 I'm Marsha Joyner and we are navigating the journey. Now all of you that are regulars, you know I only talk to my best friends. Today, however, I am talking to more than just best friends, I am being tutu today. So and with, and you know her name, Andrea Joyner Josiah, how's that? So now you know where she comes from. And these two beautiful young men are her offspring. How's that? So I get to be tutu today. Yes. So Andrea, let's start with you. Tell us all about Andrea and the fact that you were born in Hawaii before it was a state. So you have that beautiful birth certificate that says Territory of Hawaii. Yes, absolutely. I was born in Keelani Hospital and you know when it was still a territory. In the same wing as the former president Barack Obama, that's a kind of cool connection. In fact, I dated his mentor, which we won't mention any names. He actually ran track with my brother at Damian and he got a scholarship to Punahau. So we have, you know, 60 degrees of separation. So tell us about Andrea. Yeah. So my middle name is Ivalani and born and raised here in Honolulu. I think most of my life, I lived here until I graduated from college, UH West O'Wah, who I started at UH Manoa, but that commute was just too much. I lived on campus my freshman year at Manoa and then moved back home and commuted and then I decided maybe I should go to school closer so I transferred to West O'Wah. But yes, I got my degree in public administration and I had thoughts of becoming an attorney, a corporate attorney. And I met this young man, young Marine from the Naval Academy. And that kind of changed everything. So but yes, after graduation, we relocated to Southern California. And that's where these guys come from. Yeah. Yes. But yeah, so I started my career in the insurance industry, commercial insurance. I was with Liberty Mutual for many years and then a brokerage firm in Southern California, Orange County. And then I had my second baby who was born with a little heart defect. And so we were blessed to be able to, I was able to be home with him. And I worked from home working with liability insurance so I could work from home and be a mom. It was tough, but yes, it worked out fine. And then he had a surgery when he was about, how old were you? Just right after a year old, 14 months at Loma Linda International Heart. Needless to say, Papa was a basket case. He's great. You can see. So tell us about you, since you've all grown up. Yes. Well, as my mom said, was born in Orange, California. This is Alec for just in case. Yeah. Born in Orange, California, lived there for a couple of years and we moved cross-country in a Penske truck all the way across many states. Before cell phone, before Game Boys, counting sheep on the side. Yes. Um, we moved to California or to Orlando, Florida in 2000, September of 2000. Austin and I grew up. It's kind of where I claim my hometown to be, Orlando, Florida. And then we went to school together, Catholic school, kindergarten through eighth grade. And then that is where I differed from Austin. I actually went to a boarding school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, all boys boarding school, which was such a great decision. I got a scholarship to go there after education for both of us. I'm sure such a big thing that my mom and my dad instilled in us is as education is uplift. So loved learning, went to this boarding school, had a great time. And what's the name of the school? It's called the Macaulay School. I actually have my class ring on. Oh, yes, Macaulay School, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Chattanooga, Tennessee. That's a strange place, but OK. Very close to Atlanta, but definitely at first I was like a boarding school in Tennessee. Why would I go there? But we're doing beautiful campus, beautiful school, awesome teachers, state-of-the-art facilities. So I had a wonderful time there. Oh, you've got interest to music. There's a theater there. Yes. So music and theater. Yes, that's kind of. So I love dancing since I was a little kid. And I started in my first few musicals in high school. Did Annie and Hairspray and Footloose, to name a few, did a lot of choreography through there. Did you teach choreography? Yes. So I got to one of the most fun experiences that I had in high school was was my senior year. We were doing Footloose, the musical, which is, you don't know, Footloose is a big musical about dancing. The main plot is about dancing. And so I got to work with our choreographer who had been on Broadway before. And a couple of shows. So we worked together to create choreography for the show. Really fun. So now you're going to Broadway to create? I wish, I wish. Now I'm teaching in the classroom, which I am a musical teacher now. And so I teach, we were actually learning about music right now. So learning about all kinds of instruments and music making and voices and dancing and singing. This is preschool, you said? Yes. Yes. And those are the little ones. The little ones, three to five years old. Yes, they are. They're a world. Now this is in Chicago? In Chicago. And the south side of Chicago, it's a community called Gage Park, predominantly Mexican neighborhood. So my students are black, Puerto Rican and Mexican. And what about language? Language. So I speak, I'm proficient in Spanish. I got to spend some time in college abroad in Spain in Sevilla, where I studied Spanish and minored in Spanish and majored in communications at the University of Pennsylvania. But so my dad speaks Spanish as well. So I learned it more in high school once I started studying it and then in college. And then I was almost