Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sebastian White. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Sebastian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.
April 22, 2020 and May 19, 2020, will forever be meaningful and painful for me. I lost my aunt Gwen first, who was like a second mother and I mean that literally because she was. A month later I lost my father… my rock, my best friend, my hero. I couldn’t resolve them being gone so I created The Evolved Network. An incorporation of our passions, our unconditional care, and their lifelong support of so many different lives. When I look in the mirror, I seek to see them and I believe The Evolved Network makes that possible. I believe The Evolved Network continues their legacies…it honors them…it keeps their genius here. We will pass it on and change lives. I love you Gwennie! I love you Old Man. Your names will never die.
Sebastian, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Sebastian White received his Master of Arts degree in Clinical Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and was working toward his Doctorate of Clinical Psychology degree from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology before being impacted by his own life circumstances. Sebastian completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut. As a trained psychotherapist, Sebastian was working with youth who were gang-involved, labeled at-risk, and many others who were simply struggling with the complexities of life before being hit and devastated by the unexpected deaths of both his aunt and father. In their honor, he founded The Evolved Network, NFP and established Evolved Kitchen and Garden, LLC. “April 22, 2020 and May 19, 2020, will forever be meaningful and painful for me. I lost my aunt Gwen first, who was like a second mother and I mean that literally because she was. A month later I lost my father… my rock, my best friend, my hero. I couldn’t resolve them being gone so I created The Evolved Network. An incorporation of our passions, our unconditional care, and their lifelong support of so many different lives. When I look in the mirror, I seek to see them and I believe The Evolved Network makes that possible. I believe The Evolved Network continues their legacies…it honors them…it keeps their genius here. We will pass it on and change lives. I love you Gwennie! I love you Old Man. Your names will never die.” (Sebastian White)
Sebastian incorporated the passions of his lost loved ones and himself into an opportunity to provide a holistic healing and therapeutic space for kids using what connected them all. Sebastian stated “When I look in the mirror, I seek to see them, and I believe The Evolved Network makes that possible. I believe The Evolved Network continues their legacies…it honors them…it keeps their genius here. We will pass it on and change lives”. Sebastian believes and lives as true Terence’s philosophy “I am human, and I think nothing of which is human is alien to me”.
From sitting on the counter watching his mother cook dinner every night. To wondering how to make eggs green after reading Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham”, Sebastian always held a passion for cooking. He observed, learned, expanded, and had side jobs in restaurants soaking up knowledge from different sources he could find. In the process he honed in on his skills and found belief in the never ending journey of cooking, quality ingredients, and their connectedness to nature and all living things. Sebastian believes deeply in the therapeutic and healing power of the farm to table process. He began to understand the depth of what it truly means to cook and sought to pay it forward in action. He believes the lessons of the culinary arts, of gardening, of being financially responsible mirror the human experience and provide valuable insights if explored thoughtfully and critically. Sebastian seeks to share this passion and its quality with others and in the process support his ability to provide the same opportunity, love, care, and support for the youth that enter The Evolved Network’s Programs. To cook means to heal, sustain, nurture, connect, challenge, educate, comfort, to sit with, fight for, encourage, bring together, care for, inspire, and love. This is what The Evolved Network is.
The Evolved Network provides experiential programming through culinary and gardening equipping youth in systemically oppressed communities with transformative healing, skills and support needed to evolve into masters of their unique gifts.
The Evolved Network believes, with unconditional care through a holistic and therapeutic approach youth can experience foundational transformation through the creation of a farm to table dining experience. Creating opportunities to comfort the soul through their service to others.
Creating sustainable experiences of radical hospitality through the giving and receiving of nurturance, patience, togetherness, respect, stewardship, practical skills, depth of consideration, justice, commitment and hope.
In honor of the legacies and lives of William White, Jr. and Gwendolyn Barjon, and with deep concern for the suffering and hope of impoverished, at-risk youth, The Evolved Network was created to honor the transformative power of brokenness into redemptive hospitality for both those offering it and for those receiving it. Knowing that the strongest tissue is healed scar tissue, and that the broken are the evolved, we believe that youthful lives left with the scratch of a shattered existence can start from such scratch and create culinary masterpieces of their ways of being in the world through the farm to table event, such that they come to see themselves as unique gifts offering unique gifts to others. This process is life-changing for all persons involved, whether through learning the pragmatics of the culinary arts, hospitality and financial skills, or in coming to understand and embrace oneself with dignity, compassion and inspiration in the meaning and fulfillment of the culinary experience.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Outside of passion, resilience is the foundation of my story. Every loss, failure, and experience I had, was preparing me for what was to come and what is still transpiring on my journey. I can begin with deciding to step away from football in college. Up to that point being a football player was the only true identity I held and was connected with. After I stepped away I had to discover what else was inside of me. I began exploring psychology and philosophy, which immediately clicked and more importantly forced me to ask questions and think critically about the world around me. My first attempt to get into graduate school there after was a failure as I received rejection letter after rejection letter to graduate programs. I moved to Washington, DC with my father and began working as a teacher’s aide at the Howard Gardner School in Alexandria, Virginia. That experience was essential as I got to build relationships with kids and see the impact of those relationships in other facets like learning, self-confidence, hope, and belief that occurs because of the trust built between myself and my students. That next year I reapplied r to graduate programs in Clinical Psychology and was accepted into a few places and decided to attend The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. I immediately experienced academic success unlike what I had achieved at any other stage of my educational background. I held a 3.95 gpa through 3.5 years, but made a decision at a practicum site that I believed was best for my client that ultimately led to my dismissal from graduate school. Before I get into what transpired after. 2 years later that same client reached out to me and thanked me for saving her life. So I was 1.5 years away from finishing my doctorate in clinical psychology and had to pull myself out of another hole. I ended up eventually finding a job at an agency where I got to work therapeutically as counselor for youth who were gang affiliated, at risk, and/or violent. I deeply enjoyed the connections and quality of what I was offering for my clients, but was also struggling with this idea that I was profiting on their pain. Then came spring 2020, I first lost my aunt who was like my second mother and then my father a month later, both were unexpected and completely rocked my world. After I settled from their losses I decided I wanted to honor their lives and put together a concept which has become The Evolved Network, NFP. Everyday I struggle that it took losing them to understand what I was supposed to be doing. Resilience and continuing to push forward no matter what losses I’ve had is how I’ve arrived here and how I’ll continue to push this The Evolved Network to its potential. Its crazy that I can look back and see how every disappointment, loss, failure, and experience were lessons preparing me for this very opportunity. I now hold spaces with the best chefs in the one of the best food cities in the United States, without a restaurant, without culinary training, without any restaurant kitchen experience.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
Training and knowledge are necessary components to success, but I think particular to what I do and believe it is the capacity to form and create trusting and meaningful relationships that initiate from a place of care. Whether that’s teaching one of our classes or composing an elegant dinner. People feel authenticity, your care, and your passion. That is expressed how you are with people, how you care, how consistent you are, how you challenge them, how you walk with them. Relationships are essential. How we care and invest in them makes the biggest difference.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://theevolvednetwork.org
- Instagram: @the.evolved.network; @sebastians.kitchen
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theevolvednetwork
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastian-white-01828860/
Image Credits
Kali Lachner Diana Klimovich