DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH

-

"How to develop emerging inner city leaders"

I love walking onto campuses and into neighborhoods meeting young leaders. They are everywhere! Diamonds in the rough. In urban spaces, because of the overwhelming obstacles that youth face, high functioning leaders are bred daily! They are the most resilient, highly creative and innovative people in our cities. When you find one, invest in them. Here are some tips to do so effectively.

Find a common ground
Quickly seek to identify their values. Find out what's important to them. Find out what excites them. Ask questions to find a talking point that will carry you out of an awkward beginning into an organic new-found bond. 

Speak in their language
Capture their attention. Be creative. Be willing to be a student of their culture and their language. You don't have to be cool to do so, you simply must have a desire to learn from them, learn about them, and then meet them on their level and elevate them to new heights.

Help them lead from their strengths
Most often, after one encounter, I can identify a young leaders' strengths. Maybe they are articulate, thoughtful, generous, intelligent, creative, or caring. Whatever it is, land on it and work from there. Start with one strength. 

For example, I recently met an amazing young lady named Briana. She came to us from the Long Beach area, and now resides in Pomona with extended family. The first time I met her she was alone, reading a book that caught my eye (because not many students read for fun on our campus lol). I could tell she had much to say, but was isolated and shut in. I, knowing she was intelligent from her ability to read, invited her to write this blog with me about life, struggle and pain. After telling her to write about those three things, within a matter of 10 mins this is what she produced. In my opinion, it's one word, AMAZING!

"Lemme tell you how it is and lemme tell you how it ain't, I was raised in a rough neighborhood, with nothing but these gangs, a lot of sh*t going on baby girl I promise you, we gon keep moving no matter the issue, this world is like a carousel, spinning and moving fast, but life takes time so live in the now, make it last, everybody wanna tell me dis and dat, but no one knows that life brought me nothing but a scandalous hand, it don't end here. As long as I got a plan with the world in my hand, I know I'll be able to stand, I ain't worried bout no man, life goes on and continues to grow, it ain't' easy but baby girl stay, I know how far you can go"
Briana Perez- Park West High 

Thrust them into taking risks
Invite these young leaders, without hesitation, to leap into new waters. Teach them to develop a courage and bravery that leadership requires and that they possess. To respond to opportunities and rise to leadership when others won't.

Empower them and communicate your belief in them
Don't be afraid to pass the baton of leadership to them. Pass over the mantle of leadership willingly. Have them lead in situations that most wouldn't entrust to them. Make sure to communicate your belief in them along the way, as often as possible!

Unpack leadership experiences
Make sure to unpack experiences with them. Ask them questions like:
1. How was that experience for you?
2. How do you think you did?
3. What did you do well? What can you improve upon?
4. Would you be down to do that again? 

-Written by Eric Vasquez

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Universal Pedagogy

-
Just Us 4 Youth has been a phenomenal experience. Coming from a dysfunctional , gang related, addictive and abusive family has made it easy for me to relate with the youth that we deal with on a daily basis. The majority of our students that we assist come from low income family and are first generation students who would go to college. I personally had a third obstacle to deal with, being undocumented. Growing up in the barrio I was surrounded by over 10 different gangs within a 3 mile radius. I lost a cousin and even some of my friends were getting sentenced to life in prison. I didn’t have much of an option but to overcome the statistics. The average low income latino/hispanic has a higher probability to get locked or lose their life instead of graduating from high school. Being the first person from my family to graduate high school made me want to pursue higher education. Not having that superman in my life made me decide to turn into one for all urban youth that dea...
Read more

Making A Change For The Better

-
I never expected for my life to turn out like this, my mother has never been there for me. She has never loved me, but her other kids have always been more important than I was to her. I was 3 when she decided to leave my life and leave my dad with a huge responsibility. My father has no family to turn to, he has no one, but he still raised me to the best of his ability, although he comes up short often.  It was hard growing up without a mother. When my father enrolled me in soccer when I was younger I was excited because I was actually good at it. I enjoyed playing it. When I was younger my heart crashed because I would look at other boys bringing their mom and dad but I had no one. My father is an older man and he’s always working. I hate it because he just never had the time for me.  When I was in second grade I was excited because my school gave me a letter saying I was getting an award for mathematics. That day I couldn’t wait to go home and tell my dad. I ran ho...
Read more

THE SOUND OF MUSIC

-
Image
Every day and on every campus we get to work with savant students. There is always one who dances to the beat of their own song. One who is moving to a rhythm that is foreign to the world around them. If you only look externally, you may miss the genius that is before you. You may become disillusioned by their lack of “proper social abilities” or “their apparent disinterest” in what you find to be important, but you must not blink or you’ll miss it, or not hear it, the sound of music that is playing. The young urban mind cultivates genius amidst the trauma that it endures. Surviving the misfortunes of the inner city isn’t easy. To avoid collapse, young minds take dissonant sounds created by unspeakable traumas and they orchestrate exquisite symphonies for only them to hear. This sound of music brings peace to the fractured world they live in, and it calms their soul and protects their mind from catastrophe.   As mentors, it is our privilege and our challenge t...
Read more