Pillar 03 · The educational institution of NewBWS
The Academy.
Highlander Folk School prepared the civil rights movement. The Academy is preparing the next one — the economic one. Personal finance. Entrepreneurship. Investing. AI literacy. Taught by practitioners who have done the work, integrated with the community that needs it.
Why the Academy exists
Education has always been how we built anything.
Before Greenwood had banks, it had schools. Before the civil rights movement had legislation, it had Highlander and HBCUs. Before Ujamaa was a principle of cooperative economics, it was a practice passed from elders to the next generation around dinner tables and porches.
The Academy is how NewBWS honors that tradition and carries it forward. Because a professional network is only as powerful as the people in it — and our community deserves to build that power on our own terms, with instruction from practitioners who look like us, taught alongside the network that can turn knowledge into capital.
The Academy is not content marketing. It is the institution.
Four tracks
What the Academy teaches.
Narrow but serious. Four tracks, each with depth and practitioners who teach from experience. Courses roll out through 2026 and 2027.
Personal Finance
First course ships Fall 2026
The foundations of wealth — budgeting, debt, savings, investing starter, generational wealth planning. Home to the Liberation Path financial-independence calculator and Ujamaa Accounting for small-business owners.
Tools in this track
- —Liberation Path calculator
- —Ujamaa Accounting
- —Generational wealth planner
Entrepreneurship
Launches Black History Month 2027
From first idea to scaled operator to exit. Real playbooks from founders who have done it — capital stacks that work, hiring when you have nothing, operational discipline, negotiating your first real deal, and knowing when to sell and when to hold.
Investing
Launches Black History Month 2027
Public markets, private markets, real estate, alternative assets. Not “invest in this stock” — how to think about capital allocation as a professional. Taught by Black fund managers, LPs, and angels who deploy capital for a living.
AI Literacy
Launches 2027
Understanding the technology reshaping every industry. What AI actually is, how to use it professionally, how to keep humans — and specifically our community — in the loop as this wave reshapes work and wealth.
What makes this different
The network is the classroom.
Taught by practitioners.
Not professors. Not pundits. The people teaching investing at the Academy are the fund managers, LPs, and angels who deploy capital every day. The people teaching entrepreneurship have built, scaled, and exited actual companies. Instruction comes from the work, not around it.
Integrated with the village.
Finish a course on raising your Series A. Get connected — warmly, by your instructor — to three Black fund managers writing that stage of check. That's the difference between content and institution. The Academy does not end at the last lesson. It opens into the network.
Member-owned.
Same golden-share governance as the rest of NewBWS. The Academy cannot be sold, cannot be redirected, cannot be pivoted into a content farm. What members help build stays for members who come next.
Built for permanence.
The Academy is designed to outlast its founders. Curriculum is versioned and owned by the community. Teaching rights rotate. No single person's departure ends an instruction track. This is how institutions last centuries.
How it ships
The Academy unfolds.
Juneteenth 2026
Vision public
The Academy page goes live with full curriculum vision, track previews, and waitlist. Instructor recruitment begins.
Fall 2026
First course ships
Liberation Path: Personal Finance Fundamentals — the first full course in the Personal Finance track. Available to private beta cohorts.
Black History Month 2027
Three tracks live
Personal Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Investing tracks open with initial course catalogs. Available to all platform members at launch.
Later 2027
Full Academy
AI literacy track launches. Live cohort sessions begin. Instructor marketplace opens to vetted members. Certifications roll out.
Build the Academy with us.
Teachers, curriculum designers, subject-matter experts, and sponsors all shape what the Academy becomes. If you want a hand in building the institution — not just using it — tell us how.
Note: NewBWS is a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation — sponsorship is not tax-deductible at this time. A separate 501(c)(3) arm may be formed later specifically for the Academy's educational mission.