fluent, I would say, when I studied abroad in Spain. But now I'm more proficient, but I speak to some of my students in Spanish. And then some of the parents only speak Spanish. I'll speak to them in Spanish as well. So now, because you've got this classic Spanish and now you've got kids from Mexico who have a different dialect, so how does that work? So it's similar in a lot of the kind of formal Spanish that I use, but it differs in a lot of the vocabulary and kind of things that you use that are less the more informal speaking. I've learned a lot of words and different vocabulary that I use that are very normalized in the Mexican culture that I didn't have really any grasp of at first. So the kids love the fact that you, and so the other kids that don't speak have learned the language. Yeah, they learn too, because there's different things that I might, if I say, I'm here, I sit down, or it's time to go to NAB, they can understand. And sometimes they'll even say where it's back in Spanish, even though they don't have that background at home in Spanish, but it's kind of a very multicultural classroom which has been so great to have. That's fabulous, yeah. So, now, big brother, big brother, yeah, brother. Oh, you figured that one out, you had a little time you've been here, yes. I learned some of the vernacular. So tell us all about you. So you heard a little bit of my background from my brother and my mother, but you know, born in Orange County, California, you know, 20 minutes from Disney World, went across the country to move 20 minutes from Disneyland to Disney World. In Orlando, Florida. And it was a great childhood, like my brother said, he focused on, he just had to focus on education and bringing home good grades, otherwise I wasn't allowed to go to sports practice or hang out with my friends. Well, now you look like sports practice. I mean, that's, that build, yeah. Yes, yes. Well, I was an athlete growing up, I spent Sundays, I remember playing baseball from 12 noon to like 6 p.m. at night. They're just such a big part of my life growing up. And you know, when I got to high school, I was a three-sport athlete and I ended up, you know, kind of the athlete of the year. What do you mean three-sport? Three-sport, so I played football, varsity football, I played basketball and I played baseball all throughout my time at, I went to a school called the First Academy at private school in Orlando, Florida. So then once I graduated, I, you know, wanted to study business. I went to kind of a camp called the lead program at the University of Virginia. And I heard it talk from the former chief financial officer of Major League Baseball who was black. And he talked about some of the urban initiatives he was doing in Major League Baseball and his background being, you know, an accountant. And I thought, you know, I may not be the next LeBron James or Derek Jeter, my favorite athletes, but I could still affect the game or sports in a positive way even while not playing it. So I ended up going to a school in Philly, University of Pennsylvania as Wharton School. And there I studied the principles of business, economics, finance. And I also became president of the Undergraduate Sports Business Club. I was able to help students who were interested in sports kind of pursue a niche industry. It's not industry where a lot of people are kind of going into, there's not formalized programs. It's tough, it's all about knowing people and developing relationships that kind of helped facilitate that in my time while in college. And so now I kind of work at Morgan Stanley. Kind of. Yeah, kind of. I do work at Morgan Stanley. Yeah, and that's an impressive title, come on. Yes, yes, it's a, so. So what is the title? So right now I'm an assistant vice president, which is Morgan Stanley. Co-sort, kind of. So I started out as an analyst. So I started as an intern in my sophomore after my junior year in college. And then I was able to come back as a full-time analyst and then work my way up to an associate. And now I was just recently promoted to assistant vice president within my group. I work in a group called Private Wealth Management. Basically there are about, there are 500 advisors around the country that manage the wealth of wealthy families, family offices and such. And I kind of work on a strategic function where we kind of help grow the business forward. You know, I plan to take my current, what I'm learning into the strategy and growing businesses and take that into the sports industry and connecting what I learned and my passion from when I was younger, particularly kind of in a league like the NBA or the NFL, for example. And one thing I'm really passionate about is, and why I really, I started working at Morgan Stanley was I saw a documentary where athletes don't really know how to manage money. There's not a lot of financial literacy and how do we kind of close that gap. And so athletes focus beyond their career, which is often very short and focus on life beyond their career and managing their money for their jobs after their career and kind of providing for their families, et cetera. So I really want to focus on that once I enter the sports industry in the long term. So yeah, like you said, they get this million dollar signing bonus and then what? Yes, exactly. So they get a signing bonus and they're in the NFL, their contract is maybe two, three years and they only get paid for 17 weeks of the season. So, you know- What do you mean 17? So there's 17 weeks in the season of the NFL, but they have to kind of, they don't get paid for the rest of the 52. Even though they've got this