sporting Goods, and they're willing to do like
a shopping spreed for ten kids in Houston. And so
we'll have one of these professional players come out to
Houston and take ten kids from a community underserved community
come out to the dick Sboarding Goods and they can
pick out one hundred and fifty dollars worth of items
and still get to spend time with that professional athlete. Now,
this steers away from that like specific one on one
(18:59):
mentorship piece. But again, that access point is really really
important because it just it shows something that's tangible. It's
it's not just something you see on the TV. It's
not someone who's just like out of reach. It's really
someone you can talk to and you can visualize in
front of your in front of your own eyes. And
so to your point, yes, this is something that exists
(19:20):
outside of Houston. We have players kind of all over
the country right now, and I want to continue to
bring in as many people as possible. But we are
a three person show right now and I'm running most
of the organization, and so next year I hope to
hire maybe one or two more people to help me,
and then that we can really really expand into like
other states.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
You know, a really interesting thing happens where the three
of us are from worlds apart. Ramsey and I are
have become family now. Not he's not just my friend,
he's a family member to me. But we grew up
thousands of miles away, and then the same for you
and for your parents, but we all grew up in
this country and learned to love it. And I think
(20:05):
because of that we are hypercritical of her, and you know,
we get told to just you know, shut up or
go back to our countries. When we're criticizing the things
that we see that are wrong, the space that Ramses
and I spend most of our time professionally, we're faced
with some of the most difficult truths about this country
(20:28):
that we call home. Being critical of those things and
being aware of them is sometimes very difficult. We are
collectively watching a lot of our fellow countrymen and country
women suffer because of some decisions being made by this administration.
The one that has kind of stood out and seems
(20:49):
the most cruel, especially for this time of year, is
the denial of access to SNAP benefits and food stamps
and nutrition assistance. Once again, you saw an issue, and
you could have just been a well to do person.
It just pointed out that something was wrong, but you
made a decision to once again do something about a
problem that you saw. And that's what kind of connected us,
(21:10):
not kind of, that's what literally connected us. You not
just bringing your attention to something, but putting some connect
some kinetic action into into motion to at least help
some people this holiday season. And that was the food
drive that you organize. Please tell us more about that
and in ways that we can get involved in help.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Well, I mean you hit it right on the on
the head or the nail on the head. I never
know what the saying is, but I mean it's crazy.
Forty two million I believe that was a stat Forty
two million Americans lost access to SNAP benefits with the
government shutdown. I mean that that stat alone blew my mind.
(21:55):
Forty two million people lost access to food a resource.
That food is a resource that no one is entitled to.
It is no one's like. It is like you don't
own that. This is a resource that is literally on
this planet for everyone to have, and it's the greed.
It's crazy to me that people are literally fighting for
their lives just to eat to survive. And that to
(22:18):
me was just I mean, I truly don't even have
the right words to express how I feel from just
like how frustrating it is to even have to say
this out loud. So obviously, Thanksgiving is I have a
love hate relationship with this holiday. For one reason. It's
a great holiday. It brings the families together, it brings
people together. It's a great way to be thankful for
(22:39):
all the good things in your life. But it's also
a holiday that is incredibly isolating for those who can't
afford to do the big Thanksgiving spreads, who don't have families,
who maybe just got displaced, don't have homes. And then
in the economic and global political environment that we're in
right now, it's even more isolating because a lot of
people have lost a lot of things. And I live
(23:01):
I live in downtown, so there's a lot of homeless
people by my house, and they're you know, I see
them walking by all the time, very sweet people, like
just just normal people have just really terrible circumstances. And
so it just got me thinking that, you know, Thanksgiving,
if everyone is going to be in their homes having
these huge, you know, meals with their families, like the
least I can do is just go out and try
(23:23):
to just offer some food and kind of like bring some.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Type of happiness and joy to the day.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
A starting to get cold in Houston, and so I
partnered up with this other organization called Moss. My friend
nim Rah, she's the CEO founder of that nonprofit. They
do a lot of amazing work here in Houston, and
so the two of us started a food bank, and
basically we were collecting donations for food, and then two
nights before Thanksgiving, her and I and a couple of
volunteers are going to be cooking the food. We also
(23:48):
partnered up with another shelter out here in Houston, and
we're going to bring and bring some of those supplies
over to them so that they can cook too, and
we'll be packaging everything, and then Thanksgiving morning we will
head out and just start delivering these like warm meals
to everyone so that at least on Thanksgiving they have
something to eat.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
There's a couple of organizations.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
We're still actively doing some research here, but there's a
couple of organizations that were sent over to me that
also are doing like clothing drives, like jacket drives, and
they offer vouchers where you can go and pick out
I think like forty five or fifty dollars worth of
jackets or items to just stay warm. And so we're
going to try to incorporate incorporate that as well, but
really it takes a village and so honestly, the only
(24:27):
thing I ask is like the community buying and the
community support. If you're somebody who wants to give back
on Thanksgiving and you don't know how you can either
donate if you want to actually come out and help us,
we have I can. I can give you guys all
the information if you guys are willing to share that,
and you can reach out to me on via email.
