The Story Behind It TECHS a Village (ITAV)
People often ask if It TECHS a Village (ITAV) is part of the RISE Program.
The answer is no.
RISE is an important partnership, but ITAV's story began years before RISE existed. In fact, the seeds of ITAV were planted long before I even knew what the village would become.
Looking back now, I can see that God was weaving together experiences, relationships, and opportunities that would eventually converge into one mission: helping people thrive in an increasingly digital world.
The Early Years: Learning to Build Community
After earning degrees in Business and Computer Information Systems, I began my career as a corporate trainer with a global telecommunications company. Those years taught me how adults learn, how organizations change, and how technology can transform the way people work.
After completing my MBA, I founded the Virtuous Businesswomen's Network (VBN) in 2014 while raising my young son at home. At the time, I believed I was simply creating an online community for Christian women entrepreneurs.
In reality, God was teaching me something much deeper.
He was teaching me how to build communities of learning, encourage growth, and connect people around a shared purpose. Those lessons would become the foundation for everything that followed.
Discovering My Assignment
When my son entered school, I began volunteering in his classrooms to help teachers integrate technology into instruction. Schools were introducing Chromebooks and cloud-based learning, and I quickly noticed that everyone was learning at the same time.
Teachers were adapting to new instructional tools.
Parents were trying to support homework they didn't fully understand.
Students were navigating an entirely new way of learning.
It became obvious that technology wasn't just changing classrooms, it was changing education itself.
Wanting to better serve that need, I earned my Google for Education Certified Trainer certification in June 2017.
That certification opened doors I never could have imagined.
I began providing workshops for schools, libraries, nonprofit organizations, community centers, and small business groups. Much of the work was voluntary because I believed that digital literacy should not be limited to those who could afford professional training.
Later that same year, Harper College invited me to join its Continuing Education faculty as a Computer Program Instructor, developing curriculum and teaching Google applications to educators and working adults.
The work continued to grow.
So did my understanding of the problem.
Around that time, I began seeing firsthand what people called "the digital divide".
It wasn't simply about access to technology.
It was about opportunity.
It affected learning, employment, communication, and economic mobility. Behind every statistic were real people trying to keep up with a rapidly changing world.
It was during this season that the phrase It TECHS a Village first came to my mind. Inspired by the familiar saying, "It takes a village to raise a child," I began imagining a future where preparing people for a digital world would require an entire community working together. At the time, I thought it might become the title of a book. I had no idea it would eventually become something much bigger.
Beyond the Classroom
In 2018, Google expanded Google for Education access to homeschool families. Recognizing the significance of that moment, I reached out to Joyce Burges, co-founder of the National Black Home Educators (NBHE), and proposed a partnership as her Google for Education Certified Trainer for homeschools. Together we launched Parents as Teachers at Home (PATH), helping homeschool families integrate Google for Education into their learning environments.
That experience confirmed something I had already begun to believe. Preparing young people for the future was never going to be the responsibility of schools alone.
Parents needed support.
Homeschool families needed support.
Community organizations needed support.
Faith communities needed support.
The entire village needed support.
When the World Changed
Then came 2020.
Almost overnight, every home became a classroom.
The digital divide that many educators had quietly observed suddenly became visible to everyone. Students without devices, internet access, or digital skills found themselves at an immediate disadvantage. Families struggled to navigate online learning. Educators worked tirelessly to reinvent instruction.
In response, I founded ADVScholars, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping bridge the digital learning divide for underserved K–12 students. Through this nonprofit, I also became a Grow with Google Partner and was awarded 500 Google Career Certificate Scholarships. This is the organization through which the Google scholarships were distributed to my organization, NBHE and the nonprofit community organizations through which I partner and provide training, such as RISE Tech Immersion & Computer Literacy participants, PLCCA workforce development participants and more.
That same year, I submitted my application for the Google for Education Certified Innovator program. My innovation project centered around one question: What if there were a learning ecosystem that supported students and the adults who support them—not just during school hours, but every day?
Although I was not accepted into the Innovator program until 2024, the vision itself never left me.
Building the Village
In 2021, Dr. Eddie Kornegay invited me to serve as curriculum designer and lead facilitator for the RISE Tech Immersion Program, an Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) violence prevention initiative.
Alongside outstanding instructors like Minister Shamichael Hallman of Code for the Kingdom and Alton Glass, CEO of GRX Immersive Labs, we began helping youth and adults in the community discover technology, coding, digital media, and career pathways through this grassroots online program.
Around the same time, I began teaching workforce development courses through PLCCA's WIOA program, helping adults strengthen the digital skills needed for today's workforce.
Later, after graduating from the Joseph Business School, I returned as a technology instructor and now also serve as an alumni speaker at the annual Business and Leadership Conference hosted by Bill Winston Ministries.
As the community needs continued to grow, I partnered again with RISE to design, launch, and teach its first Computer Literacy Program, helping adults build the comprehensive foundational digital skills needed for today's workforce and business development.
Each opportunity served a different audience. Yet every audience was asking for the same thing: "How do we keep learning after this program ends?"
Why ITAV Exists
Eventually I realized something remarkable.
The people I was serving came from everywhere.
Some first met me through Harper College.
Others through RISE.
Others through Joseph Business School.
Others through homeschool organizations.
Others through Google Career Certificate scholarships.
Others because I had built their websites or presented at their conferences.
Although they entered through different doors, they all shared the same need.
And technology continued to advance and evolve.
They wanted and needed a trusted place to continue learning.
But subsequently, every initiative eventually came to an end.
Grants expired and classes canceled.
Workshops concluded.
Business cycles changed.
Students graduated.
But people's need to grow never stopped.
They needed a community that wasn't a one-off event or limited by a grant, a semester, or a conference schedule.
That is when I created an online community and invited any and everyone in my circles and networks that wanted to be involved on a continual learning basis. This became It TECHS a Village (ITAV).
More Than a Program
ITAV is not a grant-funded initiative.
It is not owned by one organization.
It is not limited to one audience.
ITAV is a year-round learning community built on one simple conviction: Preparing people for today's digital world takes an entire village.
Our village includes educators, parents, homeschool leaders, ministry leaders, nonprofit organizations, workforce development partners, entrepreneurs, scholarship recipients, aspiring authors, small business owners, and lifelong learners.
We encourage career certificate completion.
We prepare educators to earn professional certifications.
We support organizations that want to expand digital opportunity.
We help entrepreneurs strengthen their digital presence.
We encourage new authors.
Most importantly, we create a place where people can continue growing together long after a single class or program has ended.
Our goal is to become a trusted hub where individuals and organizations can find the resources, relationships, encouragement, and support they need to thrive in an ever-changing digital world.
Looking Ahead
Years ago, I thought It TECHS a Village would simply become the title of a book.
Today I understand that it became the philosophy behind my life's work.
Preparing young people for tomorrow is not the responsibility of one teacher, one school, one parent, or one program.
It requires an entire ecosystem working together.
Parents.
Educators.
Homeschool leaders.
Community organizations.
Faith communities.
Businesses.
Workforce partners.
Technology leaders.
When the entire village grows, our young people grow with it.
Because now, more than ever... It really does take a village.
And today, that village TECHS our communities.
And I invite you to find your place in the community.