 Good afternoon. Welcome to Benedict College, the HBCU that put the BC in HBCU. It is a historic day on the campus of Benedict College. Our opportunity to welcome very special guests. I'd like to pause before we begin and introduce or acknowledge a few of our very special guests, most of whom you will hear from just shortly, but do allow me on behalf of our Board of Trustees, our staff, faculty, and our amazing students to acknowledge special guests, congressmen with James E. Clyburn, who will be joining us by video just shortly. Our own Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina Pam Everett is here with us this afternoon. Benedict board member, his most important distinction, and he also happens to be the mayor of Columbia, South Carolina. Stephen K. Benjamin is also with us today. We have Ms. Jovita Carranza, U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator as our very special guest today. Thank you so much for traveling here to be with us. We also have a dear friend to Benedict College, Mr. Ashley Bell, Regional Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration. Welcome to Benedict and Ms. Dominique Simpson Milton, advisory board chair for the Benedict College Women's Business Center. At Benedict College, we believe deeply in making history, making changes and improving the lives of our students, their families, and our community. The Women's Business Center on the campus of Benedict College is the manifestation of this commitment. I am Peacock proud to be the 14th and first female president of Benedict College and to have the opportunity to cut the ribbon on the Women's Business Center. We are only the second historically black college in the country and most assuredly the best historically black college in the country to have a women's business center on our campus. So I am excited. I am pleased. I am grateful. I also see another friend, Councilman McDowell. Thank you so much for being here with us today. All of our SBA colleagues and friends, thank you for being with us today, have been tremendous supporters for us as we have endeavored to support small businesses at Benedict College. Our business incubator is second to none and the Women's Business Center is a unique addition to that very special programming. I thank you for being here. I urge you, if you know women who are interested in starting a business, strengthening a business, growing a business, please direct them to Benedict College. We are here to support you, to sustain you and help to create generational wealth in the communities that we serve. Thank you for being a part of the Benedict family. I will defer to the program in the order the speakers are presented and again, welcome you to Benedict College. I am excited. I am honored to be the first chair of the Advisory Council for the Women's Business Center in South Carolina at Benedict College. This is a historic moment. And to President Artists and Director Sallie, my hat goes off to each of you. You have a great work to do. To the SBA, thank you for funding this program. I know firsthand the excitement of developing the Women's Encounter when they walk into a WBC Center because we are co-located in North Carolina. WBC and CVMSTC are located in Charlotte, North Carolina. And I watch women walk in. They just get so excited about the growth, the connections of training and the possibilities for their business. So this is a rich work that we have to do. And together we can make it very valuable for businesses that are starting out, businesses that are already established as a chair. I want to see businesses grow from a million to multi millions, from multi millions to billions. That is the work that we have to do. We have to provide rich programming. We have to provide access to capital and resources that will help these businesses grow. But that is just one component of the work that we have to do. It is not enough for us to create these programs and to train all these businesses and to give them hope, but doors not be open. So it is incumbent upon each one of us here today. It's incumbent upon all of the businesses in South Carolina to be very intentional, to make sure that we are opening doors, to put women-owned businesses, minority owned businesses into your supply chain. This equation does not work without both working congruently together. I'd like South Carolina to be known as the state that knows the importance of developing that small business of that woman owned business. As we talk to the current businesses that are here, as we recruit new businesses to South Carolina, let it be known that we expect them to open the doors in their supply chain to these women owned businesses so that all the work that we do, once they are ready to go into the supply chain, the doors will be open. If we do that together, our missions are aligned. At CVMS DC, we certify businesses with a larger certifying agency in the United States. We help develop them and we connect them to opportunities. But most importantly, we advocate for them to make sure that laws are in place, to make sure that they have opportunities, that doors are open for them to grow. This huge economic impact is represented by minority businesses in a supply chain. In our business, for every dollar that we invest in minority business, we return $1.72 back into the economy from jobs, salaries, taxes, goods and services sold. The same will be true of the women in South Carolina. So we must be very intentional to make sure that those we develop have the opportunities with open doors to grow. With that, I thank you for just entrusting me. And I look forward to