contract. You know, they got this million dollar contract. So they got to make that money last for 17 weeks throughout the rest of the year. And so a lot of players kind of think, in the short term and out of the long term, how are we going to make this money last? How am I going to position myself to, you know, grow beyond my career and set myself up for a career beyond sports? Cause sports only last two or three years. For example, my job at Morgan's Center could last, you know, until I'm 60 years old. Well, that's hope so. That's hope so. Your uncle, cousin, Russ? Russ there. Cousin. Cousin, Russell. Russell Joyner. Yes, yes. Did you know Russ? Yes, I did know Russ. And he's a perfect example where he played in Boston College, played in the NFL very briefly, but he had a very successful career beyond sports. And that's kind of like how a model of how you can position your sports career, your notoriety, your investments and parlay that into a successful career beyond sports. Well, he was, he was very successful. Yes. Yeah, every time we watch the Oscars and we think, oh, he built that. You know, that was, he was a project manager when they redid all of that. Yes, yes. The codec. Yeah. And he sent me the brochure when he was just beginning and I taught, taught it around everybody. See, this is what Russ did. It's our nephew. Yeah, this is sweetheart. We need to take a break. And when we come back, we'll talk some more about where you're going from here. Okay, we'll be right back. Aloha and welcome to At the Crossroads. I'm your host, Keisha King. You can catch me every Wednesday, live at five. I'll see you there. Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, host of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. My show is based on my book also titled Beyond the Lines and it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership and finding greatness. I interview guests who are successful in business, sports and life, which is sure to inspire you in finding your greatness. Join me every Monday as we go Beyond the Lines at 11 a.m. Aloha. I'm Jay Fidel of Think Tech. Our flagship energy show among the six energy shows we have is Hawaii, The State of Clean Energy. It plays every Wednesday at 4 p.m. Come around and see us. Learn about energy, keep current on energy on ThinkTechHawaii.com. Aloha. I'm Marsha and we're back. And today I'm being tutu. And I want you to meet my beautiful family and we'll start with this big handsome one on the end. So tell us again. So anybody that's tuning in late, tell us your name. My name is Austin Josiah and I'm currently, I work at Morgan Stanley. And my name is Alec Jordan Kayla, Josiah. And I'm currently a preschool teacher for Teach for America, which is an American program. Yes, American program. And that's real special. Yes, yes. Been an awesome two years so far teaching and learning from so many other great teachers and people who are involved in the AmeriCorps and Teach for America. Tell us more about AmeriCorps. So yes, AmeriCorps is a program to the government and there's many different programs. The two that I'm or the one that I'm more familiar with of course is Teach for America. There's another program that a lot of people will do after they graduate college and then go into Teach for America where they kind of are associate teachers where they help with tutoring and different things but Teach for America is kind of one of the bigger AmeriCorps programs. Yeah, so after I graduated from, before I graduated from University of Pennsylvania was figuring out what I wanted to do and talked to some of the different recruiters from Teach for America. And it seemed like such a great idea. I had background in teaching dance to a program called City Step Pennsylvania and which we kind of tutor and mentor students through the arts and some of the youth in Philadelphia and South Philly and West Philadelphia. We teach dance and arts and so many different other things about our surrounding identity and race and different things like that. So I decided to do Teach for America in Chicago and it's been a wonderful time. It's been cold for sure as a Florida boy but it's been a wonderful experience. So let's go to your mama here. A real comma, Aina. Yes. A real comma, Aina. And then we'll come back and talk some more about AmeriCorps and that's exciting. Yeah. Andrea, darling. Yes. So what are you doing now? That they're all grown up and gone. So yeah, so I'm trying to reinvent myself as a woman, empty nester in Orlando, Florida and I left my career recently in higher education. I was traveling quite a bit and I was living in hotels more than I was at home. And so I always knew that I would go back to my insurance career and so I had that opportunity that for my license, my life health and variable annuity license. And now I'm working with seniors and helping them get insured through Medicare Advantage. And there's original Medicare and then there's certain additional benefits through Medicare Advantage. So I'm affiliated with a local agency and in addition to that, I also do critical care, disability accident with another firm as well. And what else do I do? I'm a beauty consultant. Okay, well, that works. Yeah, that works. So I get to work with young women and inspire them other opportunities and so they can continue being stay-at-home moms or students, et cetera and be their own boss and have their own business and not have to worry about the typical nine to five job where they have to have a babysitter or nanny like I had when I was a young mother. So what's it like living after living here and then living in Florida? What's that