Estrella

--> The power of strong mentorship begins with in childhood. The child’s first mentors will be the child’s parents, and if the parents are not present, the child’s guardian. At this young age, the mentorship relationship is more of an adult pouring into the child, but adults can learn a lot from children as children learn from adults. Mentorship is necessary to society according to the Aristotelian principle that everyone needs a mentor or a friend. If more formal mentorship existed today in American society, I believe that there would be a decrease in crime and teenage pregnancy and higher attrition rates in high school and college graduations. As it stands, the American youth is not competing as highly as it could with other developed countries in terms of education when it comes to secondary education. When it comes to youth and mentorship, it is important to protect the youth from outside forces that can manipulate the youth. Adult-youth relationshi...

Teaching versus Charity As the saying goes, “ Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” (Maimonides). Anyone who takes a poverty 101 class will realize the two different types of poverty: circumstantial/crisis-related poverty and chronic poverty. The former poverty is the condition caused by a sudden change in living either due to a natural disaster, job loss, medical health problems or something of the like. The latter is usually of the condition that one is born into or acquires throughout the generations because that family never either had the opportunity or capacity to gain upward mobility in class economics. It’s a shock to live in a country where 25% of American children skip one meal of the day. However, the immediate needs as well as the chronic needs are just as important to be fixed in this day. Sometimes giving a meal for several times is all that it takes. But when that reception turns int...

In this time in this country, we have seen an uptick in loneliness, depression and youth delinquency that have been unprecedented. What can be done to battle such upheavals in Ferguson, Boston during the Boston Marathon, school shootings in Connecticut and other shootings elsewhere? Is America to only decay into a violent society where it picks itself apart to the soundtrack and script of a Chris Nolan film? I believe that we have the power as Americans and residents in this country to resolve these issues and reclaim the former power, unity and peace of this spirited nation. With God as our guide, we have the power to reclaim the village. The Village versus Community Some may ask why I use the term “village” rather than “community”. They are both similar terms, but one has a deeper responsibility to a brother’s keeper than the other while the former term “village” carries with it some of the connotations of shunning, exile, social exclusion and moral puni...