working with each of you. Thank you to our potential future sponsors, because I'm a sales person at heart. And we're going to need all the sponsors that we can get to help continue the work that we are doing and to add to the funds that the SBA is giving us here today. So thank you. And I look forward to working with each of you. Good afternoon. A lovely day in the neighborhood, isn't it? I certainly want to thank I thank God for everything, but I thank him particularly for this shelter today. It has helped tremendously. Dr. artists, our mayor, the other persons who are here, Melissa Linda, who's our director of our office of business opportunities. We're glad you're here today. What an illustrious day it is in the neighborhood. But this historical event to take place. Benedict College Women's Business Center provides another opportunity in the long legacy of this institution as it provided health, advancing education, invigorating the culture, social and economic emphasis in this community. For 150 years, this institution has continued to be at the top of the spear. This institution has continued to be an HBCU that continues to push out and expand the vigorous energy that each HBCU offers. Of course, I am a product of an HBCU institution, not Benedict, but because I'm so close to Benedict, I claim it anyhow. We are blessed to have this Women's Business Center that is very much needed in our city, in our nation. This center will work to respond, reveal, and recover from the impact of this pandemic virus. According to the economic policy committee, because of the racial, sometimes because of the racial injustices that is deeply rooted, we've come today to ignite the flame of a reasonable way to impact the very nature of this community and this center. We are able, through this institution, the ability to leverage our, to leverage our combined resources, because there are resources under this tent today. Now please remember, I'm a retired preacher, and it feels like I'm doing a sermon, so after I get through, I'm going to ask for a collection for Benedict, somebody ought to say amen. Just send a check. Dr. Orges will appreciate that. The ability to leverage combined resources so that this community and this city of ours is impacted in such a way that lives are changed. Lives are invigorated. Lives are pushed to the next level. We are trusting and hoping with all of the energy that is within each of us to not only make this work because it's going to work under the leadership of our beloved president, she's going to make it work. The staff is going to make it work, and every sister who attends will be highly, will be highly expanded to do a better and an extreme, in an extreme condition. This pandemic has offered and is rooted in a deep appreciation, if you look at it that way, in a deep appreciation of what is to be done and what is going to be done. It has offered us an invitation to do the right thing, and today we are doing the right thing. So as a member of our CDC, our Community Development Committee, as a member of the board of the CDC, as a member of City Council, I'm encouraging everybody because I'm going to do my part. I need you to do your part, and in doing your part, it makes it a kind of response that will benefit the needs of our city. This center will give and say to each person, given each person the privilege to be the best they can be. Thank you for this day, and we look for more things to happen in this community called Benedict College. Thank you very much. Governor Edvidt, President, Artists, Administrator Caranza, Regional Administrator Bell, my friend and colleague, Ed McDowell, he was actually serious about taking up a collection, y'all, so please know this. It's a real honor to be here with you today as we deal with amazingly challenging times across this country. We're in the midst of the greatest pandemic since 1918, the greatest economic disruption in election year since 1932 or 1876, depending on who you talk to, and the greatest social unrest around the structure of racism since 1968, all wrapped up into two quarters in 2020. So it is so amazingly consequential that this opportunity happens here at Benedict College in partnership with a small business administration, and we are so, so thankful. We look forward to, and we're committed to, through our Office of Business Opportunities, led ably by Melissa Lindler to continue working with each and every one of you in making sure we meet the needs of the entire community. We've seen the data, and I'm a big believer in God we trust everyone else bring me data that 41% of black owned businesses, almost 440,000 enterprises have shuttered over the last several months compared to just 17% of majority owned businesses. We have been committed to doing our part, stepped up very quickly with one and a half million dollar contribution to small businesses in the form of forgivable loans. We've been thankful for our partnership with the Department of Commerce's EDA to also inject almost another three million dollars into making sure our small businesses, indeed the backbone of American, of the American economy are able to manage through this incredible storm. So it was important to me to be here on the campus of this historically black college founded by a woman led for the first time by a woman, a black woman to say that if in fact we are going to be the most talented, educated and entrepreneurial in America, we have to be willing to make the strong and committed investments in all of our citizens. And this contribution, this partnership, Madam Administrator and my friend Ashley is a big deal. It's a big