Luke attends the NAACP Image Awards (Aaron J. Thornton)
Luke Lawal Jr. is the founder and CEO of L & Company, the parent company of HBCU Buzz—a leading digital media platform he launched in 2011 while attending Bowie State University. With a background in biochemistry and a passion for community building, Luke created HBCU Buzz to amplify the culture, voices, and achievements within historically Black colleges and universities. He is also the author of Rich Black, Poor Black, a practical guide to wellness and wealth-building for young Black adults. Luke has been recognized as a cultural influencer and changemaker dedicated to uplifting the next generation.
Being a first-gen Nigerian American often comes with unspoken expectations. In a recent interview you shared, “There comes a limit sometimes in what you choose in terms of your career and what you want your future to look like. You sometimes have to put your dreams on hold because you have to think of where your reality may lie.” What would you say to someone who feels torn between honoring their family's sacrifices and pursuing a path that truly serves who they are?
LL: So, when I was an undergrad, I always had this sense of urgency towards exploring the HBCU diaspora. Just because, when you're a freshman on campus, the first thing you notice is that everyone comes from so many different backgrounds. So, I always had this sense of trying to learn other communities and cultures within our HBCU diaspora. As I started articulating through my college career, I would always be so enthused about going to different campuses and meeting other Que’s, or meeting other people from just different walks of life. When I got in SGA and I was able to go to NASAP, there were, I want to say, 60–75 SGA presidents and royal courts from different HBCUs. We got to see their leadership style, we got to learn from them, and we were also learning from our instructors as well. It was the most eye-opening experience ever. But as soon as I got back, it was like this void. Why is it that I had to go to NASAP to discover this? Why am I not seeing this on social media? Why is the mainstream media not paying attention to what we're doing? When I say what we're doing, it's in a sense of how much of an impact our HBCUs are having in major communities. I remember there was a young lady at Howard that raised $10 million for Haiti as a sophomore in college. The news wasn't covering it—the media, even social. Instagram just became a thing. So, when I went down to FAMU, that was the first time I mentally put it together. I was just so intrigued as to why we're not talking about it. So, when I got back to my campus, my eyes were just open. I started to pay attention to the way our narratives and our stories we’re being told. I probably spent about two, three months just being disgusted with the way mainstream media would talk about things. And I started hitting up my friends that were in the journalism program, like, “Hey, did you see this? How come y'all didn't write about it? Or did you know about what happened at Clark Atlanta? Did you see this?” I would even ask friends that I knew that were interning at NBC, and I would send them stuff. Then I would go on their website, and the only thing you would see is when somebody got killed on our campus or when a president got fired. It was literally three months of being so disgusted, because every time I looked, that's all I saw. And when I came back from FAMU, I couldn't even ignore the urge to start HBCU Buzz.
Luke is honored at the BET Awards, Shine a Light Award (2022) (All rights reserved to owner)
Although you began your journey with plans to become a doctor and earned a degree in Biology. During your gap year, you balanced part-time entrepreneurship alongside your role at Kaiser. For young adults choosing an untraditional path and building behind the scenes scared to take the leap, how can someone remain committed when the path forward is unclear?
LL: It was all about aligning my priorities and making sure that I meet that. Where I was just like, “Alright, God's first, family's second.” When it's God, family, then me, what happens is you tend to have all this pressure with expectations. But at one point during my collegiate career, where I was going back and forth with that. Family, me. Family, me. Then I would do little things to kind of step into my purpose, but I would always go back to being like, “Okay, family first.” What you see in that gap year is me balancing and struggling the back and forth between those two priorities, because God already told me, “Keep your priorities in check.” But then the idea of me being able to control my priorities, that's where the challenge came in, because now it's just like, if my priority's are family, where does that line up with what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis?
The best thing to ever happen to me is when I worked at Kaiser. My uncle ran one of the Kaisers on Capitol Hill. I came out of college making six figures at Kaiser. And if you're in the medical field, when you get in at Kaiser, you don't leave Kaiser. By far the best company, organization to ever work for, because they support their people, salaries are always high, and you can bounce around from any department. You can literally choose whatever career you want — it's the best. But for me, after working there a year, I knew this wasn't where I was supposed to be. I'll tell you what tipped it over for me.
I was at work one day, and CNN had interviewed me for my work on HBCU Buzz. They had reached out, and I remember them blowing up my phone, and mind you, when you're at Kaiser, you have no phone, you have no social life, you can't even bring your phone in. Your phone does not exist when you clocked in. So the day before, they blew me up, sending me emails, text messages, saying, “Hey, we want you to be a part of this campaign we're doing, we'd love to come interview you.” When I got off, I thought I missed the opportunity, but I emailed them, and they were like, “Hey, you emailed me right on time. We'll pull up tomorrow, give us a location between the hours of 12 and 2.” Problem was, between the hours of 12 and 2, I have to be at work. I basically took my lunch break and had them come to Kaiser to interview me, and I literally changed and did the interview outside of Kaiser. I remember clocking back in after my lunch break, and they aired it, I want to say, 2 hours later. I was working in a pharmacy at the time. They had the news on, and my boss walks in, and she's looking at me on the news, and she's just like, “Wait, is that here? Wait, that's about the company you started? Why are you here? You don't belong here.” And immediately, I quit. Well, I tried to quit, but she put me on call because she thought that I was gonna come back, but I never did.
