Growing up in east Fort Worth’s Stop Six neighborhood, teenager Kaine Bivens was passionate about astronomy. He dreamed big — and beyond. He knew what he wanted to do.
“It’s to discover what’s undiscovered about space and the fundamentals of the universe,” said Bivens, who graduated from Fort Worth ISD’s Young Men’s Leadership Academy this year and plans on majoring in physics and applied mathematics at Harvard University this fall.
But it’s through a local group, Create + Collaborate, that he learned to put his whole self into charting out his future plans. He’s biracial and gay. He’s the son of a single mother who works as a cashier at Pizza Hut and juggles other jobs. She’s always encouraged her twin sons to prioritize education.
The group helped him craft his purpose, not only from where he’s going but where he’s from.
“But there’s also (a mission) to give back to my community. I want to found a STEM scholarship for queer and minority youth,” said Bivens.
Bivens was one of the 80 students attending a one-day leadership conference at Create + Collaborate, a Fort Worth nonprofit that provides support to students as they navigate college. Students learn about financial literacy, time management and tools for networking and “pioneering” their purpose.
“We can align ourselves with companies who have those same values,” said Bivens, explaining what he’s learned from the group. “From there, what they’ve taught us to do is just to put yourself out there, get in contact with them, and let them know what you’re about. Let them know what you intend to do, and see how they can help you with that.”
Create + Collaborate works with Dunbar High School, Eastern Hills High School, Young Women’s Leadership Academy and Young Men’s Leadership Academy to identify students who would benefit from the program. Students apply and once accepted attend a 12-week leadership program, where they build their confidence, their brand and learn how to cultivate self-reliance.
Ricquel Archer, the group’s founder and CEO, said the nonprofit is fulfilling an unmet need.
“We’re not college access. We’re college retention and college completion,” said Archer, who worked more than five years at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Tarrant County and was a first-generation college student. She reached out to others when she was starting the group.
“One principal said we do a great job getting students into (colleges), we have a hard time keeping them there,” she said.
And she doesn’t want participants in her program to become statistics. One in three first-generation college students drop out of college within the first three years, and less than 50% of first-generation students graduate on time, according to the group’s materials.
And a college degree leads to greater social mobility and higher paying jobs.. In Texas, 43.5% of college students are first-generation, according to Forbes. In Tarrant County, 34.4% of residents hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to the U.S. Census 2022 American Community Survey.
Students who have attended the program have gone on to Texas Christian University, Tarrant County College, University of Texas at Arlington, Northwestern University — and Harvard.
At the leadership conference in late July, students attended leadership workshops, shopped for dorm room essentials in a free pop-up shop provided by IKEA and other companies, and participated in a mock networking session with around 50 working professionals in industries ranging from finance to creative arts.
Networking with others has helped Hailey Hickman, a graduate of Young Women’s Leadership Academy who will begin studying nursing at TCU this fall. She identifies as an introvert, and she’s learned from the conference how “to create your own seat” at the table.
“You own the seat at the table by using your voice,” said Hickman, who is concerned about health outcomes for Black patients. “So one of the ways that I want to do that is by becoming a nurse and standing up for those patients when they say they have pain and the doctor does not listen to them.”
She’ll head into her freshman year with a vision and plan. She wants to become a registered nurse, then gain experience in the operating room and eventually earn her master’s degree and become a nurse practitioner.
Hickman decided to become a nurse from a young age. Her mother quit nursing school when she was pregnant with Hickman and never went back because she had to raise two kids. In a way, Hickman’s future is her mother’s dream, deferred.
“It’s my destiny to be what she couldn’t be,” said Hickman.