Major Lessons Learned in Leadership and Life

Pain is temporary!  It may last for a minute, or an hour, or a day, or even a year.  But eventually it will subside and something else will take it’s place.  If I quit however, it will last forever.

Eric Thomas, Motivational Speaker

Look, when it comes to responsibility (any type, but especially the big type), sometimes you will feel like you are crumbling under pressure.  That's to be expected--or else you don't have enough responsibility on you and you're running low on commitment.

But remember, you will face lulls.  I have, especially the past 4 weeks.  ALMas faced 3 major issues which stalled our work.

1.  We were all confused, and I wasn't doing anything about it.  No one knew what I was thinking.
2.  We were in the dumps because our potential location never got back to us--so we just stopped working.
3.  As the club leader and creator, I ran away form having the hard conversations and keeping people motivated.

How did we respond as a group?

1.  I spent hours at night after school work to create process maps and mind maps to literally chart out all the steps our organization had to take so that everyone could see where we were, what work was left, and who could take up what responsibility.  It became our central hub for work direction and accountability.  You can check out the evolving chart at the bottom of this page!

2.  I just spoke with Catherine Corr, or educational consultant in early childhood education.  She knows the director of a program on 92nd street that would be open to housing our program's pilot working with siblings of elementary school latino children and families.  Score.

3.  I got my team together for an all board and member meeting.  I told them how I felt, how I fell behind, and how I was tired of running away from ALMas after setbacks and finally ready to run towards it again--and hard!  They opened up with their thoughts and frustrations.  Then we started coming up with solutions.

Now w'ere back on track.  We're creating our first minimum viable product this weekend to showcase for new volunteers, for training new volunteers, and showcasing it to our potential pilot's location.

But you have to understand, this is an entrepreneurial project.  Sure, we're in college starting out as a student organization on campus.  But that's not our long-term plans.  We're going for the big guns, because we believe and know we can reach more kids that way.  And given this is an entrepreneurial endeavor, I expect partial lulls, setbacks, but I also expect strength, vigor, and resilience.

It's never too late to be who you should be.  You just have to start hating being down on your knees.  Because you can't change the lives of those that need if, if you're constantly down for the count.  You'll never get up to do anything.  And that's love.  It's that recognition.  It's recognizing that you were made to do something on your feet--and you decide to stay on your feet until you've done it.

Importance of Social-emotional Skills for a Child's Success

The first 5 years of a child’s life are critical for their success as adults in the labor market.  Within these first few years of life (and even before birth), children develop most of their cognitive and noncognitive skills that determine the rate at which they learn and the size of the positive impact that schooling has on their lives.  Cognitive skills are the “smarts” of a child.  Being able to do math problems immediately and solve equations and puzzles.  The non-cognitive skills, also termed their social and emotional skills, are their “soft skills,” their ability to motivate themselves, to be patient, to persevere, and to sit down to study for long periods of time.  

Heckman (2008) explains that children with higher levels of non-cognitive skills are less likely to go to prison, less likely to become teenage mothers (if the child is a female), less likely to become high school dropouts, and less likely become smokers.  Children with higher levels of non-cognitive skills are more likely to graduate from college within 4 years and are more likely to earn higher wages.  Heckman even shows that among individuals with the lowest amounts of non-cognitive skills, any increase in their soft skills is associated with a large reduction in the probability of incarceration--a reduction greater than the decrease associated with an increase in the individuals’ cognitive skills.  He finds that these non-cognitive skills are just as important--if not more important--to the later successes of children than their cognitive skills.

Of course, a child must develop both of these skills because of the relationship between the two.  According to Heckman (2006)’s model of human development and skill acquisition over time, children with larger amounts of non-cognitive skills develop their cognitive skills faster.  They learn faster.  When they realize this, they in turn invest more in their non-cognitive skills too because they realize the complementary benefits of investing in both skills. This is dynamic complementarity:  it is a virtuous cycle.  And the more a child already knows, the easier it is to learn new skills!  This is self-productivity.

Simply put, a child that can study for long periods of time and remain motivated to learn is going to learn faster than another child that does not.  And the more the child continues to learn, the more the child will be willing to study longer, making learn even easier over time.

And there is a critical window in time in a child’s life where these skills first develop and are easiest to develop.  These are the years from birth to age 8.

