Before being connected with The PowHERful Foundation, I was willing to give up on my dreams and accept what life was handing me. I started college homeless, hungry, and fearful. Today, I have a great job, stable housing, and consuming healthy foods regularly. Now, I have the courage and support to break barriers and pursue whatever path I choose. Through financial support and mentorship, the Foundation has given me the tools needed to take my life into my own hands.

My name is Ashley T. I'm currently working on a bachelor's degree in social work. Spring 2021 is my last semester! I'm beyond excited. I'm looking forward to spending more time reading, journaling, and exercising. 

Being a college student has been really difficult for me with personal, professional, and financial problems intersecting with academic problems. As a requirement for graduation, I'm currently interning for a homeless shelter, Bronx Parent Housing Network/Promise Place. 

For the few of you thinking, “Who is Soledad O’Brien?”, (Where have you been?!), I’ll gladly introduce you! Soledad is an award-winning journalist, speaker, author, and philanthropist. You’ve seen her anchor on MSNBC and CNN, for sure. But, she also hosts the weekly public affairs talk program, Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien, and is the founder/CEO of Starfish Media Group whose purpose is to uncover the most empowering stories happening today.

Sitting in Atlanta, GA at Spanx Headquarters in awe as Soledad O’Brien interviewed one of the most transformative business women I’ve ever met, I discovered 4 profound truths. Sara Blakely’s journey began in the most unlikely way and well before she founded Spanx. At 16, Sara’s best friend was killed by a car right in front of her while they were riding their bikes. Compounding the loss of her best friend, her parents divorced as well. To help her cope through the loss and the divorce, her father gave her a set of cassettes that completely changed the trajectory of her life.

If you don’t know the incomparable Soledad O’Brien, you better ask somebody! Better yet, allow us a moment to tell you who she is. O’Brien is an award-winning journalist, founder/CEO of Starfish Media Group and anchor of Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien. You may recognize her face as a former anchor on MSNBC, CNN, Al Jazeera and HBO or her active Twitter fingers. One thing everyone knows about her is that she is not afraid to speak her mind and chase facts.

Soledad O’Brien knows how to multi-task. She currently serves as the CEO of Starfish Media Group, hosts her own show, Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien, and she’s the co-founder of the PowHerful Foundation, which aims to give financial assistance, mentorship, and support to young women so they can get through college and explore career options.

Ringing the closing bells were Charah Solutions at the New York Stock Exchange and PowHerful Foundation at the Nasdaq.

Fifth grader Naomi Wadler delivered an electrifying speech at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., last month, calling attention to the lack of national news coverage and empathy for black women who are victims of gun violence. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, black women are three times as likely to be killed with a gun as white women. The Lily caught up with the 11-year-old activist on Saturday after she spoke at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as a part of Soledad O’Brien’s PowHerful summit, which 165 girls and young women attended.

Tassion Minor was gearing up for her upcoming summer internship in New York City when she realized she didn’t have many office-ready outfits in her closet at home in New Orleans. “I was being exposed to different professional opportunities, many of which required me to dress in business attire, but at the time my wardrobe was lacking in that,” Minor, who was 19 at the time, said. “And money was also tight.”

NEW YORK— Smart and courageous, Soledad O’Brien rose to national fame on “Weekend Today” in the late 1990’s.

She then built her career over the next 14 years.

“I will always be a journalist. I love reporting stories. You know, journalism has changed a lot, I think a lot of the tenets stayed the same, but journalism has changed. We’re really sort of in the business of creating content,” O’Brien explained.

And a change in the business brought a change in O’Brien, you could say.

The PowHerful foundation supports us to be successful. Through inspired seminars, internships, and exposure to powerful experiences, they give us the tools needed for our futures.  I’ve had the opportunity to grow and shine. I’m both grateful and enthusiastic to be a part of something as empowering as this.

Being a part of the foundation has opened so many doors for me. I find that when I need that extra push of motivation, the foundation is always there to help. Everyone who is involved with the foundation is always ready to help in any way that they can. The group of women who run the foundation have become a role model to me and many other young women at a time in our lives that we need strong mentorship.

The foundation couldn’t have come into my life at a more perfect time. Growing up, I went through many different phases when it came to choosing what I wanted to do as a career. When the foundation came along, it was the guiding light I needed to help me pursue my dreams. I’m still in the process of finding myself, but I know for a fact it would be a horrendous struggle if I didn’t have the support of the PowHerful Foundation. It’s more than just a scholarship to me.

The PowHerful Foundation means everything to me. If it wasn’t for the foundation I wouldn’t be where I am now. The foundation has provided me with financial assistance and amazing mentors. I am so grateful to PowHerful for helping me achieve my goal. I am the first generation in my family to attend college thanks to the foundation.

The first thing I would like to do is say, THANK YOU! This foundation has truly changed my life and there are honestly no words that can explain my appreciation and gratitude. As I am approaching the end of my last semester, I often can’t believe that in a few months I will be a graduate, something at one point in my life I was not sure if I would be able to accomplish.

Everyone I have encountered has been nothing but encouraging, helpful, caring, and understanding. I now have a second family of successful and confident women who are determined to help me become the best version of myself that I can be.

Soledad O’Brien – former CNN anchor for Starting Point – is now focusing on her production company Starfish Media Group. Married with four children- Sofia, 13, Cecilia, 11, and 9-year-old twins Charles and Jackson – Soledad chats with Celebrity Baby Scoop about how her foundation, the Soledad O’Brien & Brad Raymond Foundation, helps young women in their educational endeavors, her role as a special correspondent for Al Jazeera America, and how “everyone’s definition of ‘having it all’ is different.”

I sat down last week with Soledad O’Brien to talk about storytelling, race and her seminal series Black in America. She also talked about her media company Starfish Media Group in New York and she and her husband Brad’s foundation dedicated to helping people of color and empowering young women.

Last year, the popular journalist made headlines when she departed from her full-time gig at CNN and leaped at an opportunity to become her own boss. Here, for the first time, Soledad O’Brien shares how overcoming fear of change led her to enjoy life on her own terms, and freedom as a producer and storyteller.

Wanting to do more than report on lives disrupted by tragedy, broadcast journalist Soledad O’Brien started the Soledad O’Brien and Brad Raymond Starfish Foundation to help young women succeed despite the odds. Soledad O’Brien started her eponymous foundation to “make a tangible change” for disadvantaged girls.