I have a Masters spreadsheet of just volunteers that have
(24:50):
reached out so far, and I think we're at like
eleven people so far, which is great because we only
announced this a few days ago. So that's really just
kind of the main goal for this initiative and the
food bank.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Hopefully like we'll have the food bank available.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
So people can also take some food home with them,
but also just to have war meals on Thanksgiving. And
then lastly, this is a project that's going to be ongoing,
but downtown Houston doesn't have too many food banks that exist,
and so just trying to find right now, I'm actively
researching where we can have a permanent food bank where
once a week people can come and get some food.
And we've already talked to HIV and Kroger. They're willing
(25:26):
to give us the you know, the produce and stuff
that needs to kind of leave the grocery stores by
specific dates and so we have that commitment. So now
it's just kind of finding the right place to house
that food and hopefully that's an initiative that will grow
this year and we'll be like a stable part of
the Houston community.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Well, if I may, before we let you go, let's
let's let all that stuff live just for our listeners,
because you know, our shows are syndicated, so there will
be people all over the country that will listen to
this conversation and they might hear something in this conversation
(26:05):
that sparks their interest or moves them to support you.
Maybe they needed a person like you, and they are
not in a position to be the person like you,
but they can help you be the person that you're
supposed to be. The way I asked this question is
how does that person listening in Tupelo, Mississippi, you know,
or in Saint Louis, Missouri, or you know, Los Angeles
(26:28):
or Miami or whatever, how does that person get a
dollar from their pocket to your pocket. And maybe there's
a different infrastructure for the specific food drive and you know,
holiday charitable events that you're doing, But in any case,
you know, let's let folks know how they can support
you on your way, and if you're okay with it,
(26:51):
let people tap in with your social media so that
they can kind of bear witness to your journey as
you continue to make impact in the lives of people
that are are that have a lot of promise as
you identify it.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Okay, yeah, no, well again, thank you so much for
allowing me to use your platform. This is I mean,
I was so shocked to get this call and I
really am so grateful. So I really do appreciate you
guys allowing me to have this space. We are collecting
donations if you want to just donate. We're collecting donations
via zel or venmo. So if you'd like to zel,
(27:29):
you can send it to g G at Prodigy Pathways
dot org.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Do you guys need me to spell it out or yes?
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Please?
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Okay, so you can do g.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
I g I at p r O d I G
y p A t h.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
W A y s dot org.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
Helpful and then venmo you can just send it at
p R O d I G y p A t
h w A y s so at Prodigy Pathways or
z Lggatprodigypathways dot org and then my Instagram handle is
just Prodigy dot Pathways, and so you can find our
(28:08):
nonprofit on there. And if you ever want to just
see what's going on in our community and what we're doing,
or if you ever have any ideas for how we
can continue to expand Prodigy Pathways, I'm always receptive and
open to that feedback, So please send that over to me.
And I'm really grateful to anybody who donates, even if
it is ten cents, it's helpful, and thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
All right, well, thank you so much for your time
and you know your commitment. The world needs more people
like you, and you remind I'll speak for both of us,
me and Q. You remind us of exactly why we
built this vast platform. It's to make sure that people
(28:53):
like you, your voice goes further than in your community.
I'm hoping fingers crossed it. The next time we speak.