deal and I want to assure you as a trustee of this college as well that you couldn't have picked a better team to entrust your resources with under leadership of Dr. Artis and incredible leadership of Cheryl Sally. We're going to be in good shape and as a result would be a healthier, more dynamic community. So thank you for your commitment and we look forward to a long standing partnership with the SVA. God bless you. Well, it's an honor to be back here at Benedict College. Special thanks to Dr. Clark Artis along with the Small Business Administration for extending this invitation to me. I bring greetings from your governor. I'm proud to stand with President Trump and the governor and their historic efforts to support historically black colleges and universities. Recently, the governor allocated 2.4 million of the governor's emergency education relief, his gear funds, to all of our historically black colleges here in the state. This critical funding will go towards the good work being done here at Benedict College, including this Women's Business Center. So many businesses are facing economic strain right now, which is why it is so important as a state, we keep taxes low, we continue to provide resources and flexibility to get through these tough times. We must continue to find opportunities to help women realize their fulfilled dreams. I now, I know personally the difficulties that comes with being a female business owner. Today, as women start businesses and leadership positions, they remain the primary caregivers in their household. That's just double shift for us ladies. And it's even more pronounced now with many children being educated at home. We're working hard here in South Carolina to give people back to work and back to school. To help them access opportunities. In April, the governor created the Accelerate SC to serve South Carolina's business. We thank Dr. Artis Clark for serving as a member and helping develop recommendations to keep businesses back to work and their success thriving. The Benedict College Business Women's Center is another way of doing that. It will provide equal opportunity for growth and development and help equalize the playing field across all industries. I'm thankful to be included today to spotlight women in business. I look forward to hearing about the many successes that grow out of this great, great collaboration with Benedict College and the SBA. Now, more than ever, we must work to strengthen small businesses and support emerging women and minority-owned businesses. The governor's administration looks forward to the continued success of our historically black colleges and universities and the SBA programs here in South Carolina. Thank you and thank you to everyone who made this day possible. It's time that we focus entrepreneurship on African American women. Not that they're estranged with us. There are quite a few African American women who are very good business people. My mother was one of them. She had two big shops when we were growing up, about 16 operators, very efficient, very effective. But when she passed away, I was surprised to find out how she was expanding the business. So she had small business loans. In fact, it turned out that during her day, African American women, in this instance, African Americans in South Carolina had only two small business loans. And my mother had both of them. So that to me gives credence to the fact that women are entrepreneurial. All they need is the assistance that so many others get. This business center will be able to focus on the needs, those special needs that women have in the business world and most especially African American women. So I want to congratulate Benedict for making this effort. And I hope that as time goes forward, I can work with them in making sure that this center do all that it can to make the experiences of women in business a much better effort than it has been in the past. So congratulations. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of it. Good luck and Godspeed. I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the fact that this just didn't happen by accident. This happened because of a leader with vision. So please join me in giving a round of applause to Dr. Ortiz for her vision in making all of this happen. You know, as you've heard from our Lieutenant Governor and others, any time that there is a table, Dr. Ortiz is willing to sit at that table if it means that that table has decisions being made about the people she cares about. And many times she has traveled to other people's tables to sit there and represent the interests of her community, of this college and to the alumni that proudly represent this college. But she also has the vision to think that at some point the table needs to move to my house. And you come to my house and you sit around my table and let's talk about how we can benefit our community. And that's what we're doing today. We're celebrating the opening of a center, the building of a new table. It's so important to really think about the history of this and why we are here. This is a nation that was founded when African-Americans were capital, somebody's capital. And today we talk about moving another generation of former capital to be capitalists, helping them start businesses, grow businesses, and break cycles of poverty. That's why we're here. As my good friend Mayor C. Benjamin said, and he's always advocated this, there's no better place than Benedict College for these ideas to thrive. There's no more fearless leader than Dr. R.T.'s when it comes to being able to challenge not only her students, but a community