Anthony Martin & Jordan Walker Pearlman Speak On The Urban Youth Racing School & What's Next For It

[Music] whoo indeed hello world what is up welcome to build I'm your host Matt Forte we are here live at the build studio in New York City urban youth is an organization born out of the highly successful urban youth racing school established in Philadelphia in 1998 they aim to completely reverse the plight of urban youth in this country by creating opportunities igniting careers and transforming lives joining me now urban youth co-founder Anthony Martin and filmmaker and co-executive producer on the upcoming urban youth racing school docu-series Jordan Walker Pearlman ladies and gentlemen how about a round of applause for our guest come on make some noise for Anthony and Jordan right now gentlemen uh thank you so much for being here welcome to the show how are you guys doing how's life going right now the nominal what he said yeah echo his sentiments phenomenal I believe it man 20 I was reading up 21 incredible years with the urban youth raising school with this organization so many lives transformed so much incredible work done take me back if you don't mind it I wanted to start kind of in the beginning of just back to 1998 back to that year one what inspired you to start of all things erasing school well first of all I'm actually from Southwest Philadelphia and probably back in the 80s and the 90s I was probably the only kid in the hood that was really a racing fan now basically what it is you know me really think about racing kind of like in the hood you think about drag racing but I was really more of a circle track guy and you know I was kind of like an athlete when I was growing up in high school and things like that but always like racing so in 1998 partner mines came up with this concept introducing the racing industry to urban youth that's a possible career option Racing is a multi-billion dollar industry right and I Got News for you you cannot be involved in a sport of either to it's one or two things like do you need some type of relationship we got to have a bunch of money so you can only imagine with a lot of urban inner-city kids they have neither so we wanted to actually build this pipeline of introducing them to the sport where they can say listen you know what you know I don't have to be a driver one day I can be a engine here I can be a tire changer I can be a chassis person and make $200,000 a year actually doing this okay and I Got News for you you can't do these being a race car driver you cannot be successful without having a successful team behind you so the mechanics of it the engineering and the science and technology of racing is probably is probably more important than an actual driver because if I got a fast car and I have great mechanics I could be a not as good as driver as you but because I got the better mechanics I'm gonna go faster than you so all these things actually equate into the racing world so in 1998 I was able to convince Michael Andretti of the end ready family to come into West Philadelphia bring his race car into West Philadelphia and bring out and we actually ended up bringing like 300 kids out to actually see the car and when Michael Andretti actually came he was actually shocked to see all these urban inner-city kids that actually had interests in the sport they were like wow so then he talked about the fact that yeah I'm a driver my dad Mario Andretti was one of the greatest drivers of all time he was basically saying that listen you don't have to be the driver you can be an engineer or mechanic and things like that so so from that and we saw the response of the kids from that that was the start of the urban youth race in school right so the following year I met another German by the by the name of Edie Renzi who was a president CEO of the McDonald's Corporation worldwide he was just retiring as president McDonald's he had a racing team team in the ARCA series in NASCAR he liked my concept and he actually funded us and he couldn't understand our diversity and understand I actually kind understood the power of introducing and getting youth behind getting behind them and getting them involved in learning about this so from there I didn't met NASCAR and thought the relationship from there and it goes forward from there and at the risk of going too far back why were you interested in what sparked your passion and racing to begin with and this thing that you're right at that time you didn't have a relationship you'd have a ton of money so you can't really aspire to become a part of it what kept your passion alive why were you so interesting I thought race card I thought racing was sexy I'm not honestly like honestly no you know being a race car I make an example Will Smith right Will Smith is in the Formula one right he talked about the fact that when he was a kid growing up in West Philly one of his dream was to be a race car driver he fried look they did the same way I looked at it as being a sexy sport so for me that's kind of like how I actually looked at it and um I realized that again that being a race car driver that's not the ennop beginning on in all you have to have that strong team around you so it's a team sport basically so because of that I actually liked it and that's something you hear a lot of too cuz I think more than most sports yeah with racing you tend to glorify and see the one person holding the trophy at the end of the race but it is a huge team that gets them there and there's so many different elements and different expertise involved in that world you know this program urban youth reason school is the to this day I believe it's the only kind of its kind in the world and how far in how many years and did you guys know that you had something that was working that you were making moves that you were doing some good work for these kids when did you know that it was effective probably Pauline in mid 2000s yeah it took it took a minute for sure but what we was learning is the fact that a lot of the kids who were actually coming into the school being introduced because let me say this too the program is free so this imagine inner-city kid coming into the program if he had to pay for that if he or she had to pay for that you talking about thousands of dollars so our program is free and our program is paid for by Chevrolet and General Motors they've been they've been our partner for 19 years so this has been a phenomenal relationship with those guys over there so I'm actually coming in we actually found that once they got involved in it and obviously everybody wants to drive go-karts and race and things like that