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Capital One Impact Initiative

He was a struggling kid. Now he's a successful career man. Here's how.

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Capital One Future Edge

Daniel Jones never had it easy. Before he was 18, he'd lost his mother and any chance at a stable home life. Then he had to change schools.

Jones, who was living with his older brother at the time, was reaching a breaking point. His brother had three children of his own and Jones knew that, family or not, his sibling couldn't take care of him for long. He also knew he needed to get back into school as quickly as possible.

He had two choices: either go to school near where he lived, or fib on his paperwork and go to a school that would push him towards a better future. But there was another problem — the school that he wanted to attend was across town.


Even though Jones got in, he couldn't apply for transportation privileges because that would reveal he was living out of district. That didn't stop him.

Most days, he only had enough money to take a city bus across Richmond, Virginia, one way. After a full day at school, he walked seven miles back to his house where he'd have just enough time to do his homework and start preparing to do it all over again the next day.

[rebelmouse-image 19397679 dam="1" original_size="700x394" caption="Photo by Austin Nicomedez/Unsplash" expand=1]Photo by Austin Nicomedez/Unsplash

Despite all that, Jones has no regrets. “If I were to go to the other school, I wouldn't be where I am today," he says.

That walk home from school ended up leading him to a program that changed his life.

“I saw a little white, short bus, at the middle school which is right next door [to the high school]," Jones recalls. “One day I walked up to the bus and I asked them, 'What is this?' And they said, 'it's the Boys & Girls Club.'"

So Jones signed up for the Boys & Girls Club, but he wasn't planning on joining any after-school activities. “That bus brought me within a mile of my house," he says. “I started using the transportation."

Despite his initial plan, he found himself getting involved in the Club, and eventually a counselor recommended Jones for an internship with Capital One's Catapult program — a five-week training course for youth who have the potential but not yet the skills for professional careers. Catapult is an organization supported by Capital One's Future Edge initiative — an effort focused on helping people succeed in a digital economy by advancing skills for the 21st century, small business development and financial well-being.

Catapult's mission is to provide opportunity youth—young adults who are high school graduates ages 18 to 24—the chance to be great with the skills, experiences, and support that will empower them to reach their full potential through professional training, financial education, and workplace mentoring.

The goal is to equip participants with the skills and knowledge to move from minimum wage jobs to impactful careers with a focus on entry-level employment at Capital One.

Jones wasn't sure how effective the program would be at first.

“The first thing that came into my mind was internships aren't paid," says Jones. “And then when they let me know that the internship was paid, I didn't think about a career, I didn't think about development, nothing like that, I just thought, hey, I can make money doing this."

As someone who's had to fight for survival from a young age, Jones didn't have the luxury of thinking about his financial future. All he could think about was right now. And right now he wouldn't mind spending five weeks learning about financial well-being in order to collect a paycheck.

So, the day after he turned 18, Jones joined the Catapult program. It's a decision that he says has made him a better man, and not just in terms of business savvy.

Through the Catapult program, Jones connected with the program's facilitator, Jonathan Bennett, training associate at Capital One, who he says made it clear that if Jones was going to build a strong future, he was going to have to start thinking about the long term. Suddenly, Jones started to see all of the possibilities open to him for the first time.

“My mind changed from trying to get a check to thinking, hey, this could be a career that I could do for the next 10, 20 years of my life," recalls Jones. “It could give me the money to start my own businesses, do the things I wanted to do, and change peoples' lives."

For Jones, learning to take control of his finances felt like a whole new world. "People who come from my background, they say, 'make enough to survive.' We don't ever hear, 'you need to make enough to make investments, you need to make enough to be able to build your own business from the ground up.' That kind of knowledge is a blessing."

At the end of his training, Jones was offered a job at Capital One, where he's currently a Senior Fraud Coordinator.

Photo of Daniel Jones. Photo via Capital One.

What's more, he joined Knolls Community Corps Council, which centers around volunteering in the community — something he'd never thought he'd do before. Jones, who knows the pain of losing a parent, is working with a local foster group to plan an event for the kids.