You know you'll have volunteers and athletes and be making
an impact nationally and eyeing globally. Uh. And you know
you won't even need us little guys anymore. You'll be
you know, you'll be reaching back and pulling us up
(29:15):
with you. But we're happy to be your brothers on
this journey and we couldn't be more proud of you,
your new brothers. But please count on us if you
need to come back. We have a place for you
as you as you continue to grow and develop. Please,
you know, keep us in and informed. And you know,
our listeners are we think the best listeners in the
country because they do get involved, they do engage, and
(29:38):
you know, there's a reason that people tune into this show,
and it's to hear stories like yours. So well, that
said once again, today's guest is the founder and CEO
of Prodigy Pathways. She goes by the name of Gigias.
Thank you for your
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Time, Thank you, thank you for having me.
And we need you to stay tuned because we have
a great show in store where you stick around because
we are going to be talking to the one and
only Gigi Assi, a fantastic do gooder from the state
of Texas. We're excited to get a conversation going with her,
and then later on we're going to give you the
latest on the ice raids taking place in North Carolina.
(00:35):
If you've been following those around the country, trust me,
you need to get reacquainted with some of the more
extreme tactics that they are using, just in case you
haven't followed the stories as closely as we have. But
as always, we like to start off on a high
feel good feature some ebony excellence, if you will, And
today's story comes from the Atlanta Black Star. I'll share
(00:58):
and a now viral clip which shows in Indiana hospital
booting a black woman from the facility after she's an
act of labor. We see while she's being taken to
another hospital she delivered her baby in a car. Mercedes
Wells says she walked into the Francian Hospital and Crownpoint
just after midnight on Sunday, clearly filling the onset of labor,
but instead of receiving care. She says she was sent
(01:19):
home hours later, dismissed by nurses who told her she
wasn't progressing and should only return if things worsened. Minutes
after leaving, things did worsen. According to videos posted by
her husband, Leon Wells, the couple barely made it down
the road before Mercedes gave birth in the front seat
of their truck. The clip showing Mercedes clutching their newborn
baby mere feet from the hospital that turned her away,
have since spread across social media, sparking outrage and disbelief.
(01:41):
Leon later told NBC Chicago that the baby is doing well.
The hospital, now facing mounting scrutiny, issued a brief statement
insisting that the health and safety of our patients is
always our top priority that is a quote, and confirming
that an internal investigation is underway. Citing privacy laws, The
facility declined to answer any questions about why Wells was
dish charge or what staff assessed that night. So obviously
(02:04):
that is miraculous and showing how tough black women have
always been, even on their own. And so that feels
like a feel good story we had to share. And
now the guest of the hour. Gigi Ossi joined the
Southland Conference in twenty twenty five and serves as Chief
of Staff, supporting the Commissioner and overseeing the conference's key operational, administrative,
(02:27):
and strategic initiatives. In this role, gig manages priorities across departments,
strengthens communication and culture within the Conference office, and acts
as a primary liaison to university presidents, athletic directors, and
senior leadership. She also leads the coordination of all board
and leadership meetings, manages special projects, and assist in the
(02:48):
planning and execution of major Southland events. Furthermore, gig is
the founder and CEO of Prodigy Pathways, a national nonprofit
focused on expanding access to elite sports development and mentorship
for underserve youth with a deep commitment to equity and
long term impact. She launched the organization to close the
gap between talent and opportunity, pairing professional athletes with aspiring
(03:12):
student athletes to provide structured guidance, financial support, and legacy
driven mentorship. And she is our guest today.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
This is the QR code.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
He is Rams's job.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
And he is q WARD all right, So, Gigi Assi,
welcome to the show today. We've been looking forward to
having a conversation with you, and I must admit that
I am famously Our listeners know this, but I'm not.
I've always considered myself more of the music guy than
(03:46):
the sports guy. Q is a bona fide athlete or
former athlete. Wo'll get mad at me if I don't
say it the right way. But learning about you and
the work that you're doing is fascinating. And I happen
to know that your work and your background runs a
lot deeper than the intro that we read for you.
