Michael Vick passes on importance of having good credit to Ypsilanti students
Michael Vick discusses credit and financial literacy with Ypsi students.
Michael Vick discusses the importance of teaching financial literacy at Ypsilanti Community High School in Ypsilanti on Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021.
BCIC founders Willie Johnson, left, and Lynwood Powell stand beside former NFL quarterback Michael Vick to speak with students about how to build credit at Ypsilanti Community High School in Ypsilanti on Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021.
BCIC founder Willie Johnson, left, former NFL quarterback Michael Vick and BCIC founder Lynwood Powell speak with students about how to build credit at Ypsilanti Community High School in Ypsilanti on Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021.
YPSILANTI, MI - Standing before a room of Ypsilanti Community High School student-athletes, former NFL quarterback Michael Vick asked his audience what they thought of a highlight reel of him playing on the projector behind them.
“Does it look like Lamar Jackson, or does Lamar Jackson look like me?” the former Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback joked, as students cheered inside the high school’s auditorium Thursday, Dec. 2.
While students were excited to be in the presence of someone who’s been on the cover of the Madden video game series, Vick wasn’t at Ypsilanti Community High School to mentor the next great NFL quarterback.
Instead, Vick challenged students to learn more about their personal finances, budgeting, investing and establishing good credit as a representative for the Bad Credit is Childish Academy. Vick spoke Thursday at Ypsilanti Community High School and Detroit Cass Technical High School to promote the new academy.
The academy was created by Ypsilanti natives Willie Johnson and Lynwood Powell with the intent of teaching high school and college students financial literacy - particularly those who play or plan to play collegiate sports. The academy plans to officially launch in December 2021.
Wanting to impress upon students the importance of financial literacy, Vick described some of his own challenges with money management early in his NFL career that led to him having bad credit.
“That’s something I’ve been through in my life, in terms of credit, whether it’s good credit or bad credit, and not really understanding what credit was really about,” Vick said. “Coming out of college when I was going to the National Football League you could have millions of dollars, but if you have bad credit, you’re still going to spend a lot of money. We all know what good credit can do for you and why it’s important to maintain it, so that’s the message.”
“The fact that I have struggled with this and still have to play clean up, catch up - this is something I can educate my kids on and hopefully they’ll educate their kids on this. It’s about getting this information and passing it on.”
As a part of the academy, the BCIC team gives back to the community by creating events with guests speakers to help motivate students to learn about finances. The team has also donated to several high school athletic teams and supported backpack initiatives in their home city and school district.
In working to build up their business, Powell and Johnson connected with Vick through a mutual friend, understanding the power he has to relate to student-athletes with his firsthand experiences as a brand ambassador.
The Bad Credit is Childish Academy, Johnson said, is the next step in expanding the business’ mission to educate the next generation about how to build good credit and save the money they earn.
“We’ve been doing credit restoration for a while, but we wanted to do something that strictly helps the kids,” said Johnson, a graduate of Belleville High School. “(Children) don’t know how to establish (credit), they don’t know how things get on a credit report and they don’t know how they can potentially have bad credit,” he said. “So, we want to avoid those voids and be able to help them not make the same mistakes we’ve potentially made in the past.”
Powell, who worked in the Ypsilanti school district as a social worker for 17 years, said his hope is to give the next generation the tools they need to begin thinking about how to plan for their future financially.
Having someone like Vick to bring that message home, Powell said, will go a long way in helping create good habits in communities.
“We want our kids to be competitive when they think about their credit,” he said. “There’s a lot of kids that we’re going to reach that don’t have parents that have this knowledge, so what we’re doing is trying to instill that at a young age and give back to our communities.”
Through their own collective struggles with finances after high school, Johnson and Powell teamed up to establish a credit consultation business that eventually led to the establishment of their Bad Credit is Childish venture.
Taking that message to a younger generation, Powell said, is the next logical step in the progression of furthering that mission.
“Frankly, I’m tired of our people being ignorant,” Powell said. “We’re going to educate them and we’re going to give them the tools that they need to be successful.”
