The Truth Staff
Tisha-Lee Mays founded the AMAYSing Kids Broadcasting Company & Media Mentorship Program during the summer of ’21 in order to reach out to school aged children, grades four through eight, to help improve reading skills by developing their broadcasting skills.
“A new way to teach reading and communication skills,” says Mays.
In order to improve her own skills as an entrepreneur and businesswoman, Mays participated in the recently concluded 12-week course offered by JumpStart and earned the top prize in her cohort for her presentation at the end of the course.
AMAYSing just concluded a nine-week session in four area schools and will start another such session in four or five other schools after the holiday break. Each program can host up to 30 students and the program strives for a 10 to 1 student/instructor ratio, says Mays. The instructors are primarily drawn from college students at the University of Toledo, where Mays, a radio personality at WJUC, The Juice, 107.3 FM, is a lecturer at the School of Media and Communications.
AMAYSing takes its broadcasting equipment into the schools to work with the students and eventually, says Mays, will utilize a media bus with television and recording equipment to facilitate its instructions. The $10,000 grant Mays won with her JumpStart presentation will be used for the purpose of outfitting such a bus.
Wrote Mays about her JumpStart experience:
“These last 12-weeks have been an intense, exciting journey that I had the privilege to share with four other incredible entrepreneurs who I am forever connected with: Black Frog Brewery, EZ Shade, Ordinary Pioneer, Anchored in Hope Counseling, LLC
“My advisor for the NW Ohio Small Business Impact competition was Adam Salon, who brought out the very best of me, and helped me understand my passion as a full-scale business model. “With his genius, he intentionally added Kevin P. Mullan and Steven Powell to our team who offered countless hours of expertise and Phelan Spence who is the mastermind behind creating the financial model. To be honest, the $10,000 is the icing on cake. It’s the wealth of expertise and direction I received from my team that was invaluable.
“I am now a better entrepreneur because of you! Thank you to all of the advisors, Roy Hodge for everything and the extended JumpStart family for all you do to help grow businesses in our community.
“When I contacted JumpStart a few years back I had a business plan that needed a lot of work. At that time, my first advisor, Kenny Farrar, broke my plan down and helped me build it back up and continued to be an open source of knowledge and encouragement.
“I am truly grateful to Amy Haschak and the JumpStart NW Ohio family and CEO Ray Leach for the opportunity to showcase AMAYSing Kids Broadcasting Camp and Media Mentorship Program.
“It was also great to see Freddie Coffey after all these years WZIP/ZTV/WAUP Alumni The University of Akron. I am so excited to be part of this incredible network now.
“I can’t even explain the overwhelming support that was in the room. I couldn’t have done it without my better half Dante Mays and our boys (Dante Mays Jr had to work). Thank you to the Jones family and Cyrus for Introducing me! My THE JUICE FM 107.3 Deb Hogan, Rick Hogan, Rosalyn Whickum, Shae, Charlie Mack, my incredible staff Alyn Martinez Nick Schroeder, Sydney Schauwecker, Department of Communication, The University of Toledo , my entire AMAYSing Kids Broadcasting Camp and Media Mentorship Program families who have supported and allowed the kids to come out on a school night. The kids did a beautiful job showing off the program!
“Thank you BGSU School of Media and Communication. Vonna Lynn, Dee Bank,s Ms. Banita, Moni Mpress Featchurs Quintin Riley, Chawone Ardrey, Ambershaun Miller Byrd, Jurry Taalib-Deenn, Alisha Durham, Ebony Carter, Sue Roberts Wright, Tasha Allen, Mr. McDaniel, Gesu Catholic School, Toledo Public Schools and the City of Toledo
“In addition to providing our traditional portable programming inside schools and organizations, with the 10k we are investing in an interactive media bus that will be fully equipped with a recording and television studio. This will allow us to go directly into the community to serve even more kids more kids. Thank you to the three fantastic judges who were faced a very difficult decision.
“JumpStart is necessary when starting a business. We are just getting started, there are more aMAYSing things to come. All things are possible with God in the center of it all!”