Photo Courtesy of Tom Jenz
Gabrielle Armon-Wickers
At the age of 22, Gabrielle Armon-Wickers stands at the crossroads of youth and ambition, a Black woman with a determination to carve her niche in the business world. Her journey, underscored by perseverance and tenacity, echoes the larger narrative of bridging the educational and financial divides faced by many students of color. If it weren’t for a scholarship grant, Gabrielle, a part time college student, might be stacking shelves at Walmart.
There are wide disparities in graduation rates from two- and four-year institutions between white students and students of color. Far too often, the imbalance is due to financial capacity. Several U.S. corporations are trying to bridge the equity gap through scholarship and grant programs.
Milwaukee’s Molson Coors invests in equity through its Celebrate Tomorrow initiative. Since 2020, the company has invested $6 million across the U.S. and Canada in BIPOC (AAPI, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Native American/Indigenous) communities.
On the local level, Molson Coors recently provided a $150,000 donation to Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) and Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). The money goes toward completion grants, providing aid to diverse and low-income students working toward college degrees.
One of the completion grants was awarded to Gabrielle Armon-Wickers, who is working toward an associate degree in Business at Milwaukee Area Technical College. She is in her second year.
As the only child in a single mom family, Armon-Wickers moved around a lot but attended schools on Milwaukee’s North Side. Through the eighth grade, she went to Believers in Christ Christian Academy, on 25th and Capitol, where students were primarily Black. They wore uniforms and had “praise and worship” sessions each morning. For high school, she went public, four years at Rufus King High School, graduating in 2019. She said, “The student body was quite diverse and kind of shocking for me, but that was a good learning experience.”
Smart, Adventurous, Ambitious
Armon-Wickers and I talked on Zoom. Through a wide smile, she speaks through mounting enthusiasm, her warmth gaining momentum. A natural leader, she is smart, adventurous, and ambitious. During the summer of her high school junior year, she was one of 100 students accepted from across America to spend 10 weeks at Princeton University in their Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America program.
In 2019, she graduated from Rufus King with honors, then went to the University of Richmond in Virginia as a full-ride Richmond Scholar. “I became the freshman class president,” she said, “and I started out doing a lot of social justice reforms. My goal was to promote acceptance for Black students.” But the outbreak of Covid shut down her college career, and she returned to Milwaukee and found a job in the business world. That’s when she discovered her love for business.
She started her own small marketing firm, helping other small business owners with their branding. She also hired on as a personal assistant to LaTonya Baker, who runs Generation of Excellence Trendsetters, one of Wisconsin’s leading prenatal care agencies. “I helped LaTonya develop marketing initiatives on the north side and south side campuses,” she explained. “Then, I enrolled at MATC (Milwaukee Area Technical College) to pursue a two-year degree in Business Management.”
For her first year, Armon-Wickers focused on business courses, but she struggled financially. In her second year, she was awarded the MATC Checota Scholarship that provides for full-ride financial support and other student needs. The Checota Scholarship is funded in part by the Molson Coors Celebrate Tomorrow completion grant initiative. For her associate degree, she is pursuing a double major, financial services and business management.
I was interested in specifics, namely how the Molson Coors completion grant helped support Gabrielle’s college education.
“I’ll give you an example,” she said. “A few weeks ago, my car was broken into. My wallet, my laptop computer and my books were all stolen. The Checota grant program gave me $1200 to replace the lost items, and that allowed me to keep on with school. The Checota scholarship also covers other expenses including tuition, some food and clothing, and financial aid. And there is a meal plan when I work at the campus. They also pay for my parking and partly provide my apartment rent.”
Currently, Armon-Wickers is doing an internship as a Financial Representative at Northwestern Mutual. I asked what she is learning from that experience.
“The intern job teaches me what it’s like to be a Financial Advisor at Northwestern Mutual,” she told me. “The way it works is the experienced Financial Advisors teach the interns about insurance and investments. I’m a Black woman who rarely sees Black people in the financial field, but the Northwestern people have been accepting. They make me comfortable working there.
“After I finish my degree at MATC,” she continued, “I am hoping to expand my consulting business. It’s called Go Get It LLC and includes branding and personal market tactics. For instance, popup shops and social media promotion.”
On Armon-Wickers’s LinkedIn site, I found this statement: “Continuing my education in financial services is imperative as a young Black woman hailing from Milwaukee. This educational pursuit is a beacon of hope, transcending the challenges I've faced due to my gender, race, and environment.’
I asked what challenges she had faced.
“As for environment,” she said, “I grew up in a single parent household, and I struggled with that condition while growing up. As for gender, I am unfortunately often the only woman in my MATC classes, and I’ve also experienced a number of microaggressions aimed at me because I am a woman in business. As for race, being Black in the city of Milwaukee has been difficult because of racism. I’ve even experienced trauma. But I don’t use my race as the reason I can’t do something. I refuse to let environment, gender, and race get in the way of the goals I have for myself.”
I closed our conversation by asking what the Molson Coors Scholarship grant had done for her.
“The Molson Coors Checota scholarship grant is allowing people like me the opportunity to live and not just have to survive,” she said. “I don’t have to worry about where my next meal is coming from, or if I have a place to stay. I can finally focus on my work as a student and not have to feel like I’m a low-income Black student.”
As Armon-Wickers continues her ascent in the business world, her story becomes a testament to individual triumph and also a rallying call for the corporate world to invest in underrepresented talents.
