Seeing the possibility for greater student success and career potential in finance, he changed his major. “Honestly, it has given me opportunities, including consulting, finance, policy development, and law. It is a challenge, but I’m applying the skills I’m learning in the classroom to my professional experience and in my role as UGSA president, where I’m in charge of managing and allocating certain funds.” Still, while handling the responsibilities of being a student leader, he advises aspiring student leaders, “It’s important to know that to be a student-leader, you have to be a student first. Being USGA president is very demanding. You have to set boundaries, and if you have class at the same time as a meeting, you have to go to class—it doesn’t matter what the meeting is. Being a student comes first.”
Asked to define leadership, he said definitively,
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It’s being your authentic self and not apologizing for it. Societal norms change and want us to change with it.
Subsequently, he became Mr. Junior and interned with CAU’s lobbyist before running for his position in SGA, where he is proud of what he has accomplished thus far—including co-authoring a five-pillar strategic plan focused on servicing and advocating for CAU students, as well as eliminating homecoming activity costs to students. After graduation, Javari plans to attend law school, practice law, and explore the corporate environment—all of which he believes will make him a better executive for the nonprofit he has already formed—The First in Our Generation Foundation, which provides financial literacy, mentorship, and career and professional development services to current and aspiring HBCU students. “As a first-generation college student, it is important to me to pour into the next generation and ensure they have the resources they need to overcome any obstacle they meet trying to get into the collegiate space.” After a moment of thought, he added, “I heard a quote by Thasunda Brown Duckett while I was at the National Black MBA Association Conference my sophomore year. She said, ‘Do it for reach, not for recognition.’ Since then, I’ve reminded myself every day that we use our talents and gifts for the uplifting of others. I was called to do it because someone needs to see me do it to jumpstart what they want to do.”
But how can we say we’re authentic if we’re always changing? Leadership starts with leading yourself.” Moreover, he says, “A leader’s responsibility to his followers is to deliver. If you’re telling me to trust you, I’ll do so until you fail to be a man or woman of your word. If you don’t have anything else on this earth, you have your name and your word—and you can tarnish one or the other by neglecting one or the other.” Javari lives by those words and carried them to his professional experiences, which include an externship with Price Waterhouse Coopers, where he served a strategy consultant, doing market research and analysis to determine how the client could expand its target audience. His next opportunity was with Home Depot as a finance extern. He provided cost efficient methods to help ensure departmental savings while preserving the quality of their products. At Rap Snacks, Inc., a Black-owned brand of snack products influenced by the hip hop genre, he was the youngest in the marketing department, serving for nearly two years as the HBCU partnerships coordinator and leading the brand’s College Advisory Board to help bring the brand to HBCUs.
Fall 2025
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