He's also looking forward to something much more long term. Since joining Catapult, Jones has learned to drive, gotten his license and bought a car. Now he plans to go to college, earn a degree in Health Administration and get an MBA. His goal is to launch a business that makes hospital food better. It was inspired by his mom and grandma's comments about hospital food when they were hospitalized before passing away.

Now Jones is taking what he's learned and giving back to the people around him, starting with his friends and neighbors.

He helps his neighbors with financial advice, gives them tips on how to interview, and even spruces up resumes. Most of the people he's helped have gotten the job they wanted. He's making sure that those he cares about know that they, too, can focus their future on "more than just tomorrow."

Being part of the program has also changed the way Jones looks at the world. "I wasn't very optimistic," notes Jones. "Jon Bennett helped me mold into a smart business planner, and a good agent, but, more importantly, he made me a better man altogether."

Financial capital is important, Jones says, but social capital is priceless.

Catapult also helped Jones build a sense of community, so when he's giving back, he's not doing it alone.

Catapult graduation ceremony at Capital One's 1717 Innovation Center in Richmond (Daniel Jones is second from left; Kyle Jacobs is kneeling in the center).

One of Jones' friends is Kyle Jacobs, a 22-year-old who started a non-profit for underserved youth after joining Catapult. Before the program, Jacobs was living in an abandoned house without running water. He'd left college and, due to a large amount of debt, was unable to pursue his goal of joining the police academy.

Jacobs didn't even know that he owed as much money as he did. Financial well-being had just never been part of his education.

During training at Catapult, Jacobs learned how to create a budget and manage a credit card.

“A lot of the problems I was having my whole life were based around money," says Jacobs. "The Catapult program not only taught me all of the important things like credit, but it also taught me how to manage my money when I started making money."

Joining Catapult, Jacobs says, helped him avoid a dangerous path. It helped him build a social network. He views the people with the Catapult program as family. And now that he's working at Capital One as a Senior Fraud Intake Representative in Richmond, Jacobs wants to help others achieve the same things he has. He's already started working on creating his own non-profit.

Kyle Jacobs at his desk at Capital One.

“It's me finding kids that were in my same situation and teaching them the basic life skills that they aren't gonna learn from their parents," says Jacobs. "Because a lot of them aren't necessarily concerned about graduating and getting a job. They're more concerned about surviving."

Jacobs is working with six children right now and, like Jones, is passing the skills that he's learned in the program to the youth he mentors.

“I really want to broaden their perspective on things," he says. “I'm taking them to financial well-being classes at the Capital One café in Richmond's Carytown neighborhood. Teaching them how to network. I'm helping them build their small businesses."

Both men want to use what they've learned in the program to transform the community around them — to show that a different future isn't just a dream; it's within grasp with the right tools and guidance.

"People tend to say, "Hey, I can change the world," says Jones. "That's really broad. People from my community think they can't change their own world, let alone someone else's.

“I want to instill that mindset of if you put your best foot forward, if you set your goals, if you put in the work, you can always achieve whatever goals you want to achieve in life," he continues. "I want to help people develop in a way that they don't just think about tomorrow, but they think about the next five years from now, next 10 years from now."

Planet

Easy (and free!) ways to save the ocean

The ocean is the heart of our planet. It needs our help to be healthy.

Ocean Wise

Volunteers at a local shoreline cleanup

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The ocean covers over 71% of the Earth’s surface and serves as our planet’s heart. Ocean currents circulate vital heat, moisture, and nutrients around the globe to influence and regulate our climate, similar to the human circulatory system. Cool, right?

Our ocean systems provide us with everything from fresh oxygen to fresh food. We need it to survive and thrive—and when the ocean struggles to function healthfully, the whole world is affected.

Pollution, overfishing, and climate change are the three biggest challenges preventing the ocean from doing its job, and it needs our help now more than ever. Humans created the problem; now humans are responsible for solving it.

#BeOceanWise is a global rallying cry to do what you can for the ocean, because we need the ocean and the ocean needs us. If you’re wondering how—or if—you can make a difference, the answer is a resounding YES. There are a myriad of ways you can help, even if you don’t live near a body of water. For example, you can focus on reducing the amount of plastic you purchase for yourself or your family.

