College of LAS alumna Britney Robbins is transforming entrepreneurship through her non-profit organization The Gray Matter Experience.
In 2016, Robbins (BA, ’10, rhetoric/creative writing) founded the organization at the age of 28 with the goal of helping Black high school students in Chicago to learn about and practice entrepreneurship. Within her programs, Gray Matter students learn about entrepreneurship, finance, sales, marketing and social impact. They then pitch their ideas to professionals to win funding to launch their business in the real world. The organization instills confidence in Black youth to chase their passions.
At its core, this program confronts the challenges entrepreneurs of color face: access, lack of funding, and biased systems that discard and discredit market opportunities due to a lack of cultural context, explained Chika Umeadi, board member for the Gray Matter Experience.
For her work, Robbins has been named a 2023 LAS Outstanding Young Alumni Awardee.
“I’m humbled; it’s so unexpected,” Robbins said about receiving the award. “But it’s a testament to how hard we’ve worked and the value of the work we are doing.”
Robbins admits that it may seem that her degree in creative writing may not obviously relate to the impactful work she is doing now, but Illinois was the launching pad for her network and independence.
“Going to college was the first time I was able to experience independence and that catapulted me into who I became,” Robbins said. “I came from a small town, so I didn’t have a lot of exposure to career paths growing up. Writing was one thing I knew how to do - which is why I gravitated to the major I pursued. Once I was on campus, I was exposed to people from so many different places - that’s when I realized the world was so much bigger than what I had been exposed to. I really appreciated the exposure to diversity of thought and understood quickly, the power of building social capital.”
It was at Illinois where Robbins had her first Black female teacher and enrolled in her first African American studies course.
“There was someone who looked like me teaching a class about what I cared about – this exposure was incredibly important in my development,” Robbins explained. “I didn’t know then, but my experience was not unique. So many young people only know what they see. The work I’m doing now is so much a reflection of my own experience. We are helping expose young Black people to resources and networks that allow them to make decisions that will propel their futures forward.”
From publishing her own children’s book — “The Adventures of Buster and Duval: Buster’s Big Move” to becoming a recognized leader within Chicago’s technology and entrepreneur community, Robbins’ 13 years since graduation has been building to the point of big impact.
Umeadi, who nominated Robbins for the alumni award, explained that The Gray Matter Experience started with three programs with the capacity to reach 75 students. Today they reach more than 300 students each year.
“The exciting part of (Robbins’) work is that this is just the beginning,” Umeadi explained. “I can’t wait to see what the next six years look like for (Robbins) and The Gray Matter Experience. (Robbins) had an audacious goal of transforming the way entrepreneurship was taught and how support was given to entrepreneurs of color. She conceived the concept for the Gray Matter Experience to tackle a hairy and nebulous problem in her community, and she started with her own sweat equity to force this solution into reality.”
“While Robbins aims to instill confidence in Black teens to chase their passions, she has a greater goal – to build a strong, unified Black business community across the city.”
