Today we’d like to introduce you to Neda Kellogg.
Hi Neda, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
A Mother, Self-Discovery Coach, Author, Philanthropist, and Student Pilot – I was born and raised in a “village” in Omaha, Nebraska. I left my daddy’s home two days after graduating high school to figure life out independently. While homeless for three years, I depended on my aunts and older female cousins to provide a place to lay my head or get a good meal and some guidance as I worked on learning how to become stable as a young adult. In my late 20’s20s, I became an entrepreneur, opening up my first official business, Salon TreVon. At my salon, I had countless conversations with moms with challenges with their daughters and their behaviors. Wanting to share my secrets of success with these girls, I found that I had a passion for guiding girls like my aunts and cousins did for me. With over 24 years of experience providing self-discovery and personal development coaching, my team and I share my proven method of ‘remembering one’s authentic truth’ with the girls involved with Project DIVA International (projectdiva.org). By way of Dunwoody Academy, a vocational charter school that no longer exists, over the past 17 years, the organization I founded has delivered culturally relevant programming, emotionally stabilizing skill sets, a financial/economic focus, and foundational career pathways to girls in 6th through 12th grades. Focusing holistically on personal expansion, education beyond the classroom, social unification, emotional fitness, career attainment, financial literacy, and wellness behaviors, my organization has sustained a less than one percent teen pregnancy rate, a 100% increase in financial knowledge, and a 99% graduation rate during a time when public schools in MN are failing kids who are of African descent.
It wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Being human is never a smooth road! The struggles began when the schools under-educated me by giving me a one-sided education and no financial focus. Also, my dad was over-protective of me, taking care of all of my needs and not giving me the financial know-how to be able to sustain myself once I had the responsibility as a young adult. Learning how to navigate adulthood, which included understanding romantic relationships, student loans, the importance of resumes, apartment leases, down payments towards car loans, and hiring packages that included 401k’s and health insurance, was overwhelming as an 18-year-old. Once I got my footing with the loving support from my cousin, Debbie Jackson, I began to have room to think about my next moves. In my 20’s, I birthed my wonderful sons – Lavone and Trenton, been married twice to two amazing men (both my sons and fathers), and landed on opening up my first business – Salon TreVon. The squiggly line my life made had tons of ebbs and flows. Learning to co-parent, blend families after my first divorce, and run a small business was difficult. Owning my first business, though, is where I fell in love with coaching girls.
While owning the salon, I began to pay attention to the conversations with the women in my chair who were having challenges with their daughters in the same way that I had personal challenges, which led me to homelessness as an 18-year-old. I received the opportunity to create a curriculum for a girl’s group at Monroe Middle School back home in Omaha, Nebraska, and I fell in love with coaching girls who looked like me. This led me to create my non-profit Project, DIVA International, once I moved to Minneapolis, MN, and began working at the school. Finding venues whose environment spoke to personal and professional expansion was challenging for the first 10 years. Also, figuring out the business tools that propelled the organization toward sustainability has been painstaking all in itself! Consultants saying that I needed a business plan when I needed a strategic plan and working to ensure our team, whose dedication has been second to none, has been paid through fundraising, has been a learning experience.
I appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Project DIVA was launched out of Dunwoody Academy in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the fall of 2007. The organization became an official 501(c)(3) in May 2009 to assist girls, ages 11-19, in learning how to develop into emotionally, mentally, and financially healthy young women, using self-love, owning their overall brilliance and being financially disciplined to make informed decisions towards healthy lifestyles.
In 2020, Project DIVA expanded its operations by becoming Project DIVA International, a hybrid, membership-based organization. The change to become a membership-based organization has allowed PDI alum participants, ages 19-26 yrs and women ages 27+, to participate in-person or, if out-of-state, virtually.
Over the past 17 years, our organization has researched the trials of Black women across history while following the statistics for Black women in Minnesota. Knowing that through the lived experiences of Black women and our current outcomes throughout the Twin Cities and surrounding suburbs, a story of continued systemic challenges continues informing us of the dire need for personal and professional development during girls’ developmental years, from successful Black women, who are navigating life is necessary.
Project DIVA International is known for coaching 45-50 middle and high school girls to provide personal and professional self-discovery coaching. We provide healthy role models, individual coaching, and emotional support, including psychological and technical tools to increase belief in girls and their abilities.
I am beyond proud that our organization is genuinely creating generational legacies of brilliant girls who value their identity and own their worth. These young ladies make informed emotional, mental, and financial decisions as they transition into adulthood. Project DIVA International guides girls to self-discovery, defining their vision of success and striving toward financial stability while investing in their retirement goals by high school graduation day.
Often people say, ‘Tell me more about your ‘project’ or ‘girls group.’ What sets us apart is that we are not a ‘project’ or ‘girls group.’ We support the whole girl as an institution. Our products and services ensure the girls are coached individually and collectively with an informed and specifically identified aim from each participant toward their envisioned lifestyles. Through our products and services, girls are positioned to be our ‘right now’ leaders, rolling up their sleeves and diving into internal and external internships – as young as – 11 years old. They have autonomy to guide them in taking the lead in spaces that many adults don’t allow them to. Our parents/guardians are also heavily involved in the guidance and evolution of their daughters’ lives. Again, collectively, we guide the girls toward their visions, instilling that they can immediately thrive emotionally, mentally, and financially.
What does success mean to you?
I always remind the girls and our team, ‘The most important relationship in the world is the one you have with yourself.’ Being confident in our brilliance and capabilities and then sharing our brilliance and capabilities has brought about unthinkable innovation and change on this planet time and time again. It’s our birthright to accomplish a life worth leaving behind because you knew who you were and what you could do. All the stories of the ‘greats’ resulted from this, which is a success for me.
Pricing:
- $100 support a portion of a girls Membership
- $350 supports a girls Travel Academy Experience
- $500 supports a girls Investment Academy Experience
- $1000 supports 20 girls Bra Fittings
- $2500 supports 25 girls Way Cool Cooking School Experience
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.projectdiva.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/projectdivainternational/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectdivamn/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/86712952/admin/dashboard/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZVfj_wRwK09RR-8mNgsPTw
Image Credits
dejmariephotography@gmail.com