So what we do around here is we like to
(04:07):
start our stories at the beginning, So do, as a
favor talk a little bit about your background, maybe some
of the stuff that we left off. You know, you
can start you know, where you were born, how you
grew up, that sort of thing, and what led you
to the conversation we're about to have today, meaning the
sort of work that you're actively engaged in at the moment,
Just so our listeners have an idea of who we're
talking to today.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Of course, Well, I just want to start off by
saying thank you so much for bringing me onto your platform.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I really appreciate it. I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
I'm really excited that I got to meet the two
of you guys, so definitely appreciate this time. My name
is Gigi, and actually I like to always start off
with saying that Gig is my nickname. My actual name
is Hajad. It's Arabic. I'm Egyptian. Both of my parents
are Egyptian immigrants. They came to the States in their thirties.
I am a first generation, so I was born in
(04:56):
the States, but everything about me is very heavily embedded
in my culture and my upbringing, and so you know,
I definitely carry that through just how I live my
life and how I identify in America. So I guess
I'll start from the beginning of where product you kind
of launched and kind of the upbringing that I had
in America. Growing up as an Arab Muslim in the
(05:18):
States definitely was very polarizing identity to have, especially just
given some of the circumstances in America, and you know,
consistently felt like I was on the outskirts of a
lot of American structure, American societal structure, how the college
system was mapped up for children in high school and
just how to play sports and how to get to college,
and all of those things were things that I had
(05:40):
no idea how to navigate. And early on one of
the biggest frustrations that I faced was I had a
passion and love for sports, and I found it to
be a major connector for a lot of my peers
who played together there, and I had a natural skill set,
but I didn't have the resources or funding or understanding
of the structures in place to really help foster stared
(06:00):
that that love so basically grew up having to sit
out a you one year my fresh my freshman year
of high school, sitting out AAU because I couldn't afford it,
didn't know that I could apply for financial aid, didn't
really even fully understand that playing a college playing a
high school sport and really really putting my focus into
that could actually help pave the pathway to college, not
(06:22):
just financially, but also just helped me get to a
better school or better you know, better programs, bigger opportunities.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I didn't really like.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
To me, the end goal was college, but I didn't
think outside of like what schools did I want to
go to? And like where I would end up and
what programs at the schools were available. What you know, Majors,
I wanted to look at it was just go to college,
because that's all I knew, was like I had to
get to college. And so as I grew up, you know,
obviously I started to figure out the landscape myself and
(06:50):
definitely frust Definitely a point of frustration was just lack
of resources, lack of mentorship, lack of guidance, two parents
that are immigrants that just don't understand the system. And thankfully,
I think that adversity helped me get to where I'm
at today. I just really had to grind and work
hard and figure things out. But it's always been in
the back of my mind of like, wow, I wonder
(07:10):
if there was somebody out there who had just take
taken a little bit of time to look at the
interests that I had and foster that and help me,
wouldn't the outcome have been a little bit different.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
I'm blessed and grateful to be at where I'm at now,
but I always had that though on the back of
my mind of like, well, what if there was something
in place to kind of help students similar to me
who came from underserved communities so much to just kind
of hold their hand and help guide them and show
them what's available. And so that was kind of the
birth of Prodigy Pathways. I created this nonprofit this year.
(07:41):
It's actually pretty young, but it's had exponential growth and
so much support. I'm really really happy and blessed if
the community has all kind of came in and helped.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
And it really does take a village.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
But essentially, what Prodigy Pathways does is it's a one
on one mentorship program that pairs professional athletes with young
student athletes. And it gets divided and how into two components.
There's the mentorship piece, where really it's a touch point.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
It's an access point. It's a pillar to look up to.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
It's a mentor, it's a friend in the industry that
the child gets to experience. It's access so they get
to go to games, they get to go to an
open practice, they get to maybe do an off season training,
and maybe a zoom called very low touch points. And
then on the other piece is a scholarship fund that
gets donated to each student. In that scholarship fund, we
(08:26):
cover performance enhancement training specialized.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
To the sport that they play.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
They get about seventy five to eighty sessions a year.
