FSU’s impact...

FSU’s impact reaches children’s lives long before college

By Traverro L. Harden Contributed photos

Fayetteville State University can impact children in powerful and positive ways, long before they become students at the university.

My family is living proof of FSU’s far-reaching impact. In the summer of 2017, my three sons—PaHeru Nubia-Ra, Khalid, and Emir Selah, at ages 6, 5, and 4, respectively—were the youngest entrepreneurs at FSU’s Murchison Road Flea Market. Their business: a homeschool economic empowerment project called 3 Brothers Stand. In fact, the boys’ lemonade enterprise began in Fall 2016 at the end of our driveway in Fayetteville’s Lakedale subdivision. Eventually, the boys moved from the driveway to a booth at the Raeford Road Flea Market, and then to the Black Heritage Farmers’ Market on Saturdays in Spring Lake in 2017. In 2018, 3 Brothers Stand settled at the FSU Murchison Road Farmers’ Market because of the support and steady business this optimal location provided. Every week, Don Bennett and Julius Cook helped us set up our tent and table for vending homemade lemonade, chocolate chip cookies, brownies and, later on, handmade

children’s accessories. We could always count on Mr. Bennett and Mr. Cook to point customers to our vending table for ice-cold cups of lemonade during the hot season.

What did we learn? So much more than we expected: Our simple but practical entrepreneurship experience empowered my family’s homeschool lessons in mathematics, entrepreneurship, and public speaking. Nothing gets young children more motivated to use the skills they have learned than putting theory to praxis in real time—and getting paid to do it!

PaHeru Nubia-Ra, Khalid, and Emir Selah manning the 3 Brothers Stand.

The 3 Brothers Stand has evolved since its days at the FSU Farmers’ Market; the two older brothers have developed their own businesses that display their unique skills. Khalid, now 9, has started “Khalid Dakid Art” with a mission to help children identify and develop their gifts. Through his “Plans with Fans” project, he uses his knowledge of STEM, art, and entrepreneurship to build custom wooden, motorized fans within the local community. His goal is to use sales revenues to patent and mass produce 3D-printed fans designed especially for children, while donating 20 percent of his sales to a local homeless shelter.

To help Khalid achieve his goal, we are working with FSU’s Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC) to create a business plan and model that will turn this empowerment project into a thriving business in the local community.

My children are not teenagers yet, but their hometown FSU is already a fixture in their lives—a formative force helping them to fulfill their potential.

Nothing gets young children more motivated to use the skills they have learned than putting theory to praxis in real time—and getting paid to do it!

Traverro L. Harden is a Compliance & Data Specialist for the Office of Access & Student Success at Fayetteville State University. She is the author of “Homeschooling While Black: Our Family’s Journey of Consciously & Purposefully Educating Our Black Children.”