dquarles26@nul.org
Speaker Bio
Derrius Quarles is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and designer from Chicago’s South Side. Born in the Robert Taylor Public Housing Projects, Derrius navigated 13-years of foster care to become a first-generation HBCU and Ivy League graduate. Derrius is widely known as “The Million Dollar Scholar,,” having gone viral for securing over $1 million in college scholarships in 2009. Dubbed “financial prodigy” by The New York Times, Derrius is the co-founder of four companies spanning education, finance, technology, and marketing, and has helped generate over $30 million in local economic impact. He is the recipient of numerous honors from the Obama Administration, The Resolution Project, Roddenberry Foundation, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, among others. Derrius is the author of “Million Dollar Scholar: Winning The Scholarship Race,” a guide for students seeking to gain scholarships and grants for college.