By Antonio R. Harvey | OBSERVER STAFF WRITER

Just like many adults living in America, the youth of today also want the finer things in life. But a part of the puzzle is how do you go about obtaining it legally.

Recently, a band of young adults between the ages of 19 and 28, launched a colorful magazine they hope will serve as their peers’ “urban survival manual to success.”

The title of the free publication, which is geared toward youth from 14 to 24 years of age, was introduced as Catalyst Magazine.

The magazine aims to educate young people about how to be their own employer, make their own decisions, become entrepreneurs, and to learn honest ways to obtain financial freedom.

“We are just hitting the younger generation,” said Catalyst’s editor-in-chief Tiana Burse. “Catalyst, to us, means change. If you look up the word in the dictionary you’ll find the word catalyst means change. That’s what we are all about — a host for change.”

Burse and four other colleagues (Talia White, Deandre Davis, Brad Sellers and David Ludd) appear on the front cover of the first edition of Catalyst. A profile is written on each person detailing their backgrounds, trials and tribulations and how they climbed to financial success.

David Ludd, the youngest of the five, doesn’t have a high school diploma, but insists that it shouldn’t block any youth from being a successful person in life.

“There are a lot of people out there like me,” Ludd told The OBSERVER. “I believe that one out of four people in Sacramento has not graduated from high school. But that’s not because they couldn’t. They just didn’t have the passion or the drive to continue in school. That was me. But I really want to show people that if you keep pushing and have the desire in what you can do … you really can do it.”

Ludd also serves as a marketing consultant for Catalyst. The 19-year-old has faith that the magazine will make a change for the better for youth around his age.

“It’s going to be a huge impact on everybody in Sacramento, California, and all the people across the United States,” Ludd said of Catalyst. "We are actually helping people to develop themselves and focus on what they really want to do.”

The magazine also features other young individuals from Sacramento to the Bay Area who discuss how they are pursuing their dreams or how they have made it. The magazine does have a spice of hip hop flair, though Burse was adamant that it’s not that type of publication.

“The reason why we are bringing hip hop into the magazine is because we know what the youngsters see right now,” Burse said. “They see BET, MTV, they see the cars and they see a lot of people they look up to with the bling-bling and things of that nature. So we are coming in from a different angle. It’s OK to have all that, but do it the right way. And if you see it, you can actually have it.”

The magazine also offers information about the importance of credit and a suggested reading list on how the young people can improve themselves and make lots of money.

“We are going to offer personal development, building credit, positive attitude, religion, business and homeownership,” Burse said. “People don’t know about that stuff at a young age. So we’ll teach it and live it.”

The first magazine is circulating around Sacramento and the Bay Area. The quarterly publication is nearly 30 pages, though Catalyst’s staff is confident that it will expand in the upcoming months.

“The magazine is phenomenal,” said Shenyka Boykins, Catalyst’s image consultant.
“I think there was a huge need in the market, especially for the youth. The magazine just makes sense to educate the youth about financial intelligence to keep these kids off the streets so they won’t have to resort to gangs and drugs.”