Meet Sebastian Sanders of The Sanders Hand in Southwest

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sebastian Sanders.

Sebastian, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Going through a period of time where I started to evaluate my life and friends. Didn’t’ quite know the direction but I knew I wanted to create something that would outlive my legacy and change the world. Most importantly wanted to live out my passion and seek out my greatness for the greater good. It all started my junior year in college.

Second semester April 2017, at UTSA, I knew I had the God’s gift of leadership and a powerful voice but quite didn’t know how to use it! Parents always told me “son you have a voice, just learn how to use it” my first thought was to become a rapper. Unfortunately, that didn’t work the way I would have liked. But one day it came to me, it all started with an idea of a single charity event such as a backpack drive or such.

Soon realized anyone could do that, and there was a bigger change needed in our impoverished communities. That night it all came to me the name and the mission. April 17, 2017, I decided to found The Sanders Hand at the age 19. I took it upon myself to “BE THE CHANGE” With patience, and selective knowledge, I was able to turn my small idea into a public charity recognized by the IRS.

Servicing over 2,000 youth in impoverished communities from San Antonio to Houston Texas, with two programs that I created along with a “Curriculum” to define success. I took a chance on myself and invested into my dreams, to create something that will outlive me and change the lives of kids and families across the world.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a long and bumpy road! It has been a lot of long nights of no sleep, confusion, and stress. Struggled to find someone willing to take a chance on a 20-year-old African American male. Not being taken seriously inside of meetings, the judgment before the actual work was a tough pill to swallow, and not having a mentor or someone to teach you about having a non-profit. Not having a mentor didn’t stop me, I took it upon myself to educate myself and create my own path.

The struggle of also self-doubt was hard for me to deal with as well, hearing the doubters and starting to believe it, took a toll on a lot of the work I have done, in the beginning of the whole process vision was unclear and didn’t seem promising. But I had to realize greatness doesn’t happen overnight, and my best has yet to come. This thought keeps me going and excites me for my future. The best investment in life we can make is investing in self.

The Sanders Hand – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The Sanders Hand is a non-profit founded in April 2017. Core mission is The Sanders Hand foundation has two program areas; education and community. In each of these areas, we work towards empowerment, diversity, change, and innovation.

Within our education program, we have developed the “Define Success Curriculum” teaching our youth in impoverished communities professional and soft skills. Such as leadership, financial literacy, mock interviews, resume, brand building, professional development, cultivating within our community program to provide a sense of hope and prepare our future generation of leaders for success one student at a time.

Annual summer scholarship as well 2017 & 2018 for middle school and high school students. Founded by myself Sebastian Sanders being the CEO & Founder. First year of operations we have serviced over 2,000 youth within 56% minority students and 74% in poverty. From San Antonio to Houston Texas.

What separates us from others is our hands-on approach with our youth, teaching them how to be leaders through their own experiences, giving them the upper hand and authority to “Define Success.” Also, being a young millennial we find different ways to interact and engage our audience in our programs.

I am most proud of my team, all of us being college students and young professionals amazed at how fast we have developed our programs and the impact we have on our youth at such an early stage in our business growth.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Obtaining my non-profit a year after I set the goal! Summer 2017 I told myself I will have my status in Summer 2018 I received the letter. After being told no, I was too young, not ready, too hard, I avoided all odds and became an official public charity at the age 20.

I knew people older than me who told me they had struggles of getting theirs, but with hard work and dedication, I accomplished something I couldn’t have thought of when I first started.

Contact Info:

• Address: 15949 Chase Hill Blvd San Antonio, Texas 78256
• Website: www.sandershand.org
• Phone: 2818380655
• Email: thesandershand@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandershandorg/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandershandorg/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sandershandorg
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastian-sanders-a4428114a/

Image Credit:
Michael Oyetunji

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