news & partnerships

HBCU Students Can Now Graduate With a Business, Not Just a Degree 

Quantum Power Skills and FocusQuest launch a landmark partnership that equips HBCU students with neuroscience-based leadership, AI-ready skills, and an opportunity to acquire an income-generating business before graduation. 

ORLANDO, FLA., MAY 2026.  For the first time, an HBCU student can walk into a college classroom and walk out with a leadership certificate, an AI-ready skillset, and an opportunity to acquire an income-generating business they actually own all within a single institutional partnership. 

That is the promise behind a new Master Services Agreement between Quantum Power Skills (QPS), a performance transformation company built on neuroscience and AI-ready leadership, and FocusQuest, a student success and institutional alliance platform serving HBCUs and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) across the country. Together, the two organizations are rewriting what a college education can deliver in an economy increasingly defined by artificial intelligence and ownership. 

At the center of the agreement is the QPS Leadership Certificate Program, a 15-hour immersive course designed to retrain how students think, decide, lead, and execute using brain-science-backed methods. Delivered fully online, the program lets students choose any 5 courses from a 9-course QPS catalogue spanning neuroscience-based leadership, emotional intelligence, and AI readiness. Upon completion, every participant earns a recognized leadership certificate. 

Through this partnership, every student gains access to QPS’s course curriculum spanning leadership development, emotional intelligence, AI readiness, and future-ready performance skills. As well as culturally relevant learning through FocusQuest’s HBCU Experience Enhancement Module honoring the legacy and leadership culture that makes HBCUs unlike anywhere else. Together these create one clear pathway from education to leadership excellence to business ownership. Students don’t just graduate with a diploma. They can graduate with an asset. 

“This partnership is about ending the pattern of students graduating behind. Most students are taught how to get a job. We are showing them how to own a business. When you combine neuroscience-based leadership, AI readiness, and real business ownership, you are not just building a career, you are building a legacy.” 
  Soyini Chang, CEO of Quantum Power Skills 

What separates the QPS and FocusQuest collaboration from any other college program is ownership. Every student who enrolls through FocusQuest gains access to the QPS Impact Accelerator and inside it, the CEO Journey – ETA Launch HUB, and the Value Builder Program™, a globally proven business-building system trusted by over 80,000 business owners worldwide. Through that pathway, students can identify, evaluate, and go through the acquisition process to own an income-generating business while still in college. 

The timing matters. HBCUs and MSIs have produced many of the country’s most influential leaders, yet their students have historically been shut out of the kind of premium leadership development and entrepreneurial infrastructure available at other institutions. At the same time, AI is reshaping every industry faster than any previous wave of technology.  

“FocusQuest was built on one belief, that HBCU students deserve access to the same premium opportunities as anyone else. HBCUs have always been in the business of developing leaders. This partnership extends that legacy by adding flexible online leadership development and a direct pathway to business ownership so students don’t just graduate ready to lead, they graduate ready to own. This is what we came to do.”  
  Sean-Reed McGee, CEO of FocusQuest 

QPS and FocusQuest have declared they believe HBCU students don’t just deserve a seat at the table. They deserve to own the table. This partnership is designed to empower the next generation of HBCU leaders not only to participate in the economy, but to build equity, create enterprises, and shape the future through leadership and business ownership. That is the vision behind the QPS and FocusQuest partnership, and the work begins now. 

Built for scale and designed to compound across generations, the partnership will operate across FocusQuest’s expansive and growing network of HBCUs and MSIs nationwide.  FocusQuest will lead institutional partnerships, marketing, and student recruitment, while QPS handles curriculum, instruction and facilitation.  

Universities, institutional partners, and members of the press are invited to learn how the QPS and FocusQuest Leadership Certificate Program offers students a unique pathway from education to leadership excellence to real business ownership. 

ABOUT QUANTUM POWERS SKILLS

Quantum Power Skills (QPS) is a neuroscience-based leadership and workforce transformation company that equips individuals, teams, and organizations to lead, perform, and own their future in the age of AI. Through courses in leadership development, AI readiness, and the Impact Accelerator business ownership program, QPS builds adaptive mindsets, execution systems, and irreplaceable human skills that no algorithm can replicate and that every leader needs to thrive in what’s next. QPS is committed to ensuring that the communities most poised to shape the future have the tools, confidence, and competitive edge to do it. Learn more at www.quantumpowerskills.com 

ABOUT FOCUSQUEST 

FocusQuest is a student acquisition and success partner (SSP) exclusively dedicated to HBCUs and Minority-Serving Institutions. Since 2021, FocusQuest has worked alongside institutional partners to develop online educational programs, build workforce-aligned certificate pathways, and create student retention strategies that keep students enrolled, engaged, and on track to graduate. Through strategic corporate partnerships, AI-powered learning solutions, and career pathway programming, FocusQuest delivers transformative experiences that change student trajectories and institutional legacies. FocusQuest is also the home of SilverQuest, a digital education initiative for mature learners, and partners with the D9Network to connect Divine Nine professionals with economic opportunity.  www.focusquest.com