DIG LIFE Origin Story: Meet The Founder

Origin Story: Meet The Founder 

A graduate of Langston University in Oklahoma Eric earned his Bachelor’s in Broadcast Journalism and is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. Eric founded Dreamz Into Goals (DIG LIFE) in the Spring of 2021. His passion for giving started at an early age watching his mother give to the community in Oklahoma City. A resident of Long Beach, Eric draws from his personal experience and his goal to decrease the digital divide by bringing tech to urban youth by giving out laptops, spotlighting, trading, and coding. All of which he considers the source of financial freedom and intellectual empowerment..

THE STORY

While pledging my fraternity we had to do community service and there was this child at the local Salvation Army where i1 decided to do my community service hours.  Well I went for a couple of weeks and taught the children to juggle. This young man got it pretty good.. As a 19 year old young man myself and juggling school and football practice it was hard to be consistent and eventually after midterms and spring ball when I went back to visit the young man i was told he was gone and not coming back and that he and looked for me for about two weeks  before he decide not to come back.  This lit a fire under me to be consistent and to give with heart.  I never wanted to have that feeling again. 

After graduation I moved to Los Angeles where I met Ken Sagoes (Nightmare On Elm Street) . He has a Non-Profit organization and invited me to join. I felt like it was my time for redemption.  Once I joined the organization I quickly rose in the ranks and became the first Head of the Junior Board. We gave out scholarships and produced stage plays with the likes of Loretta Divine, Marla Gibbs and the Late Tommy (Mikal) Ford to name a few.  It was an honor to have this title and the scholarship program DIG LIFE  uses that model to this day with the BIGG SIXX Schoalrship program.  Even though the organization was doing great work I just wanted to do more. 

Then I met Duran Bowie who is the Founder of the non-profit I’m a Movement not a Monument.  We hit the ground running for about 10 years. I became the chairman of the board and we did backpack giveaways, and toy drives. Thanksgiving and halloween events for our students and their families.  Not to mention a very successful tutoring program.  As always looking for ways to expand and grow, I wanted to do more so I started to give out Laptops to the students. I wanted to help with the digital divide and give the urban youth the chance at computers early in life. After the fourth giveaway Duran suggested I start my own non-profit  and later that Year I started DIG LIFE.

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