Markia founded Natural Born Champions (NBC) in 2012 when she was eighteen. Starting as a summer camp that still thrives a decade later, she evolved NBC to include year-round programming, with the mission to keep kids out of the school-to-prison pipeline, and to promote pathways full of college and career opportunities. Markia’s work has allowed kids to participate in fun entrepreneurial pursuits and develop business ideas, provides before and after school programming, has virtual learning and tutoring services, tackles transportation issues, and provides teacher and family workshops. Her work not only exist within city communities but as well as Baltimore City Public Schools.

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Markia’s latest expansion project, The NBC Multipurpose Community Center, is a hub for extracurriculars, educational enrichment, and workforce development. The center includes a computer lab, study hall, and health and wellness center, with plenty of cross curriculum options.

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Markia likes to call herself the “Jeff Bezos” of educational enrichment program services, and states “I wanted to capture a space I wish I could visit as a kid before, during, and after school hours”. Markia aims to create a marketplace for all educational and professional development enrichment services for inner-city youth, educators, communities and schools in the greater Baltimore area.