Joseph Business School Officially Launches Five-Year Initiative to Help 100,000 Entrepreneurs Build Million-Dollar Companies, Aiming to Uplift Underserved Communities Globally

Following Traditional Business Practices and Biblical Principles, Chicago Area Christian-based School Believes Businesses Will Uplift Underserved Communities Around the World

FOREST PARK, Ill., July 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Wharton, Stanford, Booth, Kellogg, Sloan, and Harvard may be renowned for producing future global business leaders. Still, the Joseph Business School (JBS), nestled in this village five miles west of Chicago, is poised to make a significant mark. Today, the world-class institution, located inside a once-abandoned shopping mall at 7600 Roosevelt Road that also houses a state-of-the-art worship center, a technology hub, an education institution, a business incubator, and a thriving shopping plaza, officially launched today a monumental campaign that will rival the best of what any elite school offers and reshape the global business landscape.

Under the leadership of Dr. Deloris Thomas, an MBA graduate from Harvard School of Business, this unique Christian institution, the brainchild of Dr. Bill Winston, a renowned visionary leader and evangelist, has embarked on a distinctive five-year mission to assist 100,000 entrepreneurs in scaling their businesses to a remarkable $1 million.

"We believe we are about to make a huge impact in Black and Brown communities," said Dr. Thomas, president of JBS, noting the campaign's reach will be global. "We found that 80 percent of our U.S. entrepreneurs reinvest in the communities where they come from and hire within the community, and their businesses outperform the national average. This makes it the opportune time for us to be serious about eradicating poverty and changing conditions in our community."

Named after Joseph, the creative problem solver, innovator, and trader in the Bible, The Joseph Business School was founded in 1999 by Dr. Winston and established by Ray Thomas and his wife, Dr. Deloris Thomas. Dr. Winston, a former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and graduate of what is now Tuskegee University, and Mr. Thomas, who graduated from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, met at IBM. But as they ascended the corporate ladder, they were called into the ministry. As Dr. Winston's ministry grew, so did his vision of expanding the church beyond the sanctuary. To help eradicate poverty and create generational wealth using Biblical and practical principles, JBS was established. The school is deeply committed to its faith-based education and community development and welcomes students committed to this noble mission.

Michael Reed, a real estate investor from a suburb southwest of Chicago, graduated from JBS in June, following the footsteps of his mother, Patricia Grant, who graduated from the school more than a decade earlier. Before Ms. Grant was 18, she gave birth to Mr. Reed and his sister. She dreamed of living on Chicago's Gold Coast, the gleaming high-rise apartments and office towers where some of the city's rich, influential, and powerful lived and worked. From her apartment, she had a direct view of life on the other side of the economic strata. One day, while pushing her children in a stroller from her mother's apartment in the complex, known for drugs and homicides, she started crying and praying and visualizing, "Lord, there has to be more to life than this. What is life like over there? How do people get there?"

Three decades later, she enrolled in JBS to learn how to expand her investment portfolio, which included a rental property in Indianapolis. Guided by JBS faculty, she acquired many additional properties, including a large farm in Illinois, where her vision is to build affordable housing.

Her plan also included supporting her son's real estate company.

"My goal was to own my first investment property before I turned 30," Mr. Reed said. "Today, nearly 15 years later, I am up to 47 units (including 13 townhouses)."

Ms. Grant added, "He (The Lord) can do anything with anybody. We have the ability inside to do anything, and that is what works me up."

Dr. Thomas said the Grant/Reed story is about generational success. "It's what we do within the school," she said. "We help them understand that the traditional system is about maximizing in the business world. We help our entrepreneurs to understand that the mission is bigger than the mission of one, and it is bigger than just for this generation; it is multi-generational, and what we do is to help them see that God has big plans and can plant big visions in them. And the school is an example. We have trained thousands of entrepreneurs to become successful, and now we are ready to train 100,000 more in the next five years."

This year marks JBS' 25^th anniversary. The school is also launching a $25 million campaign to provide full scholarships to students and entrepreneurs who enter programs to eradicate poverty, close the wealth gap, and turn desolate communities into Gardens of Eden.

"I tell my team, we are midwives," said Dr. Thomas, who said a study launched two years ago has already identified 50 JBS graduates who have become millionaires. "We bring these babies (businesses) and the visions these entrepreneurs have to make a difference in their communities into full term and to full birth because they do not have anyone to help them nurture and grow their ideas. The Joseph Business School believes entrepreneurialism is a key factor to economic growth, and entrepreneurs' ideas are key to any economy becoming a thriving economy. Dr. Winston says, "Poverty is not caused by a lack of resources but rather a lack of self-production." We believe we can help nurture the gifts evident in these underserved communities and turn them into entrepreneurial ventures whereby they can close the wealth gap in communities, their families, and the world."

For information about the Joseph Business School, visit the school's website at https://www.jbs.edu. To arrange an interview with Dr. Deloris Thomas and graduates, contact Jerry Thomas at (312) 804-7999 or [email protected]. Pictures and videos are available.

Contact: Jerry Thomas
Jerry Thomas Public Relations
[email protected]
(312) 804-7999

SOURCE Joseph Business School