We also pay for their gear and equipment because that
can be really expensive. And then to level the playing field,
which is something we're seeing a lot now is a
lot of youth sports are tied to programs like AAU
or seven on seven and those are acquired, caught or sorry,
our heavy costs that families have to take in. And
(08:54):
you're looking at the average family spending anywhere between five
to six thousand dollars a year just for one child's
youths and it's just one sport, and so you know,
it's a lot of money. Five six thousand dollars. It
can change a family, can make it or break it
in other ways. And so we really try to help
these families kind of mitigate these costs. And so we
cover the AAU travel expense and all that, and then
(09:16):
on top of it, just in terms of figuring out
when you go to college, like sports can't be the
end all be all, so really trying to help them
understand like, yes, you can go to college and play
a sport, but what are you interested in? And so
we'll do surveys with these kids and figure out what
they're interested in, and then we'll have them meet with
professionals in those respective industries and they get a kind
of like one on one interactive type of hangout or experience.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And so we call that the Career Discovery Lab.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
And then lastly, we just work really closely with a
couple of programs in Houston specific University of Houston and
Rice University. A couple of student athlete organizations offer free
tutoring for some of our kids so that they can,
you know, maintain their academic eligibility. And we also partnered
up with Honest Game, which is another nonprofit and they
do NC double A compliance report to help kind of
(10:04):
guide what the NC DOUBLEA eligibility needs your academic eligibility
needs to be in order to go to specific schools,
and so it's kind of like a direct pathway to
see like what deadlines are coming up, what do you
need to have submitted, and what GPA you need to
have and then and then what courses you can take
to help get your GPA.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Back on track.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
So it's a it's a very extensive program. Like I said,
we put a lot of thought into it, but that
was really basically the birth of Prodigy Pathways.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
This has been the qr CODE Community Impact segment, produced
by rams' Jah, hosted by our new hostse I See.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Rams is already getting ready to give you your own show.
G So just sorry it was really long.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
That was actually really incredible. Yeah, we we joke that.
You know, our entire platform is dedicated to giving people
from the community, especially those who intend to give back,
a platform. But as you can imagine, most people are
not you to having long form conversations about what they do.
So sometimes we'll ask a question and the answer will
take like five seconds, and then we have to kind of,
(11:09):
you know, help that person make it work. Again, you're
going to get an email from Rams about producing the
show for you, so just go ahead and prepare yourself
for that. A lot of the work that Rams and
I did long before we were you know, kind of
thrust into the activist space was about creating access, access
(11:29):
to resources, access to education, access to food and toiletries,
access to shelter that a lot of people that come
from where we all come from don't have access to.
For you, learning on the job, literally, you know, looking back,
like man, had I just known about this path, maybe
(11:49):
some part of my life would have been different. And
now you're in a position where you're creating that not
just access point, but that those data points and that
information that people you know tend to go through their
whole lives without knowing about, you know, myself growing up
without my father. There's so many things that I wish
i'd known when I was on my academic and athletic path.
(12:10):
What drove you to say, I don't want to just
have these regrets in my life. I don't want anyone
to have them, So let me do something about it.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
That's a really good question for me personally.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
And maybe this is just internalized, you know, dealing with
what you have to go through single mother and you
know again also absentee father to an extent, and just
having to struggle. My main driver was, I never want
to be in this position again. I never want to
be put in this position. I never want to feel
like I'm reaching out for help from other people and
(12:52):
I can't take circumstances into my own hands and control things.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So that's been my main drivers's setting myself up to
never have to be and put in that position.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
And while I do think that that adversity that I
have is great. It helped me get to where I
needed to get to. I also think about the moments
that it has really affected my self confidence in specific
moments when things don't work out for me the way
that I want them to work out. Sometimes internally I
(13:22):
internalize it and I'm like, of course, why would it
work out for someone like me? Look at where I
came from. That's this is just not meant for me.
