Students First
Every decision we make as a company goes back to a core question: Does this help us help students? We put students first to maximize our impact.
Our Mission
For us, education is too vital to our society’s advancement to become reserved only for individuals from privileged economic backgrounds. Thus, we seek to ensure students are prepared with the knowledge needed to make the most informed decisions regarding how to make higher education affordable and gain the financial aid needed to offset costs and avoid heavy student debt burdens.
We envision a world where no student with the potential to gain higher education misses the opportunity simply due to economic circumstances. This is what drives us and we hope it inspires everyone we interact with to craft their own vision to make the world a more equitable and just place than they found it.
Our Founding
Before graduating from Kenwood Academy High School on Chicago’s Southside, Derrius Quarles became the first in his family to attend college after working tirelessly to secure over $1 million dollars in scholarships. In, 2009, Derrius began hosting free community workshops for low-income families in Chicago while attending Morehouse College. The appreciation and positive feedback received from parents was tremendous.
So in 2013, Derrius teamed up with classmate Ras Asan to found Million Dollar Scholar. Every year since 2013 Million Dollar Scholar has grown and today we partner with schools to deliver high impact guidance to their student bodies and provide mentor-driven one-on-one coaching to hundreds of families.
RECOGNITION FOR OUR COMMUNITY IMPACT
OUR COMPANY CORE VALUES
Do Business Differntly
We are a for-profit company driven to improve lives and show the world that without question, businesses seeking a return can be beacons of positive change.
Encourage Creativity
We don't think there is only one way to achieve the desired goal. Thus, we approach problems from multiple angles and attempt to think outside of tradition.
Be Accountable
To our customers, to our stakeholders, to our community, to ourselves – we understand that accountability is fundamental to good business.
Teams Make Dreams
Synergy is the universal principle that allows us to achieve more working collectively than working in isolation, thus teams achieve bigger dreams.
Celebration Required
Building a business is hard work. We believe in making a big deal of our small milestones to stay motivated in reaching towards the large ones.
BRIAN L. WILLIAMS
Director of Scholarship Coaching
Brian Williams is a self-aware and compassionate problem solver seeking to spur innovation within urban communities of color. He is a Gates Millennium and Coca-Cola Scholar who holds a degree in Economics (with a specialization in finance) from Morehouse College, where he graduated Cum Laude. Education was a value held highly by Brian’s ate late parents and in their honor, he has been a constant champion of education access and its ability can create change in the world.
RAS ASAN OLUGBENGA
Founder and Chief Growth Officer
Ras is originally from the Southeast Side of Cleveland, Ohio, a city known for its hustle and blue-collar grit. As a graduate of Morehouse College, Ras has always had an indelible passion to positively impact the world.
Immediately after graduation Ras partnered up with Morehouse classmate Derrius Quarles, to build Million Dollar Scholar. As a serial entrepreneur with a sociological background Ras he is also the Co-Founder at BREAUX and Company which is a private equity firm that owns and operates various social enterprises including BREAUX Capital, a cooperatively owned financial technology company for Black males and TechGroove Festival, a recruiting platform that “connects corporate to the culture”, via events gathering recent grads and young professionals and companies like, Mozilla, LinkedIn, and Tinder.
When Ras isn’t building companies or teaching clients how to pitch their company or hone their business model, he’s studying Traditional Islamic Medicine and Herbs, working towards becoming a certified herbalist.
DERRIUS QUARLES
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Experiencing poverty first-hand and navigating foster-care by the age of 5provided Derrius all the motivation he needed for building businesses. Since graduating from Morehouse College, Derrius has leveraged technology to grow multiple companies that are currently improving the lives of various marginalized groups.
His first book, Million Dollar Scholar: Winning The Scholarship Race has assisted thousands of students across the globe increase their knowledge of how to make higher education more affordable through scholarships and grants and my business ventures have collectively impacted the lives of over 15,000 marginalized youth in America.
In 2015, Derrius was honored by Barack Obama at the White House for his activism in expanding educational access and in 2017 he was named to Black Enterprise’s 100 Modern Men. Most recently, he and his business partners Ras and Brian were listed on Inc. Magazine’s 30 Under 30. He is an alumnus of the Chicago Scholars, Gates Millennium, Coca-Cola, Dell Scholars, Benjamin A. Gilman, and Horatio Alger Scholarship Programs.
COMPANY RELATIONS
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Derrius Quarles secured over $1 million dollars in scholarships and is on a mission to help others.
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