to rise to a special occasion like this. There's challenges, sure. Credit for African-Americans has been invasive through the history of this country. SBA has been at the forefront by guaranteeing loans, making sure credit is available for people who need it the most. Credit is like water. Without credit, nothing grows. This is a way for us to bring new water to this community so that we can grow new opportunities. This is how we break cycles of poverty. And I really want to start by saying this couldn't happen without some very special, strong, envisioned women. I think if you look at Dr. R.T.'s team, you see strong black girl magic from top to bottom that is leading the way in a very special way. I'm honored to call her a friend. I'm honored to work with this team. And I'm also honored also to work with another very strong, very capable, very vision-driven leader and administrator, Davida Caronza. Today we find ourselves at an inflection point as a country. We have to ask ourselves, we're going to put our money where our talk is. And today is SBA under leadership of this administrator saying we're going to invest where the best are and Benedict is where the best reside. So I want to introduce you to our administrator, the 26th administrator of the United States small business administration. She sits on the president's cabinet. She's a former executive of UPS, the former treasurer of the United States. And that's a special job, y'all, because that means she put her name on the money that we spend. But she left that job to come be a steward of 30 million American businesses in the greatest crisis we've ever seen American businesses go through. And she's done that with courage. She's done that with steadfast, consistent leadership. We'll be find ourselves in an agency that was small, charged with deploying 20% of the GDP of this country back into our economy in a matter of months. And she did that. And she did that because she understands what these small businesses mean to you and our communities. So I'm honored today to introduce to you the 26th administrator of the small business administration, administrator Jopita Carranza. Thank you very much. I appreciate that, Ashley. Thank you. It brings me great joy to join you all as we celebrate the landmark opening of one of the first two women's business centers at historically black colleges and universities. This is truly an exciting day, a much needed bright spot after months of extraordinary challenges. President Artis, I am thrilled, as I've expressed in the private chambers, that the new women's business center is further strengthening the partnership between Benedict College and the Small Business Administration. Congratulations to all the Benedict leadership and staff for your effective advocacy and dedication to opening this new center. Aspiring women entrepreneurs in this community will now have a professional team dedicated to their success and prosperity. President Donald Trump and his administration collectively are committed to empowering more women, minorities, veterans, and military spouses to successfully start a small business of their own. He has empowered me to achieve one of my own top priorities from the day I took the oath as SBA administrator, helping women in underserved communities accomplish their professional dreams. I'm laser focused, and I can't use a more definitive term than laser focused on small business prosperity. This goal ignited my team and I to broaden our outreach and expand services and dedicated resources to elevate this particular endeavor. The coronavirus pandemic couldn't hold us back. In recent months, we've added seven new women business centers including the one here at the Benedict College. You may know we just opened one in Greenville too and I'll be heading there tomorrow. I'll call you and give you some insights. Between Columbia and Greenville we are now delivering a host of vibrant resources to current and future small business owners in the Palmetto State. Expanding women business centers to South Carolina was very intentional. I know the leadership of Benedict College strongly agrees with me when I say that we see many great opportunities for up and coming women entrepreneurs. Still, we also know small businesses here are facing very real setbacks due to the coronavirus pandemic. Businesses and their employees are recovering from the injuries this nation has endured in battling back the invisible enemy COVID-19. Women owned and minority owned small businesses are among those hardest hit by prolonged shutdowns and restrictions over the past several months. This is why this administration has worked earnestly and urgently to put distressed small businesses on the path to recovery and the CARES Act has been a big part of that work. Under this President's leadership and with the support of Congress this major piece of legislation was signed into law. It is providing vital relief of women business centers, HBCUs and small businesses. First, through the CARES Act SBA was able to award $48 million in additional funds and support to women's business centers. One of the reasons we are here today celebrating this opening. Second, the SBA through its small business development center network expanded its commitment to HBCUs and placed an additional $4.8 million in support. Third, the CARES Act authorized SBA to launch the Paycheck Protection Program which you know as the PPP. One of the most successful federal disaster response efforts in history. The PPP infused a financial lifeline into more than 5 million small businesses and non-for-profits across the country. This