This story was written in first-person by Sean Spencer for PublicSource, a Pittsburgh nonprofit media organization that provides strong local journalism on publicsource.org. Sign up for their newsletters at publicsource.org/newsletters. Photo above by Pamela Smith/PublicSource.
Every Sunday, Future Kings Mentoring works with our Black youth to ensure their future. It all started nearly a decade ago, when Terrell Galloway and I were 11th graders at Taylor Allderdice High School, and he got tired of hearing the N-word used as a term of endearment among our friends.
There had to be a more positive word to use. While listening to Kendrick Lamar, Terrell heard him say “negus,” a word meaning “king of Ethiopia,” which some consider to be the origin of the “n” word. He wanted to retrieve it with inspiration, but the “Najash” did not speak his mind.
“I was tired of hearing the N-word used as a form of endearment and in the term brotherhood. I thought there had to be something better that we could call ourselves.” — Terrell Galloway
Then he thought: What about the king? But we were kids in high school, and we didn't act like royalty. Thus the term “Future King” was born.
Terrell explained the story of “The Future King” to me one day in the school cafeteria, and it stuck. We spent time defining what it means to be a future king. Some of the values included leadership, selflessness, being a provider and protector – and humility. In the end we came up with our own doctrine. Years later, in 2019, these principles began to integrate into the program, and Future Kings Mentoring officially became a non-profit organization on April 20, 2020.
Four years later, our journey seems almost miraculous, and the successes of the young people who have come through the program are our greatest triumph. But the tragedy of violence continues to plague Pittsburgh.
After high school, she stayed local and studied journalism at Duquesne University, while Terrell went to Tuskegee University in Alabama. But when Terrell transferred to the University of Pittsburgh to study mechanical engineering, we reconnected and added a third Future King: Ariel Williams, an industrial engineering student at Pitt who shared our passion for community and giving back to youth.
We all came from single-parent families and grew up in neighborhoods throughout Pittsburgh riddled with gun violence and poverty. Between the three of us, we've lost countless peers and even former students.
We all wanted to have a positive impact on our community and carry forward the teachings of our mentors by flowing to others, as they flowed to us. However, starting a non-profit organization in our early 20s was not without its challenges.
At the beginning of our journey, we trusted someone to help us with the legal work, but they took advantage of us by taking our money and not completing the work. In response, we have become reluctant to trust others with the guidance of future kings; We have constantly reinvented the wheel to solve problems that could have been solved with a phone call if we had a trusted advisor. It took us a year to square off our 501(c)(3) situation.
But there were moments of validation, too. In 2019, Ariel's mother shared a link to the T-Mobile x Ashoka Changemaker Challenge. With only two days' notice before the application deadline, we worked together to share our vision with the world. A few months later, we were selected among the top 30 finalists and received $2,000 in seed funding. Tyrell and I traveled to Seattle to network with other Changemaker finalists.
That moment told us that we had a great idea, and that people who didn't even know us believed in our vision and were willing to invest in us.
We didn't have the money, the space, or the business acumen. We were full-time college students with jobs and other responsibilities. However, in February 2020, we started recruiting students for mentoring — and a month later, the pandemic hit.
“It never occurred to me that this would fail, because to me if we would have failed, it would have already happened.” – Shawn Spencer
Even though the world shut down, we used our networks to recruit students and pilot the program virtually in the summer of 2020. From then until 2022, we operated as a virtual program, then went hybrid before finally going fully in-person, thanks to the Boys & Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania.
Every Sunday, Tyrell, Asriel, and I get there in the afternoon to get ready for the day, setting up tables, ordering food, and setting up activities. When students start arriving, we feed them (which is of course drawn) and have either a Shop Talk or Strength Talk for the first 30 minutes. Shop Talk is an open forum, as if we were in a barbershop, talking about highlights from the past week or just discussing our favorite sports or anime characters.
In power talk we lift ourselves and others up. For example, if a mentor asks, “Say something to build yourself up,” and someone responds, “I’m capable of doing anything I put my mind to,” the group says in unison, “Power talk.”
Then we go directly to the workshop. Students develop their emotional intelligence and leadership skills, and learn about careers, how to budget, invest and start a business.
One thing we emphasize is that we as mentors are not like teachers in school. We spend time making these workshops fun and relatable. We know our students loved Marvel's The Avengers, so we used Tony Stark's story to teach selflessness and compassion. We brought in RaiZArts, an independent anime artist, to teach our students how to draw anime characters, thinking about the characters they relate to.
“The ‘why’ comes from the people we can’t reach. The ‘why’ comes from all the stories that continue to show how much our country and our city are not preparing young Black men for success.”
– Isreal Williams
As they grow into leaders and gain confidence, they think critically about themselves and the world around them, thanks to our program. This makes this work meaningful. Students said they are happy to have made friends and have a brotherhood within our program.
Hearing parents' feedback about how their children are maturing in a positive way, being able to take on more responsibility and wanting to take control of their lives for the better – that's what Future Kings Mentoring is all about.
Students who graduate from our program have gone on to attend Columbia University, Emory University, the University of Virginia and more to study engineering, pre-law, theater, computer science, psychology, and animation, to name a few.
“It always reminds me that it's worth it just to see them alive. That's the basis right there.”
-Tyrell Galloway
As we build Future Kings Mentoring, we've been changing and growing—and sometimes struggling.
I graduated college with an MBA from Pitt, while working full time and building our software in my spare time. Terrell, currently an MBA candidate at Carnegie Mellon University, has encountered what he calls “the curse of knowledge” as he learns more about business and wonders whether he is devoting enough time and providing the best opportunities for our students. Isreal matures in his career, moving across the country and developing through personal issues into the man he wants to become, sometimes wondering how much he can help Future Kings Mentoring.
“When I joined Future Kings, I didn’t know exactly how much it would change my life.”
-Former student
From zero knowledge of nonprofit structure, we built and expanded our board of directors, learned how to fundraise and developed relationships with other people and organizations in Pittsburgh to fill gaps in our knowledge and experience. We thank everyone who supported us, including our families. We have built creatively on the foundations of our organization. Last year, we hosted community members for our first annual fundraiser, Kings' Court, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament.
It's all about giving back, and here are some lessons we can share as young nonprofit founders.
- Start with your “why,” because that will lead you through the good times and the bad.
- Build your team carefully, because they are your biggest asset or your biggest downfall.
- Realize that you don't know what you don't know, get comfortable with that and look for people who are strong in your weaker areas, whether it's budgeting and financial planning, operations, accounting, fundraising, marketing, HR or law. .
- Focus on the quality of service you want to provide, and make sure your software can operate at a highly sustainable level first.
- Once you can teach and replicate the system, scaling will become easier.
- Have faith! Good things come to those who stay true to who they are and what they want.
“Because we had our idea, we had our 'why'. And we had a support team around us that believed in us. It made it so much easier.” – Isreal Williams
Although we have been blessed on this journey to serve and make a positive impact on the youth we mentor, the fight continues. In Pittsburgh, violence remains rampant in our communities. According to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner, of the 107 homicides in the county last year:
- 64 victims were black males
- 14 were black females
- 15 were under the age of 18
We can only achieve this by making our streets safe through dialogue, planning and action. It doesn't matter where you're from or what you look like – we're all part of Pittsburgh, and we can all do a small part to make it better for the Future Kings and everyone.
Sean Spencer is co-founder and treasurer of Future Kings Mentoring in Pittsburgh and can be reached at seans@futurekingsmentoring.org.
