We asked some of the brightest folks from within the community to reflect back on their days in school and to share with us a story of when they learned a particularly important or impactful lesson. We’ve shared highlights below.
Berwick Augustin
Winning the battle in your mind is the key to success. I’ve heard people talk about how powerful the mind, but I didn’t know how it was until I personally experienced its impact. During my undergraduate years in college, I was fortunate to have learned some life lessons that are shaping who I am and how I do business. Maintaining tunnel vision to accomplish a goal and being surrounded by link minded individuals are two takeaways that will forever be engrained in my mind. Read more>>
Cassie Sawyer
The most impactful lesson that I learned in school was that I really needed to trust myself and question everything. Therapy school so Western and colonial, and I knew that I wanted to serve my community. The stuff we learn in school was not made for the folks that I knew I was going to be serving. The best thing I did for myself in hindsight was to use my time to tailor all of my learning to the population that I knew I was passionate about serving. Any time I had a paper to write, or a research project to do, or a presentation to give; I always focused on the topic that I was interested- racial trauma and grief. Read more>>
Thomas Tyler
Not many people know this, but I dropped out of college after my sophomore year. I was a collegiate athlete and had a series of back to back injuries that ultimately led to me deciding to retire from volleyball. When I think about what I learned from school, I think about more of the life lessons rather than textbook lessons. From the time I started college, I found myself spending more time reading books, listening to podcasts, and Googling “how to drop out of school,” instead of actually attending classes. I never felt that the classroom was the right space for me to learn. The one thing stopping me from dropping out was the fear of disappointing my parents and the fear of failure. Read more>>
Kelly Bell
When I first started college, I had a remedial, math teacher named Dr. Wee. As I was certainly guilty. Of treating freshman year and college like the 13th grade I made the most important mistake of my life. I walked into Dr. Wees class without the homework that she insisted we have for the following class. She called me to the board and I literally said to her “Na that’s all right!” I was too embarrassed to come to the board and attempt the problem. Read more>>
Charles Kiser
When I was young, I wanted to do something amazing in my life but had no clue what I wanted to do. I realized everyone else had no clue what they wanted either, we had ideas but in truth we had to decide on something that you truly wanted and growing up that’s the hard part because you have to build that, choose on what you want and decide for yourself to go towards that journey. I learned to be humble and kind to myself as my girlfriend says but also be confident and go for my dreams no matter what . Read more>>
Valentin Martinez
Definitely throughout the whole trajectory of me being in college. Having different teachers with different perspectives and ways of teaching, left me great lessons and memories. One in particular that I remember was from Mr Mack, he told me how to prepare for setting up a studio with the best affordable equipment and also how to report everything on my taxes. Which at that point none of my teachers throughout my whole life had gave me in advice from that perspective. Read more>>