And I hate having that insecurity. Sometimes I hate having
that feeling, and I can, I always I can. I
can empathize with that as a as a child, the
child having to experience that, that's tenfold because you're still
(13:44):
your cognitive development is not there yet. So when I
do feel down on myself, I'm able to reflect internally
be like Gigi, that's not right, Like you know, keep
pushing forward. But that's because I'm an adult. But kids
don't have that maturity level yet. They don't have those
work life experiences, they don't have that thought process yet.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Some do, but most don't.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Right, they're just children, and so when they have those feelings,
they're dark, they're heavy, and they can make or break
the direction that a child chooses to go in. And
I wish I could say that even with Prodigy we've
had one hundred percent success rate.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
We haven't.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
We've had kids who've joined the program who are just
dealing with a lot of stuff on their end internally,
and it's made or break the decisions that they've made
in terms of like what to do.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Next next, And so I guess I don't know.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
If this is a long winded way of answering, if
this is answering your question properly, but I think for me,
it's just not wanting other kids to feel the way
that I felt growing up because I was able to
get out of it.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
But that's not the case. Like mental health is really,
really tough.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
And that's also something in our communities that we don't
necessarily promote. At least in the Arab Muslim Air you know,
Air Muslim community, we don't promote mental health awareness. I
can't speak for every other community, but I've seen it,
and so as children like it's hard to it's hard
to understand your emotions, it's hard to understand what you're
thinking when you're also not having the proper resources to
(15:09):
help you advocate for yourself and get yourself out of
these ruts.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I don't know if that.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Makes sense, but you know, I think that's that's probably
my main driving factor.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I think that, you know, the where there is a
possibility to connect across lines where people usually get gummed
up caught up. Those opportunities are I don't know if
they're overlooked generally speaking, but there are not a lot
(15:41):
of people that do things that address them. You know.
I worked on a campaign that had to deal with
sexual health once upon a time, and it was targeted
towards young people who were just stepping into that facet
of their life. And you know that it's really easy
to fumble, you know, the next twenty years of your
(16:02):
life by playing that moment wrong, you know, and I
can only imagine, you know, the pitfalls that might appear
on the pathway for a young athlete where their physicality
is very important and there's the potential not just to
take care of themselves, but to uplift their entire families. Now,
(16:24):
one of the things that I did see that kind
of stood out to me was the mentorship part of it.
And when I saw the website, I saw that there
were like, like some football players that I'm sure that
these student athletes get to meet these football players and
they get to, like I guess, work with them, is
how you articulated earlier. Forgive me again, I'm not really
(16:47):
yeah no, but I just I can imagine how important
that was, how important that must be. And so you
mentioned earlier about the ath about working in Houston. And
I'm not sure what teams these athletes work for, but
(17:07):
I wanted to ask a question that I think is
really important, at least to our listeners here. Do you
have do some of the athletes that I saw on
the website do they exist outside of Houston. The second
question is, if not, are there plans to incorporate other
professional athletes at other points around the country, because obviously
these pitfalls for student athletes exist around the country based
(17:32):
on what I know.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
So your thoughts, Yeah, So we have two players who
are currently in Houston.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
We have one player that's in Indianapolis.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I have another player that's in San Antonio, and we
have another player that's in Boston, Massachusetts, and one in
New York.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
So they are nationally, you know, spread out.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
It's because I'm here in Houston that the kids are here,
just because it's easier to kind of coordinate everything right
now as Prodigy Spans. I would hope to actually incorporate
kids nationally everywhere, but this is a bigger conversation for
a bigger group, you know. I mean like to have
this potentially be bought by the NFL, like the model,
be bought by the NFL and NBA and get actual
(18:13):
resources put into this and backed up to really expand
and do this right. But you know, the athletes are
all over because again you know the touch point is
is like when they are playing in Houston, they can
go to a game, the zoom calls the conversations. One
thing that we've been working on is like the sponsorship
side or corporate sponsorship piece, and so working with organizations
(18:37):
like Dick's Sporting Goods, and they're willing to do like
a shopping spreed for ten kids in Houston. And so
we'll have one of these professional players come out to
Houston and take ten kids from a community underserved community
come out to the dick Sboarding Goods and they can
pick out one hundred and fifty dollars worth of items
and still get to spend time with that professional athlete. Now,
this steers away from that like specific one on one
(18:59):
mentorship piece. But again, that access point is really really
important because it just it shows something that's tangible. It's
it's not just something you see on the TV. It's
not someone who's just like out of reach. It's really
someone you can talk to and you can visualize in
front of your in front of your own eyes. And
so to your point, yes, this is something that exists
(19:20):
outside of Houston. We have players kind of all over
the country right now, and I want to continue to
bring in as many people as possible. But we are
a three person show right now and I'm running most
of the organization, and so next year I hope to
hire maybe one or two more people to help me,
and then that we can really really expand into like
other states.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
You know, a really interesting thing happens where the three
of us are from worlds apart. Ramsey and I are
have become family now. Not he's not just my friend,
he's a family member to me. But we grew up
thousands of miles away, and then the same for you
and for your parents, but we all grew up in
this country and learned to love it. And I think
(20:05):
because of that we are hypercritical of her, and you know,
we get told to just you know, shut up or
go back to our countries. When we're criticizing the things
that we see that are wrong, the space that Ramses
and I spend most of our time professionally, we're faced
with some of the most difficult truths about this country
(20:28):
that we call home. Being critical of those things and
being aware of them is sometimes very difficult. We are
collectively watching a lot of our fellow countrymen and country
women suffer because of some decisions being made by this administration.