like? Well, a lot of people think that, oh, Florida is just like Hawaii, isn't it? And it is not. It is hot about 10 months of the year and not only hot, but it is extremely humid. So when I first married my husband, who is from Florida, I said, I'll come and visit your family. They gave us a reception after I had a very large Hawaiian wedding. Yes. And I went to the beauty salon in the local area in Titusville and they just did not know how to deal with my hair. I had kind of the Tina Turner look at that time in the early 80s, so we kind of made it work. But yes, and the little house that my husband grew up in did not have air conditioning. We stayed there just for a couple of days and then we moved elsewhere. Where they had air conditioning, yes. So let me tell you a bit about their father. Not that I knew him well, but we did meet. Yes, we did meet. But what I wanted to say about that, because in Hawaii this is special and that is he is Panamanian. So, I know, and in Hawaii, everybody talks about their ethnic background. So I just wanted to put that out there. So last evening, we went to Carnival with Adela Chu. And Adela is from Panama. So I told her we were coming, we were going to bring them and she was really excited about meeting them. And Alec got to talk to her Adela in her language. Oh, yes, she was absolutely delighted to meet them. Yes, when we met her, she was beaming for a few years. Smiling ear to ear, yes. Yes, yes. Very happy. She was so happy to see them, to meet them, to get to know them, yes, because she, you know... We're hoping one day to visit. We have never been to Panama, unfortunately. Yes. We'll get there. And their great-grandfather worked on the canal. So originally from Antigua and immigrated to help build the canal. The canal, yeah. And so I was telling Adela that she was looking forward to meeting them. So they got to dance and sing and do all the things you do at Carnival. Very enjoyable. Yes. But she was so happy to meet you. So now, tell us where I wanted to go with AmeriCorps. Because that is a government program that most people have no idea of the value, what it does, and what you get out of AmeriCorps. What's other than the satisfaction of teaching little kids? What else do you get from that? So, yes, it's a big part of the kind of the program for me through Teach for America is as a teacher in Illinois and in Chicago, they pay for part of my grad school degree. So right now I'm attending the Erickson Institute and I'm graduating in May with a degree of Masters of Science in Early Education. So they help us along with that, with scholarship money and with the grant. So you get to go out into the world without a big student debt. Yes, which is hard to do these days. It's very hard to do these jobs. Yes, it is. Very grateful. Yes. Matt, what do you think of Chicago? Do you want to move? Do you want to stay? I want to... So when I first moved there, I was... Skeptical. Yes, a little bit skeptical. Thank you, Austin, of the city and mainly because of the weather and just being in a new place. And I'm kind of used to moving every couple of years. I've been to Florida, California, Tennessee, and now Philadelphia and then now Chicago, but I'm in love with the city. I feel like I get to working on the south, where my school is on the south side, where I live kind of on the west side now and then spend time in the loop, which is where downtown is in Chicago and then on the north side. So I've got... I've had a lot of experience and time to really explore the city, beautiful city, but it's like many cities, there's a lot of different things going on. And so I work in the south side, which a lot of media coverage and things that are not necessarily true. Yes. And so there's a lot going on in Chicago and some not so great things. And so I work in a low-income area of the south side of Chicago and the west side close to the airport. And so what's been so awesome for me is something that I grew up with and thought about as a teacher now is that I didn't get to see through media and through the books that I read and through the teachers that I had, people that looked like me. And so that was such a big part of what I wanted to do as a teacher in Chicago was to mentor and be the kind of the second teachers and work with the family and the students as they begin their education. Such a pivotal and crucial moment in preschool, which people kind of don't realize they kind of pass it off. Oh, it's just daycare, but it's so much more because it's the beginnings of so many of literacy and math and physical, different physical objectives and so many other things that are necessary to kind of set that foundation of education. And so having, being able to speak Spanish to my students and to bring out their culture and for my culture to kind of be a window for some of them and for their culture to kind of be a mirror or for me speaking Spanish to them and bringing out their culture to be a mirror for them. So it's been such a rewarding experience all around. It's fabulous. I'm so proud of you. Thank you. Now, tell us about this big handsome guy here on the end. Living in New York with Morgan Stanley. Now, that's quite, what can you say, a dichotomy. Yes. Yes. Yes. So living in New York, you know, when I first got there, a lot of the students from where we went to school moved to New York. So at least I had a good amount of friends. We actually lived with three other roommates. We all graduated from Penn Together in 2015. Now, let me stop you right there where he says, you know, they went to Wharton School of Business and Mr. Trump always says that he went