that's how the kids Eric oh we're gonna drive cars that's the care we dangle at the end of the day right Zach but you know in order for you to be to be able to do that for five Saturdays here's what you have to do so they learn about engines how engine actually operates they learn about an apex you know you know the apád apex is the center part of a turn right well they learn about apex is in geometry class so we started making so we started making driving terms become relevant to their schoolwork so now a kid doesn't say well why would I ever use physics ever use physics for chemistry for well guess what if you actually implemented into this you can be very successful at it so actually dawn that we sort of found that they were kids that were really talented at doing this that kids actually can learn math and science and the thing that was I guess most important was the fact that they started believing in themselves because if you start talking if you taught the kids mainly from the inner city about you know being an engineer or a scientist you know they start running for the hills they think it's I could never do that but you can do that and when you have something in common with this you can make it happen so we found that to be very successful for us so kids and actually learning about this learning about the technology of it the aerodynamics of it and things of that nature it's like wow then it didn't they started they actually saw the implement into the school their schoolwork and understanding why math and science they actually connects to it that's how we've been successful and that's kind of the brilliance of the program because I think back to when I was in school and like one of the most frustrating things when we had math was it was all taught in the abstract whereas you guys are taking everything and you're grounding it in reality and you're grounding it in something that's sexy and racing and it's really cool so it's kind of like this perfect storm you know STEM education has always been important but I think an emphasis has been placed on it and a lot of talk around STEM education as technology has improved and grown and evil have you guys had to evolve the curriculum and you had to change your approach to stay relevant to keep the kids interested make sure they're learning what they need to be learning absolutely and it's funny we laugh about it because he said we've been teaching stem for 21 years so I was like way man you talk about stem he was don't as seen on 19 years ago we were doing stem but yeah so we weaved up had to make changes like for example we did the program with the United States Navy where the office and they will research onr they came to us to say hey listen you guys are teaching these kids about engines can we transfer that knowledge I'm learning about a regular engine to learn about naval propulsion to learn about nuclear power engines learning about gas turbine diesel engines things like that you know these engines that power submarines and battleships so in doing that protocol we found to be very very successful and the Navy Admirals that were actually coming in who made this happen we're absolutely blown away like blown away by this in fact we actually had one of our kids make a pitch to the Pentagon because it was a yeah there was a ship that was actually I can't think of the name what was a ship that they were building back in the 1990s but they ended up scrapping that and the end of the building is some summer ring this ballistic submarine instead of that but that particular project the reason why they didn't do that project was it costs too much money to do it so our kids took that on as a project but they actually came in looked at the ship started working on it coming up with different ideas and that was presented to the Pentagon so the Admirals in fact that had Admiral Chief of new operations came to the school and everything and he was absolutely just blown away by what these kids were learning the fact that these kids can actually do this yeah you know think about if a second you have 13 14 year old kids knowing about naval known about a nuclear engine how it operates and things of that nature so that stuff is very very powerful it's incredibly powerful Jordan when did you become aware of the urban youth race in school and all the amazing work the Anthony's people were doing how did you become involved as a producer it's funny thinking about it because I think it in my heart it was years ago but the reality is it was about 13 months ago sometimes somebody or an organization comes into your life and you feel like they've always been there that's how I feel about urban youth Racing school a frequent collaborator of mine the trumpet player wallace roney is from philadelphia and he worked on me on a number of my films and his sister crystal is a close friend of mine and she called me and said I have to tell you about my cousin Anthony's school and she told me about it and I've thought a lot about the kids I grew up with that I wish there was something like that for them and then I thought you know this be a great TV show but let's let their voices be heard let's tell this story we're storytellers and that's how I got involved stories where where do you where do you start with such an incredible service such a rich his 21 years of doing this amazing work when you guys met with Anthony and where did you have you figured that out yet and in the scope of planning the show what stories you want to tell focusing on the children focusing on the history of the school how deep into the process are you at this point we're deep into the process in terms of the question you asked which is the idea is to make this very much giving kids their voices letting the stories be their stories and then involving the extra stories that come around that now what's interesting in which Anthea and I talked about from the very beginning is to also involve the history of motor sports particularly african-americans and motorsports which is another untold story that dates back what would you say Anthony to the dawn of motor sports at least the late teens 1924 1924 and that would be it so but the focus has to be on the kids and to their voices and their stories and that's when we then partnered up with Will Smith's company Overbrook and we're doing the show together and that's something we've said from the very beginning how did Will Smith get into the fall because I saw a couple of stories that his Overbrook is now involved and they're working on the project I mean he's from Philly makes sense it does make sense but the funny thing is I said to the people at my