administration recognizes the impact the pandemic has had on every college and university and HBCUs in particular. Benedict College you are one of 29 HBCUs that received a PPP loan to help you stay viable and keep your awesome staff on payroll during this very difficult time. The HBCUs received more than $52.5 million in forgivable loans. The PPP has also helped save tens of millions of jobs. I've been traveling the country as I mentioned to you Dr. Erders hearing from a diverse range of small business owners and faith-based organizations who received a PPP loan and over and over they herald that this made a significant difference that kept them viable through very extreme virus restrictions. This administration made it a priority to ensure small businesses and underserved communities could access these forgivable loans. As a result, nearly 70% of all of the PPP loans were approved for small businesses with fewer than 10 employees. It's an important metric since small businesses typically in the minority owned small businesses represent around 8 employees per firm. Of course our work is not done. I'm acutely aware of the challenges that business owners and HBCUs continue to face. This administration is working closely with Congress right now on the next relief package for small businesses and nonprofits. And I'm hopeful they will deliver this for you soon. Meanwhile, our country is safely reopening and we have the back of our nation's entrepreneurs as they lead economic recovery in their local communities. When I look at Benedict College and your dynamic work here, it was your dreams, innovation and business acumen that helped fuel the thriving economy we experienced just a few months ago. And it will be that same resilient spirit and hard work that will drive us not only to recovery but to surge even greater heights ahead. I want each of you to know that you have a friend and an ally and SBA. It is a tremendous privilege to serve our incredible women entrepreneurs and this college in particular. Thank you all. It's been an honor to see the work you are doing to serve the Benedict College. You have the entirety of the community. You have, Dr. Artists, I typically say this when there's a really special audience. You have the federal government. You have the state government and you have the mayors. How much more focus could your university, your college really attract? This means you have an entire community and ecosystem in support of this coordination and this partnership with SBA. In closing, we know entrepreneurs uplift communities and I'm thrilled for the addition of this women's business center at Benedict. I hope I get to come back soon. I made that commitment to you and to meet some of the amazing women entrepreneurs which in some cases I've already met during the meeting who have become very significant business leaders in Columbia and around the world. Thank you very much for your invitation and for putting up such an elaborate presentation for this community. Only Benedict could pull this off. Thank you very much, Dr. Artists. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. This has truly been an amazing day. Amazing day in South Carolina and I am honored to be a part of this moment, not only as the director for Benedict College Women's Business Center, but more importantly as a part of this awesome village of leaders, visionaries and innovators, many of which just also happen to be women as the only HBCU in the country with the SBA Designated Women's Business Center that has a statewide entrepreneurial focus. We are so excited to be a part of a dream that so many women have to be business owners and to leave a legacy. We will work hard to remove those barriers that have prevented them from their entrepreneurial journey. Working jointly with our network of business and community partners, we will continue to level the playing field of resources, access and opportunities for all women. So on behalf of Benedict College Women's Business Center we would like to thank SBA Administrator Karanza for your leadership, your guidance, your advocacy for small businesses across the U.S. We would like to thank all of our program participants today who came out and shared and support us. We would like to thank our Benedict College Women's Business Center Advisory Board who have committed to work with us. Our media, thank you for coming out and covering our partners, our live streaming audience who's with us today virtually. We look forward to working with each and every one of you as clients and most of all we would like to thank our Benedict family. This is truly a team thank you for your support and we look forward to that continued support. We give special thanks to President Artis and Chief of Staff Dr. Seon Smith for their vision to expand this college's efforts in supporting our small business community. Thank you so much. And in closing I would also like to acknowledge the Benedict College Women's Business Center staff who have worked so hard, so dedicated and they have so much passion and drive for helping our clients to grow and succeed. If you're here, raise your hand or stand up, Renee Joy who's the case manager Latoya Lindsey who's our administrative coordinator Tangy Beatty she's our project coordinator Raquel Thomas and Michelle Dubar their business resiliency advisors Thank you all so much I look forward to working with you on this journey. For coming out, this concludes our program if you would like to see the business center we're going to adhere to social distances so two or three at a time but thank you all so much have a great evening and stay safe.