Kashawn Sanders

President and CEO, Follow My Steps Foundation Inc.: Age 29

Kashawn Sanders

Kashawn Sanders says the inspiration for the Follow My Steps Foundation, the nonprofit organization he co-founded and now serves as president, CEO, and board chair, came from an experience in a class he was taking during his senior year at UMass Dartmouth.

“The professor tasked us with going out and getting an internship. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, we could hear our fellow students say, ‘I’m going to reach out to this person, or my uncle, or my cousin’ … we didn’t have any of those connections,” he said, referring to himself and classmate Tyrone Williams.

To help ensure that future generations of young people would not suffer that same experience, Sanders, a Springfield native, and Williams, from Boston, created Follow My Steps, which is dedicated to empowering youth through mentorship, career readiness, financial-literacy programs, scholarships, and more.

Summing it all up, Sanders, a financial advisor by trade, said the agency, founded in 2020 during COVID when he and Williams were thinking about what to do next and how to give back, is about providing resources to those who simply don’t have as many as those who are more fortunate.

“We created a customizable mentorship program that centers around the youth and their aspirations,” he noted. “We also work with them when it comes to financial literacy, we make sure there’s a health component that addresses both physical and mental health, and we add on additional resources, teaching them the importance of networking, the importance of getting out there early and understanding that there are people in the community they can look up to and talk to.”

Dawn Creighton, Community Outreach officer for Liberty Bank, who nominated Sanders for the 40 Under Forty, has worked with him on the agency’s Cultural Steps event, which provides participants with a diverse range of foods and introduction to various cultures, as well as a Credit for Life course, a financial-literacy module through which students embark a simulated journey through life.

She also appreciates that the mission of Follow My Steps is “personal” to Sanders.

“Having personally navigated the same challenges his organization seeks to address, he brings a lived understanding of the systemic obstacles that underserved youth face,” Creighton said.

While doing that, he spends the rest of his time reading, working out, and spending time with his partner, Kenia, and son KJ.

—George O’Brien