Kehinde Hopkins

Joe Thomas presents his company, FutureBuilt, to Texas Wesleyan’s men’s basketball team in hopes of gaining clients.

College was never an option for Joseph Thomas. Growing up in the underbelly of New Orleans, Louisiana, street violence was all that he knew. Tomorrow was barely a guarantee. His wildest ambition was to stay alive.  

“My dream as a kid was to have two kids and just have a funeral,” Thomas said. “Where I come from, you’re not about to live past 23.” 

He was raised in Gert Town, New Orleans by a single mother. His father was imprisoned for murder when Thomas was 6 months old.  

“Not having a man around, you had to figure a lot of sh*t out,” Thomas said. “You can listen to mama all day… at the same time, I’m trying to protect moms. How she gonna protect me and I’m trying to protect us?” 

Thomas rarely considered making it out—not many people did. For all he knew, his horizons stopped at the New Orleans city limits.  

“It’s a whole cycle,” Thomas said. “Some people scared to get out of that circle. It’s really hard; because if you get out, where you going? This is all you know.” 

Thomas’ path seemed predetermined. His future—or lack thereof—was already built.  

“I’d probably be in jail or dead,” Thomas said when asked where he’d be if he’d stayed in New Orleans.  

Most of his childhood friends had followed that same path. It was a path paved by generations of trauma and neglect—it was a path Thomas was headed down himself. He was marching forward, in hypnotic lockstep with his peers and his forerunners, until one night snapped him out of it.  

Thomas was coming home from football practice when he found his mother’s truck defaced with graffiti. Splattered in neon spray paint were threats to Thomas and his mother’s life. Bullet holes were strewn across the windows of the truck and Thomas’ home. Bullets meant for them. 

The cycles of violence had long since ensnared Thomas. He’d seen his friends die; his father imprisoned. Now, it had gone too far—they’d caught up to his mom.  

Talking with his high school football coach, Coach Norman ‘Norm’ Randall, about the incident, Thomas sought a solution. Desperate for a way to break the cycle, Thomas turned towards football for salvation.  

“He [Coach Norm] was like, ‘Man, you gonna play football and figure this out or you gonna go to jail or die,’” Thomas said. “I was like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna try this out.’” 

Equipped with nothing but his will to succeed and a semblance of how to get there, Thomas committed himself completely.  

“They [his peers] ain’t really talk about education because they trying to get in the streets. I’m trying to get out the streets,” Thomas said. “I ain’t know nothing about scholarships. I was learning as I go.”

After four consecutive state championships as a starting linebacker for the Edna Karr Cougars, Thomas earned an athletic scholarship to become a Texas Wesleyan Ram.  

Though he’d arrived at his goal, his path forward as a first-generation college student was as murky as ever.  

“Coming here [Fort Worth and college], I had to catch up. It really took me three years to understand it,” Thomas said. 

No longer in survival mode and given the license to learn and grow, Thomas’ ambitions quickly expanded beyond football.  

“If [you] don’t go to college, [you] don’t have time to think,” Thomas said. “We don’t have that time in the hood. Now I see it’s [life is] bigger than football.” 

A drive to help others and provide the support that he sorely lacked growing up engrossed him. Years of learning, planning and collaborating led him to found FutureBuilt—a career-placement network that connects students with mentorship and job opportunities.  

“What FutureBuilt represents to me is a bridge,” Masters of Business Administration (MBA) student and Vice President of FutureBuilt Kamryn Gibson said. “We’re building a bridge between our community and the community around us.” 

Since its founding in 2024, FutureBuilt has established connections with employers such as the Dallas Mavericks, the National Football League Players’ Association and more. FutureBuilt has plans of establishing chapters at 100+ colleges and universities by 2028, according to its website. 

“I know that his [Thomas’] greatest asset is his ability to be able to connect with people,” Nick David-West, a Texas Wesleyan alumnus and former teammate of Thomas said about his ability to lead FutureBuilt.  

With FutureBuilt, Thomas aims to create a platform. 

“He [Thomas] doesn’t use FutureBuilt as something to create a hierarchy; he wants to see everybody become their own CEO with FutureBuilt as a backbone,” Gibson said. 

Thomas will graduate from Texas Wesleyan with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice this fall. Following graduation, he has plans of pursuing an MBA at Texas Wesleyan.

After defying all odds, Thomas has dedicated himself to leveling the playing field. 

“Every kid needs that support or that guidance,” Thomas said.  “Some of us don’t know how to ask that question… not understanding we’re all going through that same thing.”