“Being able to start HBCU Buzz while I was on campus, and the level of support that I got from the university and the community itself.It helped me understand how much culture is currency, and how much when you're in certain spaces where you don't have support on a larger scale, it affects you.”
- Luke Lawal Jr.
In an interview you spoke about the impact Bowie State had on you, you stated, “I learned my place in the world and what I had to offer.” How did having a HBCU foundation help you create businesses centered around culture and community?
LL: I'm from PG County, Maryland, and I tell people all the time, if you know anything about PG County, it's the most Black historic county in the world. As a child growing up in PG County, you have no idea that the world doesn't look like that. I grew up with Black doctors, lawyers. When I went to a grocery store, there's a Black person, and I'm talking about the top-of-the-line dentist was a Black doctor. Everywhere I went, it was more African-American-based. I've learned that my mom was very intentional with that, because she went to Howard, and even though the bulk of my family is in Houston, she was very intentional about making sure that we were in that ecosystem.
During that time, I didn't realize that the world didn't look like that, and I didn't understand the significance and the importance of it. But once I got to Bowie, all of that was unlocked. I was able to see not just who I am, but why my confidence is important, and the difference between having a community that looks like me and how their support. My ability to see it at a collegiate level was different, because now that it's unlocked, and I can see Black excellence, and multiple people coming from so many different backgrounds with the same purpose-driven mindset. Being able to start HBCU Buzz while I was on campus, and the level of support that I got from the university and the community itself — it helped me understand how much culture is currency, and how much when you're in certain spaces where you don't have support on a larger scale, it affects you.
I tell people all the time, when you're on a Black college campus, if you're an entrepreneur, start your business your freshman year and watch how the ecosystem supports you. Watch how immediately you have customers. Watch how immediately you have followers. Watch how immediately you have people that just want to spread the word of what you're doing just because you're a part of this ecosystem. The best part about that is, the second you step out, you now represent something that is bigger than you. You now have the power to influence and change a society of people.
Luke Lawal Jr. (Rights reserved to owner)
Through your brand, what narratives or stigmas are you working to dismantle about the lasting impact of HBCUs and the powerful leaders they continue to produce?
LL: It's funny because I tell people all the time, anytime I get a question that's narrated this way or similar, I always ask people: instead of asking, what is the value of HBCUs today, just ask, “Where would we be without HBCUs?” Instead of debating the importance of today, imagine a world where we didn't have our HBCUs. When you think of the legacy and the importance of shaping the opportunities that we have today, without that, we wouldn't even be in a position to ask, do we still need HBCUs? So, to me, there's this onus and ownership in this simple fact that, if it wasn't for some of these campuses, for our Founding Fathers, we wouldn't be able to get educated if it wasn't for some of these safe spaces.
They always talk about the Black dollar getting to zero at a certain amount of time. I always say, if it wasn't for HBCUs, where Black doctors make up, I want to say, like, 80 to 90% of HBCU graduates, I wonder what our population count would look like if we didn't have HBCU doctors. I wonder what our diaspora would look like if there wasn't this consistent factory of education that produces Black doctors. Over the last 5 or 6 decades, if we didn't have that, what would that look like? You gotta understand that HBCUs are reshaping the myth of how we're less than, or when you go to an HBCU, the education is not comparable, because that myth is already packed, when you look at representation and the belief that our institutions have and the value that we. Culture and education, and just the narrative across the board, I mean, it's not comparable. And I honestly believe that now, more than anything, people are realizing that graduating from an HBCU and being a part of this community is way more valuable than any other institution, and our visibility and impact across the board has now been publicized. And I'm not going to take credit for it, but I will say, I love the role that we have played.
What role does representation play in helping the next generation believe that their dreams and aspirations are truly possible?
LL: Visibility, visibility, visibility. I think in the world, you can't be what you can't see. That's more important, and I think representation builds belief, so I think that when you really look at the significance of HBCU Buzz, it’s just the ability for a middle schooler or a high schooler to go on our page and be like, “Wow, there's an HBCU grad getting ready to go to space, there's an HBCU grad that's in the NFL killing it, there's a Black doctor opening up offices around the country in every field.” Not just working at Kaiser, or working at some of these companies, but creating their own organizations. And I think even if you can't experience that, or go to one of their seminars, or whatever, you can go on our page and see that they're real, and follow them. So for me, I think the way we're going to represent for the next generation is just making sure that they can see what's possible.
Want to hear more amazing stories like this? Check out our “More of Us” series! If you want to connect with Luke and support the work he is doing, follow him on Instagram, you can support his business by clicking here.