City of Truth: Class #12 of 12

LEADERSHIP

At the beginning of this year, I was rocking my brain studying and preparing for a Leadership program I was calling "City of Truth" which I was creating from scratch for a group of young adults in the Bronx. Most of them attended the same church I did. Two of them didn't even attend a local church. Interestingly enough, this was not a church class, this was a Leadership class. My desire was to assist these 17 to 24 year olds in their transition from teenagehood into adulthood.

God was gracious and surrounded me with three adult friends who joined me in this endeavor. Big shout-out to Tasha, Terri & Damaris for their trust in me and all their hard work. Many times they had no clue what I was doing. Sometimes they even questioned whether they should be working with me. :)

But with a whole lotta faith, and a shear desire to please God with what He placed in my heart, I creted a curriculum and begun our first class on April 4th.

Classes continued basically once every three weeks. In the beginning I stayed pretty close to the curriculum. As time passed and the group of six to twelve young adults grew closer to each other, the curriculum began to change and grow. It was amazing.

I'm not going to make this post long, but I will say over the past eleven classes, teaching these young adults has blessed me tremendously. I really feel I have grown as man and a leader. Teaching about leadership brought leadership out of me.

So as I approach this last class this weekend, I pray City of Truth accomplished its goal of training and equipping young adults to be world leaders. A part of me is slightly melancholic at this point. COT has truly been a labor of love. Working with this group has changed my life.

I'm not sure when the next set of COT classes will begin. However I am sure that when God allows, the next group will be just as amazing as this one was.

City of Truth - "Poverty" with Melissa Cruz

Two weeks ago "City of Truth" had a great class where we discussed "What is Poverty?" I had the privilege to teach the class to some wonderful young adults. We were challenged visually, orally, and emotionally to really consider what is poverty globally, nationally, and locally. How should we respond? And how does this connect to our faith?

I asked one of the participants to share her experience via poetry. Below is our special guest blogger, Melissa Milagros Cruz:



In the center of Poverty I sat and I stared
At the Hunger and pain that goes on out there
The tears fill my eyes as I looked to my left
And seen a baby feeding on his mothers breast
A malnourished human feeding on another who's the same
In a world with a great God, who gets the blame?
The strongest men couldn't stand the sight of their pain
The pictures have embedded themselves in my brain.
Immediately I remembered all the food I put to waste
Never Have I stopped to put myself in their place.
What If I didn't have enough food to eat?
Or enough water to keep hydrated?
Or a decent place to sleep?
What if I didn't have the chance to bathe everyday?
Or make the money that I basically throw away..
With each picture I saw, My heart ripped to shreds,
Each person not knowing the next time they'll be fed.
My mind wandered to the Lord and I asked him why?
Whats his purpose for creating a beautiful birth
in a world where he is destined to die?
No chance of survival in a world with less...
What a Beautiful, Horrible Life they were blessed..
Horrible in sight, materials and health..
Beautiful cause these people actually have wealth...
Not wealth with money or food or favors
But the wealth of knowledge of The Lord Our savior.
Though its hard to paint a pretty picture out of that place
But what they lack in food.. they make up for with FAITH

Melissa Milagros Cruz

Mainstream Gen Y isn't Buying Into Web 2.0

It seems "Mainstream Gen Y isn't Buying Into Web 2.0":

"According to Comscore, the majority of Twitter users worldwide are 35 or older. Young adults 18-24 only make up 10.6% of the Twitter population in the US and are less likely than the average user to tweet. 45-54 year olds are actually 36 percent more likely than average to visit Twitter.

The traditional social media early adopters are 18 -24 and Twitter is the new social media darling. Why isn't Gen Y biting?"

Read the full article here.

- Joseph Dominick

CITY OF TRUTH

This Saturday is the first City of Truth Leadership class. Wow, time has flown by so quickly. We are about to go from Pre-production to Implementation. :o)

Based on the response from the pre-orientation and the orientation, we have about 12-15 young adults slated for the program. I am really excited.

Well, let me get out of here so I can work on this Saturday's lesson plan. I will post back to tell you how it went.

Laters!

Class Act

I got the word yesterday the Acting class I will be teaching is officially going to take place at Harvest Studios (via G-City Films). They will be getting back to me regarding the exact starting date.

This is very good news. Now I can begin my research. I always enjoy reading a great deal on a topic before I teach it. I want to refresh my mind, consider some new things for class instruction, as well as organize some good reading assignments for the students.

I haven't taught a series of acting classes in about two and a half years. Mostly I have been brought in as a consultant to do a workshop or to give notes during tech/dress rehearsals of plays. I am looking forward to teaching an 8 class course to Teenagers and a 12 class course to Adults.

As far as the Leadership class I will be teaching for the Young Adults (City of Truth), we still have one more meeting left with the administration. We need to clear up some issues regarding dates and location.

I have spent the last few months doing research on Leadership and Mentorship. It will be nice to begin working on the lesson plans for this when I return from vacation.