History
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- Member for
- 1 year 50 weeks
*My Story
- I am
A person who has accomplished a major transition and who is committed to helping others do the same, no matter how large or small it may be.
- I earn my daily bread
As the Associate Director of BASE high school in Alameda, CA. I spend my days teaching, learning, organizing, counseling, and, yes, mopping the floors and taking out the trash too.
- How my leadership has changed as a result of OTV
I let go of the notion that leaders don’t make mistakes. I discovered that my job as a leader is to make decisions, take action, and then learn from what results. I also learned the powerful tool of listening, both to myself and others.
- Where I’ve come from and where I expect to be in the next 3-5 years
I was born and raised on a farm in the Midwest. After graduating from college, I moved to Atlanta, New York City, and then Oakland. I taught for two years in the New York City public school system where I benefited from working with seasoned, committed, and resilient teachers. It was an incredible place to begin my career as a teacher.
I am currently in my fifth year at BASE high school and I am a second year graduate student in the Marriage and Family Therapy program at San Francisco State University. In the future, I plan to continue my work as teacher and administrator as I develop a private practice as a therapist.
- My story of impact
Ever since I was a little kid, I had a vision of who I wanted to be. It kept changing, of course, which is a good thing since I never made it into the NFL and Barbara Walters has yet to show any interest in interviewing me. But the point is, I always had this sense that the person I was destined to become was still out there on the horizon, waiting to be discovered. I came to On The Verge at a very difficult time in my life. I went through an experience that challenged my identity and sense of self worth. I did not feel any connection to my goals or visions for the future. My life didn’t seem to be turning out as I had planned.
Slowly, in my work with OTV, things began to change; or rather, I began to change. I learned how to be an effective member of a group through intense discussions and constant feedback. I discovered that the person I was meant to be was the person that I chose to be. This vision that I had, off in the distance, was in the distance because I was choosing to keep it there. I learned to be proud of my choices and to forgive them as well. I also learned that some of my choices were made poorly, not by me, but by the world in which we live.
To put it simply, this is the impact that I believe I am having on others: helping them make powerful, conscious choices in order to accomplish their own life’s vision. Equally important in my work is to dissect the structures in the world around us that try to manipulate our choices and make us feel shameful. I work hard every day to ensure that young people in my care touch the horizon and discover who they really are.
