Without a doubt, 2019 was an remarkable year. Professionally, I saw HBCUvc begin to become a real organization, instead of “Hadiyah’s project.”

Here are some of the professional highlights:

• Accepted into Praxis and Echoing Green Fellowship
• HBCUvc increased it’s budget from $200k to $600k
• Doubled HBCUvc’s team count from 3 FT team members to 6 FT and 3 PT members.
• Accepted it’s third cohort of HBCUvc Fellows
• Launched a major partnership with PledgeLA and hosted it’s first city-wide internship cohort
• Launched another partnership with Techstars to bring Startup Weekends to HBCUs
• Spoke at conferences including: first Keynote talk at New Mexico State University, panel with HBCU presidents, and Fireside chat with Spelman College president
• Featured in Black Enterprise, Crunchbase, and Entrepreneur Magazine

The year was incredibly full.

On a personal note, the above was not an easy feat. I personally experienced burnout and missed a lot of valuable family time due to work travel. I did find solace in joining a fitness studio and starting a new fitness regimen. Being in the gym, kept my mind off of work which was really needed this year.

Going into 2020, here are some of my focus themes or moreso what’s on my heart right now:

• Be creative. Discover some hobbies and do something just because. No side hustling, just pure fun.
• Restore finances. Invest.
• Health is wealth.
• Own it. No apologies.

2019 Video Recap