production company said oh you know Will Smith is involved with Formula One and he's from Philadelphia let's call him and see if they want to get involved with us and I said I'm not that intelligent I said oh he's from Philly of course he knows about the school so I called him and and Caleb pink it up it says who runs his company and is also his brother-in-law and I said I'm sure you guys know about this school this magnificent school in Philadelphia and they said what school he had no idea I'd never heard of it it's good for me because if he had I'm sure he would have gotten the rights and done the show ten years ago but I was really shocked that he hadn't and but he couldn't have been more enthusiastic it happened within a week all of Overbrook came on board they're all passionate about this because we all we all have memories of friends and we say whatever part part of life we enter in and we start to remember friends that are not with us anymore and we say if they had an outlet if they had a voice if they had an opportunity why did I get the lucky break and I think we're passionate about doing the show and about this school because it's it's a way to make sure that more and more kids have the same breaks well I have to imagine like as a storyteller you're in an amble and I'm jealous of you because it the no shortage of incredible stories that there are to tell I just I was reading some history I just met another amazing young man who his story and just the journey he's been on and the companies he's worked for already and what he's done you know do you keep touch with with a lot of the kids you know 21 years that's a lot of people - are there stories that stand out for you or anything that you that you think about when maybe when times are challenging or whatever you go you know and I got to keep going because this is what we're doing you know what are some of those moments that stand out for you I mean there's there's so many to be honest with you you know so many students that are just doing great things right now in fact you spoke to Jeremy earlier yeah exactly exactly he's becoming a very successful rapper performer as well as artists so one of the things I think the school does is it gives these kids ability to think think outside of the box as we say we call it what critical thinking and we for example like one of our students also she graduated from Stanford University and she actually almost a company now called Cerner and SERM is actually a pharmaceutical company where they basically take over run a minute of medications from the pharmaceutical companies because usually when they when they have over runs they get rid of them well she put together this program where they actually send these particular over runs of medication to her organization and then they distribute them to the less fortunate right she was in she was actually in Forbes magazine I mean one of our kids work for President Obama I'm a few years ago one of our students actually works for NBC so to answer your question specifically most of the students I since I you know stay in contact they basically reach out to me they come back and give back that's one of the things that I really preach like if you gonna be part of this program remember this program is free if you have to pay for this has cost you thousands of dollars to be a part of this so one of the things I preach in top of the fetter you got to come back you got to give back your success could be someone else's success one of the things we talk about all the time which I feel is very very important when you really think about it is we're changing generations we're not just changing lives we're changing generations one of our kids his name is Danny Cologne he was the first kid in his family to graduate from college right and so he graduate from college and now he works for NBC okay so think about so now his kids will now have that following of going to college and become a successful too but this kid story is unbelievable when he was in high school his pet his parents kind of left town and you know Joe gives us coach you know that Joe gives pay for an apartment for this kid for a year really yes he joke is but no but he would never tell that story but when this kid was in high school he did an internship with Joe Gibbs down in North Carolina with his race team and when he was down there his parents ended up leaving so here that little calling me crying going crazy like what am I going to do where am I gonna go so when he came back up to Philadelphia he stayed with me my family for a couple weeks we told y'all Gibbs and I'm the story Joe Gibbs started sending money to the racing school to get this kid an apartment to stay at these are the type of stories I'm talking about you would never ever know so now he's very successful this kid and he will tell you the race of school saved his life because because this kid he didn't know anything about racing period and a lot of students that come in they don't know the first thing about racing they want a job go karts and have fun but they don't know anything about racing when they leave they know all about you know right as a young man who thought racing was sexy and that was why this all kind of appeals started to you you know did you ever envision yourself as the man who was going to be the one taking people in and helping them find their dreams like is this the but you thought you would be a racer at one point and and now here you are doing this incredible work do you ever reflect on that reconcile that think of that think back to that that young man who just thought cars were sexy and now here you are doing this what would you say to that young man you know I never thought I'd be doing what I'm doing yeah that's us being 100% honest with you I never thought that for sure but let me tell you real fast my background is sports marketing I said work for Charles Barkley and I was the guy I know and the crowd was probably too young to remember this but in in the early 1990s Randall Cunningham we played quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles he said we're a product that I designed I designed these shoe laces that he wore on a football field and if you look on a lot of people a lot of people shoes today that was my idea those leases and everything so my background was sports marketing I work for other athletes I'm not gonna mention here but I did that and you know again and the back of my mind was always a racing fan but for me I thought I was gonna be in a sports marketing business forever maybe honestly I thought it's gonna be the sword market but when I had the opportunity to really think