OPERATION LEAP OF FAITH
Everything happens in one moment or one day. For example, one day while driving in my car I heard this message and I first thought about my students, but then the more I listened to the message I began to think about myself. I began to internalize the message. I listened to this message again and again until I began to see the cognitive dissonance in my own life.
“You are not and I have not been called to live an average life. Average basically is just as close to the bottom as you are the top. Average is making A's and F's. Average is making B's and D's. That's what average is. In the dictionary it made this statement, it says his grades were nothing special only average, was one of the definitions of average. Nothing special about your life, nothing special what you are doing, now we're not talking about you have some prestigious job that you can brag about. It's just your life, there's just nothing that special about your life." -Pastor Glen Berteau
Pastor Glen Berteau is a preacher from "The House" in Modesto, California. His message inspired me as a School Psychologist to live above the average. After listening to his Champion Leadership Series, I began to write an innovative curriculum to help students shine light on the discrepancy between attitudes and goals of my high school students who are incarcerated. I began to shine light on their cognitive dissonance to promote change and create a new legacy.
“The existence of dissonance, being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate the person to try to reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance.” Leon Festinger
In order to create cognitive dissonance I would give my students a survey, which often would reveal that they wanted to have extraordinary lives with minimal effort. I would hold them accountable in small groups by choosing a different teacher per week to report on their progress. I also had each student choose a theme song and we would have a debate whether their theme song was going to assist them on their personal journey to become extraordinary. For an entire semester we would focus on their progress toward reaching the extraordinary life that they wanted and after about 8 to 12 weeks I began to see a transformation. The following semester I would challenge the group to continue to live above the average. I said, "Now that you have made your lives better, can you make someone else's life better."
In 2013 after being motivated and inspired by Pastor Glen Berteau, I started my own nonprofit "The Extraordinary B.E.A.T.," which is designed to help students see how their beliefs, education, achievement, and time come together to make extraordinary moments. I believe our students want extraordinary lives and with the use of my nonprofit I was able to create an opportunity for project based learning. Our students developed a plan which included the use of our vocational shop, where students studied graphic design to produce 50 shirts with the Extraordinary B.E.A.T logo. We then reached out to Target stores in our local community and requested Target gift cards to purchase 50 shirts. In collaboration with the Department of Juvenile Justice the leadership group sold our finished products to correction officers and educational staff. All proceeds were donated to a charity that supports victims of violent crime. On April 10th we presented a check for over $1,100 to New Day for Children thanks to our foster grandparents donating a $100 we were able to exceed our goal.
So this year I decided to continue to shine bright like a diamond and I will be going back to school. I’m currently enrolled at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California pursuing a doctorate degree in Education Administration. My dream is that I will be able to create an evidence and researched based curriculum for At-Risk youth that inspires them to shoot for the stars and to let their light shine. I want to break the trend of mediocracy.
Everything happens in one moment or one day. For example, one day while driving in my car I heard this message and I first thought about my students, but then the more I listened to the message I began to think about myself. I began to internalize the message. I listened to this message again and again until I began to see the cognitive dissonance in my own life.
“You are not and I have not been called to live an average life. Average basically is just as close to the bottom as you are the top. Average is making A's and F's. Average is making B's and D's. That's what average is. In the dictionary it made this statement, it says his grades were nothing special only average, was one of the definitions of average. Nothing special about your life, nothing special what you are doing, now we're not talking about you have some prestigious job that you can brag about. It's just your life, there's just nothing that special about your life." -Pastor Glen Berteau
Pastor Glen Berteau is a preacher from "The House" in Modesto, California. His message inspired me as a School Psychologist to live above the average. After listening to his Champion Leadership Series, I began to write an innovative curriculum to help students shine light on the discrepancy between attitudes and goals of my high school students who are incarcerated. I began to shine light on their cognitive dissonance to promote change and create a new legacy.
“The existence of dissonance, being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate the person to try to reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance.” Leon Festinger
In order to create cognitive dissonance I would give my students a survey, which often would reveal that they wanted to have extraordinary lives with minimal effort. I would hold them accountable in small groups by choosing a different teacher per week to report on their progress. I also had each student choose a theme song and we would have a debate whether their theme song was going to assist them on their personal journey to become extraordinary. For an entire semester we would focus on their progress toward reaching the extraordinary life that they wanted and after about 8 to 12 weeks I began to see a transformation. The following semester I would challenge the group to continue to live above the average. I said, "Now that you have made your lives better, can you make someone else's life better."
In 2013 after being motivated and inspired by Pastor Glen Berteau, I started my own nonprofit "The Extraordinary B.E.A.T.," which is designed to help students see how their beliefs, education, achievement, and time come together to make extraordinary moments. I believe our students want extraordinary lives and with the use of my nonprofit I was able to create an opportunity for project based learning. Our students developed a plan which included the use of our vocational shop, where students studied graphic design to produce 50 shirts with the Extraordinary B.E.A.T logo. We then reached out to Target stores in our local community and requested Target gift cards to purchase 50 shirts. In collaboration with the Department of Juvenile Justice the leadership group sold our finished products to correction officers and educational staff. All proceeds were donated to a charity that supports victims of violent crime. On April 10th we presented a check for over $1,100 to New Day for Children thanks to our foster grandparents donating a $100 we were able to exceed our goal.
So this year I decided to continue to shine bright like a diamond and I will be going back to school. I’m currently enrolled at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California pursuing a doctorate degree in Education Administration. My dream is that I will be able to create an evidence and researched based curriculum for At-Risk youth that inspires them to shoot for the stars and to let their light shine. I want to break the trend of mediocracy.