Another easy way to help clean up our oceans is to be aware of what’s known as the “dirty dozen.” Every year, scientists release an updated list of the most-found litter scattered along shorelines. The biggest culprit? Single-use beverage and food items such as foam cups, straws, bottle caps, and cigarette butts. If you can’t cut single-use plastic out of your life completely, we understand. Just make sure to correctly recycle plastic when you are finished using it. A staggering 3 million tons of plastic ends up in our oceans annually. Imagine the difference we could make if everyone recycled!

The 2022 "Dirty Dozen" ListOcean Wise

If you live near a shoreline, help clean it up! Organize or join an effort to take action and make a positive impact in your community alongside your friends, family, or colleagues. You can also tag @oceanwise on social if you spot a beach that needs some love. The location will be added to Ocean Wise’s system so you can submit data on the litter found during future Shoreline Cleanups. This data helps Ocean Wise work with businesses and governments to stop plastic pollution at its source. In Canada, Ocean Wise data helped inform a federal ban on unnecessary single-use plastics. Small but important actions like these greatly help reduce the litter that ends up in our ocean.

Ocean Wise, a conservation organization on a mission to restore and protect our oceans, is focused on empowering and educating everyone from individuals to governments on how to protect our waters. They are making conservation happen through five big initiatives: monitoring and protecting whales, fighting climate change and restoring biodiversity, innovating for a plastic-free ocean, protecting and restoring fish stocks, and finally, educating and empowering youth. The non-profit believes that in order to rebuild a resilient and vibrant ocean within the next ten years, everyone needs to take action.

Become an Ocean Wise ally and share your knowledge with others. The more people who know how badly the ocean needs our help, the better! Now is a great time to commit to being a part of something bigger and get our oceans healthy again.

Science

Researchers dumped tons of coffee waste into a forest. This is what it looks like now.

30 dump truck loads and two years later, the forest looks totally different.

One of the biggest problems with coffee production is that it generates an incredible amount of waste. Once coffee beans are separated from cherries, about 45% of the entire biomass is discarded.

So for every pound of roasted coffee we enjoy, an equivalent amount of coffee pulp is discarded into massive landfills across the globe. That means that approximately 10 million tons of coffee pulp is discarded into the environment every year.

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All images provided by Prudential Emerging Visionaries

Collins after being selected by Prudential Emerging Visionaries

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A changemaker is anyone who takes creative action to solve an ongoing problem—be it in one’s own community or throughout the world.

And when it comes to creating positive change, enthusiasm and a fresh perspective can hold just as much power as years of experience. That’s why, every year, Prudential Emerging Visionaries celebrates young people for their innovative solutions to financial and societal challenges in their communities.

This national program awards 25 young leaders (ages 14-18) up to $15,000 to devote to their passion projects. Additionally, winners receive a trip to Prudential’s headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, where they receive coaching, skills development, and networking opportunities with mentors to help take their innovative solutions to the next level.

For 18-year-old Sydnie Collins, one of the 2023 winners, this meant being able to take her podcast, “Perfect Timing,” to the next level.

Since 2020, the Maryland-based teen has provided a safe platform that promotes youth positivity by giving young people the space to celebrate their achievements and combat mental health stigmas. The idea came during the height of Covid-19, when Collins recalled social media “becoming a dark space flooded with news,” which greatly affected her own anxiety and depression.

Knowing that she couldn’t be the only one feeling this way, “Perfect Timing” seemed like a valuable way to give back to her community. Over the course of 109 episodes, Collins has interviewed a wide range of guests—from other young influencers to celebrities, from innovators to nonprofit leaders—all to remind Gen Z that “their dreams are tangible.”

That mission statement has since evolved beyond creating inspiring content and has expanded to hosting events and speaking publicly at summits and workshops. One of Collins’ favorite moments so far has been raising $7,000 to take 200 underserved girls to see “The Little Mermaid” on its opening weekend, to “let them know they are enough” and that there’s an “older sister” in their corner.

Of course, as with most new projects, funding for “Perfect Timing” has come entirely out of Collins’ pocket. Thankfully, the funding she earned from being selected as a Prudential Emerging Visionary is going toward upgraded recording equipment, the support of expert producers, and skill-building classes to help her become a better host and public speaker. She’ll even be able to lease an office space that allows for a live audience.