The one that has kind of stood out and seems
(20:49):
the most cruel, especially for this time of year, is
the denial of access to SNAP benefits and food stamps
and nutrition assistance. Once again, you saw an issue, and
you could have just been a well to do person.
It just pointed out that something was wrong, but you
made a decision to once again do something about a
problem that you saw. And that's what kind of connected us,
(21:10):
not kind of, that's what literally connected us. You not
just bringing your attention to something, but putting some connect
some kinetic action into into motion to at least help
some people this holiday season. And that was the food
drive that you organize. Please tell us more about that
and in ways that we can get involved in help.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Well, I mean you hit it right on the on
the head or the nail on the head. I never
know what the saying is, but I mean it's crazy.
Forty two million I believe that was a stat Forty
two million Americans lost access to SNAP benefits with the
government shutdown. I mean that that stat alone blew my mind.
(21:55):
Forty two million people lost access to food a resource.
That food is a resource that no one is entitled to.
It is no one's like. It is like you don't
own that. This is a resource that is literally on
this planet for everyone to have, and it's the greed.
It's crazy to me that people are literally fighting for
their lives just to eat to survive. And that to
(22:18):
me was just I mean, I truly don't even have
the right words to express how I feel from just
like how frustrating it is to even have to say
this out loud. So obviously, Thanksgiving is I have a
love hate relationship with this holiday. For one reason. It's
a great holiday. It brings the families together, it brings
people together. It's a great way to be thankful for
(22:39):
all the good things in your life. But it's also
a holiday that is incredibly isolating for those who can't
afford to do the big Thanksgiving spreads, who don't have families,
who maybe just got displaced, don't have homes. And then
in the economic and global political environment that we're in
right now, it's even more isolating because a lot of
people have lost a lot of things. And I live
(23:01):
I live in downtown, so there's a lot of homeless
people by my house, and they're you know, I see
them walking by all the time, very sweet people, like
just just normal people have just really terrible circumstances. And
so it just got me thinking that, you know, Thanksgiving,
if everyone is going to be in their homes having
these huge, you know, meals with their families, like the
least I can do is just go out and try
(23:23):
to just offer some food and kind of like bring some.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Type of happiness and joy to the day.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
A starting to get cold in Houston, and so I
partnered up with this other organization called Moss. My friend
nim Rah, she's the CEO founder of that nonprofit. They
do a lot of amazing work here in Houston, and
so the two of us started a food bank, and
basically we were collecting donations for food, and then two
nights before Thanksgiving, her and I and a couple of
volunteers are going to be cooking the food. We also
(23:48):
partnered up with another shelter out here in Houston, and
we're going to bring and bring some of those supplies
over to them so that they can cook too, and
we'll be packaging everything, and then Thanksgiving morning we will
head out and just start delivering these like warm meals
to everyone so that at least on Thanksgiving they have
something to eat.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
There's a couple of organizations.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
We're still actively doing some research here, but there's a
couple of organizations that were sent over to me that
also are doing like clothing drives, like jacket drives, and
they offer vouchers where you can go and pick out
I think like forty five or fifty dollars worth of
jackets or items to just stay warm. And so we're
going to try to incorporate incorporate that as well, but
really it takes a village and so honestly, the only
(24:27):
thing I ask is like the community buying and the
community support. If you're somebody who wants to give back
on Thanksgiving and you don't know how you can either
donate if you want to actually come out and help us,
we have I can. I can give you guys all
the information if you guys are willing to share that,
and you can reach out to me on via email.
