Apryll Adams

President

Apryll Adams grew up in poverty, the second oldest of 4 girls. Apryll realized early that she didn’t want to repeat the cycle of poverty. Setting goals was important in being proactive against unfavorable conditions. Thus, graduation from college was the most important goal for her.

Apryll attended the historic Cheyney University, one of the first institutions of higher learning for African Americans. In 1990, Apryll received her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting.

In 1987, Apryll married her high school sweetheart, and although the union only lasted 13 years, three beautiful souls were born to that union; Jonathan II, Porscha and Joshua. Apryll did lose a son, Aaron, to a premature birth.  

During her junior year at Cheyney University, Apryll co-oped at the Department of the Treasury: The Internal Revenue Service where she was an Auditor. After graduation, Apryll returned to the Internal Revenue Service to begin her career as a Revenue Agent. Apryll’s total service to the Internal Revenue Service was 25 years. Apryll also worked for PNC bank for 3 years and for Fleet Credit Card Services, which is now Bank of America, for 3 years. Apryll started at Fleet in the Call Center and was promoted to the Compliance division.

Apryll moved from Philadelphia in May of 2000, first to North Wales, Pennsylvania then settling in Warrington, Pennsylvania, to expose her children to more equitable education and other opportunities not available in the inner city. As a single mother, Apryll would sometimes work two jobs to make ends meet and to provide for her children.

In 2003, while working at Fleet Credit Card Services, Apryll entered an essay contest sponsored by Working Mother magazine. Apryll was one of three winners nationwide, winning the Raising a Ruckus award and being named the Reinventor for the way she reinvented her life after she and her children found themselves in a homeless shelter. As mothers do, Apryll put her fears and disappointments aside to rebuild a new life for herself and her children.

Apryll has encountered much racism - both from a systemic perspective, with poorly funded educational system being the primary institution for that racism, but also personally. Apryll was often the lowest paid on jobs and was often racially profiled. This was “normal’ life as Apryll was born right in the middle of the Civil Rights movement. But it wasn’t until 2012, with the murder of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black boy, that Apryll’s life was plunged into activism for equal rights of African Americans. This was because in a very real sense, Trayvon could have been her son. In fact, he was the same age as her youngest son Joshua.

Consequently, in 2012 Apryll joined the Saturday Free School, held in Philadelphia at The Church of the Advocate. Apryll studied Philosophy and Black Liberation there and was exposed in a deeper way to such activists and thinkers as James Baldwin, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Angela Davis and many more. Apryll attended marches, protests and sit-ins as a result of racial injustices. Apryll also was a Youth Leader in her church and served on other ministries there.

Apryll never lost sight of her primary goal, which was to raise her children as arrows in the hand of a warrior so that she could point them and release them to thrive in an imperfect world. Apryll put two of her children through college: Porscha attended the University of Pittsburgh where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and her Master’s degree in Social Work, and Joshua attended the University of Notre Dame where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. Joshua (Josh Adams) played football at the University of Notre Dame and has subsequently gone on to the next level as a Running Back in the NFL.

Apryll has retired from the Internal Revenue Service and now manages her son Josh’s football career.