The Power of Intention | MDC Honors Orientation

Rocking the MDC Honors swag!

Over the past few days, I have solidified my commitment to the Miami-Dade Honors College program, both financially - I'm several hundreds poorer because of it - and mentally. Heretofore, the experience has been wonderful.

Orientation took place yesterday and today, a total of sixteen hours of truly engrossing and rewarding presentations, activities and experiences. That sole achievement - the production of a program with an audience of around two hundred high school graduates that not only felt coherent from beginning to end but also conveyed a fairly abstract message with aplomb - has been a demonstration of the integrity and capabilities of the staff and faculty at the program. To keep hundreds of kids interested for sixteen hours across two days is no easy feat.

The message conveyed was a powerful one, about the power of intention. The common theme throughout the orientation's presentations - which ranged from administrative staff delineating their expectations of the students; to speakers of all races, origins and passions that motivated us through their philosophies of, and ways they had achieved, success - was that the power of a human being to achieve and to excel is indomitable if properly aimed.

Taking the group picture on the steps of Building 3.

They spoke of financial, social, intellectual and personal capital; how for one person, success was the alignment of passion, profit, intellect and purpose; they spoke of community, of a mutual give and take (on levels in and beyond the classroom) that we as students of a common program must foster; they spoke of ways to perceive and to better our relationships with others, such as the middle seat mentality and the difference between networking across versus upwards; they spoke of practical matters, such as the cost of our education and how mechanically shuttling ourselves between class and home not only doesn't cut it in the eyes of the Honors college faculty but is also a waste of our time and money; they spoke of being part of a dynamic educational program that aims to build upon all the facets of ourselves, beginning with but extending well beyond the academic realm.

It takes a certain kind of mindset and a certain set of circumstances to be able to sit in a room for several hours at a time and have such topics be thrown at you and retained. But that's exactly how I felt yesterday and today, as if I was a bottomless wicker basket, that kept expanding and expanding as more and more valuable information was thrown my way.

Standing ovation for Jullien Gordon of www.julliengordon.com. 

I have been convinced that what I am embarking upon may seem one way on paper but is something much more valuable and much more costly in real life. On paper, I'm pursuing an associate's degree in journalism at the Honors program hosted at the local community college. In real life, I am putting my own time, much of my own money, my own energy and my own spiritual being headfirst - and past the point of no return - into an investment towards myself and my future.

It's a heavy responsibility unto myself, but I'm willing to take it. Through my intention, I will harness my power.

Here's to college.

The Power of Intention | MDC Honors Orientation

Food Sustainability | A Conversation with Erin Healy, Youth LEAD Founder

In a world where production and consumption of mass produced food items is the norm, one Miami-based nonprofit organization stands out among the rest as promoting a much healthier way of eating. Youth L.E.A.D. is a "food justice" organization devoted to getting youth to "adopt healthy, sustainable behaviors and advocate for food & environmental justice in their schools and communities."

L.E.A.D. runs several different kinds of events. Its "Activist Academy" is a "4-month training that includes field trips, food preparation classes, community outreach, guest speakers, and hands-on activities"; it also hosts adult cooking classes and various farmers' markets.

Youth L.E.A.D. Farmers' Markets Schedule

Saturdays Noon-3pm | behind Arcola Lakes Library | 8240 NW 7th Ave

Sundays 11am-1pm | St. Philip Neri Church | Bunche Park Rd & NW 157th Street

Last Saturday of each month 11am-2pm | LAB | 400 NW 26th Street

I recently caught up with L.E.A.D.'s founder, Erin Healy, and asked her about her inspiration for L.E.A.D. and her thoughts on the current state of food production in the world.

Cover of Eating Animals

Her impetus to start L.E.A.D. came from a genuine concern with the health and environmental problems that were being brought about by big companies in the food industry in the past few years. She explained how genetically enhanced foods cause an array of health problems for their consumers, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, and how the current agricultural system is one of the leading causes of global warming. Personally, and through her organization, Healy advocates the production and consumption of locally grown produce and food items that are tastier and more organic than their current mass-produced counterparts.

Healy's ideas ring true in today's society, where pieces of nonfiction such as Jonathan Foer's Eating Animals reveal the nasty side of our efficient food production techniques.

But the question is one of feasibility - can we actually afford, in these harsh economic times, to switch, on a large scale, to production of our own fruits and vegetables? Healy argues that people who could feasibly do this, don't. There's a good number of common folk that could switch to independent production that don't, and when this collective follows suit, we'll be much better off as a society.

L.E.A.D. reaches out namely to impoverished or otherwise low-income communities in Miami Dade County, such as Overtown or Little Haiti. Healy argues that this is the case for two reasons: one, because it's generally such communities whose interests are least represented in government; two, because of an anti-stereotypical envelope - not all people concerned about the environment are white, middle-class hippies.

L.E.A.D. is currently sponsored by the Miami Foundation but is looking to achieve 501c3 status so as to open the door to more ways of self-funding.

For more details about Youth L.E.A.D., visit www.youthleadmiami.org. L.E.A.D. is currently looking for volunteers for its farmers' markets. Follow youthleadmiami on Facebook, @youthleadmiami on Twitter!

Food Sustainability | A Conversation with Erin Healy, Youth LEAD Founder

Basketball

Basketball Court (Photo credit: xcode)

I went to the local park with one of my younger friends - a tyke still in middle school - to engage in a session of basketball wherein he'd teach me the tricks of the trade he's considered a professional at. Despite his best efforts, I didn't learn much - at least not about basketball itself.

I did learn about the incredible social ritual known as just going to the park and playing basketball with complete strangers. I spend so much time thinking about the right way to approach people, what to say to them, how to carry yourself, what excuses you can come up with - and here was my friend and tutoring pupil, defying all of my preconceived notions about "casual encounters" by simply coming up to complete strangers of any age and soliciting their time, physical effort and desire to engage in a simple game involving a rubber sphere.

It was mind-blowing! To think that as we grow up, social interactions became so much more methodical and potentially awkward to the point that many feel they're not even worth it anymore! But it's nice to see that more practical human beings like my basketball pro pupil are keeping things as real as can be.

Basketball

Loose Cannon

Man Asleep on Bench (Photo credit: derajfast)

I'm the kind of person that throws caution to the wind in instances where the opposite is the case. Not to an extreme - I haven't been accomplice to a murder or serious theft or anything; but rather, I've behaved quite complacently in situations that would otherwise rattle my sense of normalcy.

When one of my friends wanted to go out to a late night event with no way of getting back home, I figured we could just take the public bus in the morning and get back that way. When I wanted to do the same a few months later, and the same circumstances were in place, I did exactly the same thing and ended up sleeping on a bench most of the evening.

When I had a job interview way down south and no ride or bus over there, I traveled aboard my 80s touring bicycle down the busway, suit and tie and all. When a less than noble evening affair with my male friend and two attractive females reached a boiling point, I went for it, void of any hesitation.

Sleep on a bench (Photo credit: Matti Mattila)

Sometimes I reflect on this atittude that I have towards new, potentially dangerous, potentially immoral experiences - yet all perfectly legal - and I think to myself whether I'm a loose cannon or not. At least one acquaintance has told me I'm freaking crazy, but I like to think of such an outlook on life not as crazy, but as a way to arrive at the main prerequisite of my future career - journalism.

Because you see, open-mindedness is synonymous with the craft. I figure, if reporters in the industry have to witness and talk about truly disturbing things like hard-working employees getting laid off, innocent people being murdered, and corrupt political regimes ruining the lives of many - I should be able to handle sleeping on a bench in the middle of the night.

Loose Cannon