I have a Masters spreadsheet of just volunteers that have
(24:50):
reached out so far, and I think we're at like
eleven people so far, which is great because we only
announced this a few days ago. So that's really just
kind of the main goal for this initiative and the
food bank.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Hopefully like we'll have the food bank available.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
So people can also take some food home with them,
but also just to have war meals on Thanksgiving. And
then lastly, this is a project that's going to be ongoing,
but downtown Houston doesn't have too many food banks that exist,
and so just trying to find right now, I'm actively
researching where we can have a permanent food bank where
once a week people can come and get some food.
And we've already talked to HIV and Kroger. They're willing
(25:26):
to give us the you know, the produce and stuff
that needs to kind of leave the grocery stores by
specific dates and so we have that commitment. So now
it's just kind of finding the right place to house
that food and hopefully that's an initiative that will grow
this year and we'll be like a stable part of
the Houston community.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Well, if I may, before we let you go, let's
let's let all that stuff live just for our listeners,
because you know, our shows are syndicated, so there will
be people all over the country that will listen to
this conversation and they might hear something in this conversation
(26:05):
that sparks their interest or moves them to support you.
Maybe they needed a person like you, and they are
not in a position to be the person like you,
but they can help you be the person that you're
supposed to be. The way I asked this question is
how does that person listening in Tupelo, Mississippi, you know,
or in Saint Louis, Missouri, or you know, Los Angeles
(26:28):
or Miami or whatever, how does that person get a
dollar from their pocket to your pocket. And maybe there's
a different infrastructure for the specific food drive and you know,
holiday charitable events that you're doing, But in any case,
you know, let's let folks know how they can support
you on your way, and if you're okay with it,
(26:51):
let people tap in with your social media so that
they can kind of bear witness to your journey as
you continue to make impact in the lives of people
that are are that have a lot of promise as
you identify it.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Okay, yeah, no, well again, thank you so much for
allowing me to use your platform. This is I mean,
I was so shocked to get this call and I
really am so grateful. So I really do appreciate you
guys allowing me to have this space. We are collecting
donations if you want to just donate. We're collecting donations
via zel or venmo. So if you'd like to zel,
(27:29):
you can send it to g G at Prodigy Pathways
dot org.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Do you guys need me to spell it out or yes?
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Please?
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Okay, so you can do g.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
I g I at p r O d I G
y p A t h.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
W A y s dot org.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
Helpful and then venmo you can just send it at
p R O d I G y p A t
h w A y s so at Prodigy Pathways or
z Lggatprodigypathways dot org and then my Instagram handle is
just Prodigy dot Pathways, and so you can find our
(28:08):
nonprofit on there. And if you ever want to just
see what's going on in our community and what we're doing,
or if you ever have any ideas for how we
can continue to expand Prodigy Pathways, I'm always receptive and
open to that feedback, So please send that over to me.
And I'm really grateful to anybody who donates, even if
it is ten cents, it's helpful, and thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
All right, well, thank you so much for your time
and you know your commitment. The world needs more people
like you, and you remind I'll speak for both of us,
me and Q. You remind us of exactly why we
built this vast platform. It's to make sure that people
(28:53):
like you, your voice goes further than in your community.
I'm hoping fingers crossed it. The next time we speak.
You know you'll have volunteers and athletes and be making
an impact nationally and eyeing globally. Uh. And you know
you won't even need us little guys anymore. You'll be
you know, you'll be reaching back and pulling us up
(29:15):
with you. But we're happy to be your brothers on
this journey and we couldn't be more proud of you,
your new brothers. But please count on us if you
need to come back. We have a place for you
as you as you continue to grow and develop. Please,
you know, keep us in and informed. And you know,
our listeners are we think the best listeners in the
country because they do get involved, they do engage, and
(29:38):
you know, there's a reason that people tune into this show,
and it's to hear stories like yours. So well, that
said once again, today's guest is the founder and CEO
of Prodigy Pathways. She goes by the name of Gigias.
Thank you for your
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Time, Thank you, thank you for having me.
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