‘This is the real impact.’ How Terron Armstead challenges students to be entrepreneurs
Terron Armstead isn’t the stereotypical athlete.
He didn’t go to a big school yet was able to carve out a 12-year NFL career. He doesn’t do the normal athlete pop-up events; he likes to build relationships with the community. And he certainly believes in helping out the next generation.
“I just try to introduce and expose and it really gets their juices going,” Armstead said.
Armstead’s service to the community through his eponymous foundation will culminate with an induction to the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project, a nonprofit mentorship organization founded by Congresswoman Frederica Wilson. The catalyst for his initiation? His program entitled “I Am a Business” which seeks to equip young men with the soft skills necessary to thrive as an entrepreneur.
“This is the real to me,” Armstead said of his program, adding that “all the football stuff will go away.” “We can do this ‘til we’re covered in dirt. This is the real impact that we can bring on the next leaders and the next ones to dive back into the community.”
Wilson’s nonprofit announced Armstead’s induction in a late Sunday press release.
“Mr. Armstead has exemplified the core characteristics to be a Role Model for the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project, through his compassion, generosity, and dedicated philanthropic efforts through his work at the Terron Armstead Foundation; an organization he founded to increase community outreach,” the release said.
Armstead and 5000 Role Models have worked together for months, according to Wilson. Having done a similar program as a kid, the two-time Pro Bowler wanted to bring a version of it to South Florida. Wilson recommended two schools — Miami Norland and Davie Nova High School — which led to Armstead not only creating a curriculum that he actually taught back in December but also a pitch competition with a $1,000 prize that took place Friday.
“Something as simple as a handshake, eye contact, public speaking and then more business and finance things like finance, credit, taxes,” Armstead said, describing the topic of his lessons. This was especially important to him because “a lot of people from underserved communities just don’t get to see and never come across” some of that teaching.
It’s simple his way of “leveling the playing field through education,” Armstead added.
The competition yielded a plethora of great ideas. A peer-to-peer mentorship organization. A marketing and social media company. An online clothing brand with a tailor. For the students, however, the opportunity to practice the art of public speaking, one of the most important skills in adulthood, was phenomenal.
“This is one of the most life-changing experiences I ever had – just getting all of this knowledge and skill sets,” student Jullian Farrington said. A junior at Norland, Farrington plans to start Jullian’s Gateway, a student-led mentorship business that resembles Big Brothers, Big Sisters. He wants to eventually get into politics so a pitch completion was perfect. “Being able to present is kind of what I would already be doing. Once I learned that that I’ll be in this program, it was kind of like I already started.”
Armstead already gave $10,000 to the nonprofit’s graduating seniors, per Wilson, and even spoke at the congresswoman’s Police & Youth Conference, which seeks to foster better relationships between law enforcement and Black and brown children. His actual induction into 5000 Role Models, however, will only further expand his ability to tutor young men of color.
“We’re so proud and honored to have him interested in helping the next generation and lifting them up and guiding them,” Wilson said. “That’s what mentorship is all about and that’s what successful people like him should do.”
Added Wilson: “He is a great role model not just for young boys but for all athletes.”
Armstead’s induction will occur Saturday morning during the 32nd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Scholarship Breakfast at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