Plus, after meeting with the 24 other Prudential Emerging Visionaries and her Prudential employee coach, who is helping her develop specific action steps to connect with her target audience, Collins has more confidence in a “grander path” for her work.

“I learned that my network could extend to multiple spaces beyond my realm of podcasting and journalism when industry leaders are willing to share their expertise, time, and financial support,” she told Upworthy. “It only takes one person to change, and two people to expand that change.”

Prudential Emerging Visionaries is currently seeking applicants for 2024. Winners may receive up to $15,000 in awards and an all-expenses-paid trip to Prudential’s headquarters with a parent or guardian, as well as ongoing coaching and skills development to grow their projects.

If you or someone you know between the ages of 14 -18 not only displays a bold vision for the future but is taking action to bring that vision to life, click here to learn more. Applications are due by Nov. 2, 2023.
Pop Culture

A-ha's stripped-down, slowed-down performance of 'Take On Me' is a must-see

The slower tempo and simple instrumentation creates a sadder, more haunting version of the 80s monster hit.

A-ha performing live for MTV Unplugged Summer Solstice

According to NPR—and the ABBA blaring from my young adult daughter's headphones—we're in the midst of an 80s music revival. As a Gen Xer who came of age in the 80s, I think most of that decade should stay locked in a time capsule, but there are a few songs that have managed to remain timeless despite the synthesizers and bad hair.

A-ha's "Take On Me" is one of them. Despite its consummately-80s sound, the song with the famous sketch animated video is still enjoyable (if not a little earwormy—good luck once it gets stuck in your head).

But a lesser-known 2017 arrangement of the song is actually, miraculusly, even better. A-ha performed "Take On Me" for an MTV Unplugged Summer Solstice album, and it's significantly different than the original. The Norwegian band filmed the performance live on the island of Giske, dropping the electric piano as well as the tempo for a stripped-down version that has become a fan favorite. As of this writing, the video has 97 million views on YouTube.

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Family brings home the wrong dog from daycare until their cats saved the day

A quick trip to the vet confirmed the cats' and family's suspicions.

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Outside of collars, harnesses and bandanas, immediately identifying the dog that belongs to you has to be a secret skill because at first glance, their personalities are also super similar. That's why it's not surprising when one family dropped off their sweet golden pooch at daycare and to be groomed, they didn't notice the daycare sent out the wrong dog.

See, not even their human parents can tell them apart because when the swapped dog got home, nothing seemed odd to the owners at first. She was freshly groomed so any small differences were quickly brushed off. But this accidental doppelgänger wasn't fooling her feline siblings.

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Photo via Rob Lopez/YouTube.


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Photo via Rob Lopez/YouTube.


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Pop Culture

Some people talk about changing the world. These young people are actually doing it.

From tackling maternal mortality in Cameroon to fighting food insecurity in the U.S., these "Goalkeepers" are making their mark on global development goals.

Photo by Chris Farber/Getty Images for Gates Archive

The 2023 Goalkeepers Awards honored activists from opposite sides of the globe.

The past two centuries have seen humanity transform into a truly interconnected global community. Like any community, we have our virtues and strengths as well as our challenges that require collective effort to overcome.

The United Nations created 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 to help us focus our efforts on vital areas of concern, including poverty, gender equality, education, food security, health, climate and more. And every year since then, changemakers have arisen to meet those goals in various ways. Some of these changemakers are already leaders on the world stage, from heads of state to global celebrities. But others are grassroots activists doing incredible work on the ground to move us toward meeting our SDG targets by the 2030 deadline.

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Man finds adorable best friend after never having a pet

Not everyone gets to grow up with pets so they don't get the first hand knowledge of how it feels to love an animal. Sure, they may have experience with friends' or family members' pets but that's not the same as caring for one under your own roof. The memories and mini serotonin boosts you get when pets snuggle up to you on a hard day are missed by those who never own a pet.

Up until recently, Caleb had been in the "never had a pet" camp, then one day he found a tiny little kitten. He knew when he saw how little and helpless she was that he just had to rescue the sweet baby.

"I was walking home and I looked down and there was this little kitten," Caleb told The Dodo. "I feel chosen, this is my first pet."

He named the itty bitty kitty, Nala Jaye and takes her everywhere he possibly can.

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