about you know about racing and the fact that I was kind of like a closet racing racing fan because it wasn't like I had folks I can talk to the hood you know about racing anybody follow racing like that so I was kind of like a closet racing but I met so but one of my close friends of Mines he was a big racing fan too so that's how we ended up coming together and say hey you know what let's actually start trying to do a program where we can actually introduce you to this particular industry and that's kind of how that was actually born but what we found was we actually came in at the perfect time because at that time NASCAR and a lot of the race and organizations to diversify and still even today like when you really think about it there's only really one successful black driver today in racing and that's Lewis Hamilton and f1 and that's not even really American this will be more European to be honest with you you have another another guy who's african-american this guy Bubba Wallace who races in the NASCAR Series but he's not doing very well in this series so it's not like it's a big deal so when you really think about the urban community they don't they don't see us out they don't see african-americans driving out there so this is a sport that's kind of looted them in the sport where you look at it as like well you know what I could never afford to do that be a part of that so we feel like we've changed that and we're continuing to change that you know and um and it's a challenge and it's still a challenge in 2019 2020 to be honest with you but we're working at it we're trying to make it happen but to answer your question I never ever thought I would be doing this and I think that seeing the progress of over 20 over 21 years span and had over 6,000 kids go through the program and 90% on being real you know very successful you know has kept me going it drives me is more about listen if I was trying to make money by being a sports management business you know I wouldn't be I wouldn't be in this business to be honest with you but yeah so for me so now that we've you know and seeing the kids be successful and have kids call me up listen I just graduated from you know from this college I just graduated from Tuskegee or wherever might be you know that's the most empowering piece the most powerful piece for me shape and generations man it's like absolutely changing generations absolute you know you know we're gonna go over to audience Q&A in just a second and Jordan I know you guys are in the early stages do you have a timeline of when we hope to see some some footage some finished product like what's what's your internally what when do you want to be done by when do you want to have this out that's a spring spring of 2020 and then we're gonna do the first season in Philadelphia and we're gonna do the second season in South Africa and we're negotiating now to build the urban youth Racing School in South Africa so I'd like to think that we'll get that done in 2021 which means getting the first season of the show shot in early 2020 and out there in the summer that's incredibly exciting how do people that are watching right now that wanna support they want to help where do they go go to our website it ww-why are s.com yes you are you know one thing I want to mention to go fans the fact that we've partnered with racing teams too which is very very important and one of those teams is New York Racing God by now John Cohen owns that team and we partner with him so a lot of our kids now have this pipeline that we're actually building between the programs and and he's racing teams and we're and we also are going to be announcing a big deal next week we great a partner with the Simeon foundation race museum in Philadelphia which is ranked the number one we the number one automotive museum in the world someone in the world did this to have a press we have a press conference just for the record when I talk about it later I'm counting that as exclusive right that's mine right that is that Sokratis all it's incredible his automobiles were for half a billion he has a greatest collection of automobiles in the in the world and he's he was ranked number one in the world and you know Ralph Lauren and Jay Leno and all these folks visit his place annually well congratulations in 21 years man in the next twenty and twenty-one and and and and then some it's just unbelievable the stuff you guys are doing we're not done yet we've got to leave with at least two right I got two questions in the room we've got microphones out there as hit'em of the first one all the way in the back go for it hi guys hey um I was just wondering with such an interesting subject matter what's some of the best moments of filming the show have been and what some challenges have been we haven't started filming the show yet I can tell you what I think that we start in the spring probably I can tell you what I think the most challenging will be is that just as you see they're gonna be so many compelling stories and it's going to be very hard to decide which stories get featured and which don't which is why my hope my hope is that there'll be a lot of extra material that then we can we can like I said voices to not normally heard or heard enough voices thank you for your questioning I do want go one more come on down hi this is a question for mark website builders calm because you're inspiring so many young people who was your inspiration when you were growing up excellent question my inspiration growing out to be honest of these was Muhammad Ali I always loved Muhammad Ali he inspired me to want to be in the sports marketing business and do what I actually do but yes he would be my inspiration mm-hmm who's your inspiration growing up man growing up yeah my grandmother yeah yes she taught me grit and and she inspired me to get up in the morning when I otherwise wouldn't but in every way she inspired me she was my inspiration awesome well both you gentlemen are very inspiring I think the work you've done is incredible man and it's so amazing and so awesome to have you here I remind everybody you why our Escom is where you want to go to support this incredible cause and get involved you know what while we're at it what he's a musician work we hear his music can plug in gentlemen talking to earlier yeah we're gonna hear your music man art from the heart is on Spotify is on Apple music check it out art from the heart everybody thank you so much do me a favor you were a great audience keep it going make an amazing amount of noise and think Anthony Martin and Jordan Walker Pearlman for being here thank you gentlemen thank you thank you [Music]