Estrella

What is KatnissStrong ? Modeled after the fictional warrior character Katniss from The Hunger Games trilogy, KatnissStrong is modeled after Katniss' physical and mental strength and determination she had to fight battles in life.  KatnissStrong is my call to action. It's my personal brand. It's a statement saying, "I'm going to take care of this temple that God has given me." KatnissStrong means that I am powerful beyond measure. KatnissStrong is my act of worship to my Creator as I strengthen my body and reach my full potential of strength through combined cardio and muscle building exercises and daily meditation. KatnissStrong is engaging with my Creator, using his strength to be mentally and physically disciplined. KatnissStrong is a reminder that no many how many times I fail in taking care of myself, I can get back up again and rise in the morning to a new opportunity. I am KatnissStrong .  " Do you not know that in a race all the runners r...

--> On May 18 th , I will have reached the half-way point of my AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) term with Connections to Success, a non-profit that seeks to break the cycle of poverty through training, mentorship, support and hope. I have really enjoyed what I have learned so far, but there are a few things I wish I had known when I had started. 1. Don’t be afraid to take initiative. Yes, it’s always important to run things by your supervisor when working on a project. But your department’s team may be looking to someone with fresh new ideas who’s willing to make new connections with new individuals. And if you sometimes overstep your bounds and mess up, learn from your mistakes and head back on the right track. 2. You don’t have to like everyone that you work with, but you should respect them and perceive them as your ally. So you may be an extrovert, and your colleague may be an introvert. You may not see eye to eye on everything or may...

Two weeks ago the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) heralded the twentieth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, which began in April of 1994 and lasted for 100 days until June of that same day. It became know as the quickest mass execution and killing spree since the Holocaust. In 1994, the Hutu president of Rwanda’s plane was shot down, and the blame was put on the Tutsis, who had historically been in power, but there wasn’t any hard evidence to who shot down the plane. This incident followed the peace process between ethnic Tutsis and Hutus, which only erupted into a civil war turned genocide when Hutu radical militias known as the interhamwe went from village to village, encouraging Hutus to murder their Tutsi neighbors and any Tutsi sympathizers. Graves still remain in Rwanda, and bones and sinew still arise out of the churches where Tutsis and Tutsi sympathizers went for safety but were instead trapped to be hacked to death. Hutus and Tutsis now l...

When I look back at the first two months of my new AmeriCorps position with Connections to Success (CtS) , I am shocked at how quickly it has flown by and by how much I have learned. Yet, there is so much more for me to learn. The weeks have flown by, and the first quarter of my term is coming closely to an end. And I think to myself, “Am I building capacity?” Image from Google Images When VISTAs (Volunteers in Service to America) talk about building capacity, they mean that they are establishing institutions and procedures to be put in place and utilized after the VISTA term ends to help the organization run more efficiently and to help more clients. My job as the program assistant is to track participant data and create project-tracking tools to enhance efficiency and performance of the poverty-fighting procedures and techniques at hands. You would say, “So you track numbers?” But I track more than numbers and data in Excel; I combine those numbers togethe...

Cambodia: the name evokes pictures of poverty and sex trafficking for many people today. But not so long ago, there was one government’s genocide against its own people. The film, The Killing Fields , is a small account of that genocide that took place there in the 1970’s during the culmination of the Vietnam War. Sydney Schanberg played by actor Sam Waterston was one of the main protagonists of the story, but really he is the medium for which the film’s hero, Dith Pran tells his story. Schanberg was The New York Times journalist in Cambodia right before and at the set of the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia and its capital, Phnom Penh. Pran was Schanberg’s interpreter and guide through Cambodia so Schanberg could obtain the necessary photos and information for his New York Times stories. Schanberg was forced to evacuate with the other foreigners living in Cambodia once the Khmer Rouge had taken over, leaving Pran to survive on his own in one of the Khmer Roug...

On November 18 th , I stepped into the office of my new job as an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) with the non-profit Connections to Success. AmeriCorps is similar to a domestic version of the Peace Corps, but there are more venues and fields that participants can volunteer with. In addition, an AmeriCorps commitment is usually only one year long compared to the two-year commitment of the Peace Corps. The VISTA differentiation means that my position specifically focuses on the alleviation of poverty in a community through building capacity of current programs and processes.             Connections to Success Image from Google Images The non-profit organization for which my VISTA program partners with is called Connections to Success (CtS). Connections to Success seeks to break the cycle of poverty through the empowerment of individuals through professional development and access to...

“Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy; To return home at eventide with gratitude; And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.”  Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (14)