to Wharton and I can't believe with the kind of credentials and what Wharton stands for that he graduated. Did he? I don't really think so. Okay. All right. Well, it's just, okay, that's enough of that. So go ahead. But yeah, New York is one of the best cities in the world. Obviously, people will literally, you know, drop everything that go move there without a job and just experience all the great things about New York. I moved to New York kind of like a bit skeptical, you know, from Southern California and in Florida, people are kind of a bit more relaxed, the South, a lot of these are sunny, but it's great because there's just so many cultures all packed in together and so many different things that I've experienced, you know, in my time there from, you know, whether it's the Hispanic culture up north where I'm in because I live in Harlem. I live off near 116th Street, which is like a little Africa Street or a little Senegal. And I get my hair cut by a Senegalese guy. That used to be Spanish Harlem. Yes, yes, Spanish Harlem on the east side. Yeah. But now it's Senegal, you said. Well, the 116th Street part of it. Yeah, it's Senegal. But it's just so great. It's very dynamic, you know, a lot of young energy that's in the city which really what I've really found interesting is so many people are passionate beyond their kind of day to day jobs. There's so many different things to get involved with in the city. For example, I'm part of what's called Harlem RBI. I now called formerly called Harlem RBI, now called Dream. Basically, it's a school and organization to help students kind of mentor and learn school through baseball through softball, T-ball, for example. And I've kind of helped coach kids and kind of teach them baseball fundamentals, also life lessons, kind of my free time. And that's just the small example of all the different things that people are involved in. How do you have free time when you're with Morgan Stanley? You know, I have a couple of hours on the weekend to volunteer my time. But I think one thing that I've done, even in my time with Morgan Stanley, is how do we get people, kind of like my brother described, people that look like us into these positions? Because obviously, when I get into a board room, for example, where I get into a meeting, I'm the only person of color. And I'm just really passionate about getting people like me who didn't really know about finance, about business, in high school and in middle school, to kind of help start their pipeline from that time to end up into, I mean, like Morgan Stanley or into corporate America. And so I'm involved with different mentorship programs. In fact, I'm going to back to my college to recruit. And I have a really good relationship with the Black Ward Undergraduate Association at Penn. And it's really important to me to kind of get more people, because I didn't really have an idea when I was in college that, oh, I can work at these companies, but I'm kind of proud to find it through myself. I want to help, you know, find that pipeline for other people in college. So there's no problem with moving up the line at Morgan Stanley? It's tough. I say it's tougher than, you know, the average person. What I've done is it's kind of really important to create like an alliance and mentors and sponsors. And I have a mentor who's, you know, who's black and he's going to help me navigate the firm and people I need to talk to, the different steps I need to take, what the skills I need to bring to the table, you know, shaving every day. I didn't need to shave this morning. Not at work on vacation. But I think those kind of things are really, really important for people of color who don't have those examples all the time. You've got to help navigate the firm and, you know, go reach beyond the analyst, you know, associate more junior levels of the firm. That's fabulous. That's absolutely fabulous. Well, they're telling me that we're out of time. Aww. Yes. So when are you coming back? Sooner than later. I have not enough time here. Yeah, this is not enough time. I'm coming back, you know, they came for, they came for their grandfather's 88th birthday, which was a surprise. For them, for him. Right, yes, absolutely. And everybody knows that I talk all the time and it was hard for me to keep that quiet. I mean, it was really hard. It was really hard. So when will you be back? Especially the two of you. In fact, you can, we can talk again long distance because, you know, this is the new generation, so we can talk to you long distance. But I am interested in talking to you together and separately as you move up in your, where you want to go with these other students because if we can talk, if we can show, then that people that look like us can absolutely do this and it's a window, I guess it is the right word for it. So other people can see and especially, I don't know, it's been so long since I've had anybody in school, but if they teach economics and in middle school, I don't know, do they? They don't, but they can. They should, they should. How do you balance a checkbook and what is a credit card? Basics, yes. Literacy. So I'm asking you will come back. You will talk to us again. Yes, absolutely. Because this is exciting and it's really, and of course I am being too, too, today. After being here for a couple of days, it makes me realize that I miss home. Yeah, of course. Move back, sooner than later. Well, you have all the credentials to take it with you whenever you're ready to come home. Yes, absolutely. Yes, yeah. Again, thank you for spending this time with us. Thank you. And we will see you next time. Aloha.