So how do we ensure a child develops and invests in these social emotional skills we recognize are so important for a child’s ability to learn and be successful, productive individuals--not just their cognitive skills?  We provide them with nurturing, loving, and encouraging home and classroom environments.  This means children are not pit against each other in competition, but they are taught to work together in teams, to share with one another, to love and care for one another, and to to be patient and working at problems step by step until they are resolved.  This means we hug them, talk to them, ask them questions--if they get an answer wrong, we avoid bringing them down but guide them to the correct answer and let them understand their thoughts matter and that they should participate in discussions and conversations without the fear of feeling dumb or inadequate.

If they get into disputes with their fellow classmates, we teach them to resolve their issues not through violence but through listening, understanding, and apology.

Updates: Logo, Program Location, Volunteer Recruitment (and new Beta Website), and Brand Management

Our Logo
A graphic designer friend of mine, Shuwen Qian, used his amazing talents and created this logo for ALMas:

Pretty Awesome right?









Program Location
We're still waiting on the green light from Gage Park Library.  We submitted our program proposal to Ms. Elizabeth McChesney, and we're waiting for her stamp of approval.  It's been about 2.5 weeks, and I have followed up with her twice.  I will do so again tomorrow to see where we stand while letting her know our commitment to this program and the Hispanic community.

In other news, I was invited to speak to 60 seniors at UNO's Major Hector P. Garcia Charter School about going to college and what to expect.  The school largely serves Hispanic students and works to raise their achievement levels--only fitting, right?  Yeah!  I told the social worker there about ALMas and how we were finalizing our location.  She exclaimed, "YOU SHOULD DO THAT HERE!"  I told her that we should talk with the principal and see if we could get this going.  We would need to figure out transportation, because the UNO school is about an hour away by bus.  But this is an alternative option!

Volunteer Recruitment (and new Beta Website!)
It's the start to a new year the University of Chicago, and we have new students from around the country just waiting to serve their community--and we would like to recruit some of these new youngsters as founding program members and college teachers.  We've just started our first beta for our new website where we'll host all of our program information for volunteers, students' parents, and supporters.  You can see the skeleton of it here:  www.ayudarmas.org.

We've also created an awesome brochure for recruitment too!  Check it out:

Brand Management
I've been reading some fundraising books that unsurprisingly also act as brand development books!  I'll share what I've learned in a later post, but right now I can tell you that AIDA came from one of those books.  So now we're in full swing to get our program started!  We just need to tidy up a few things!

Third Revision: Elysia Liang's Help and Edits

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE ISSUE AND HOW WE ADDRESS IT
AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

Attention
The Hispanic community and its children in the United States are in danger.

Interest
Compared to all other ethnicities in the US, Hispanic students have the highest high school dropout rates, and they academically underperform at every grade K-12 compared to white students. Consequently, as adults these children can expect to be unemployed, earn low-incomes, and struggle as they straddle the lines between life and poverty.

Desire
These students’ gaps in academics and economics result from deficits in their cognitive and noncognitive skills which open up early in their childhoods and persist into adulthood.

Most of these skills develop in the first 5 years of a child's life. Because mothers spend the most time with their children early in their lives, they largely control these investments in skill development. Hispanic mothers know they must invest in their children, but with little formal schooling and knowledge of resources available, they don’t know how. Consequently, they read less to their children early; expose them to less vibrant, expansive language and vocabularies; and less frequently enroll them in high quality preschool programs.

As Hispanic students remain the fastest growing student demographic in the US, these children will continue to drop-out of school at the nation’s highest rates; they will continue to academically underperform relative to their white peers; and they will continue to struggle economically.

Action
But we can change all of this.

If we intervene in these children’s lives early through high quality early childhood literacy programs and programs geared towards working with these children’s parents, we can raise their high school completion rates, raise their incomes and employment rates, and raise them out of poverty.

With the support of our donors, ALMas: Pre-K Literacy and Mentorship is doing just that. We’ve implemented an after school pre-k literacy program based upon the most recent research in early childhood education, and through that same program we work with parents to teach them how to help their children continue learning; growing at home; becoming productive citizens in a new and advanced, technical economy.

Only with our supporters’ and donors’ help can we do this. They are the reason why we can keep our program running and helping as many Hispanic children as we can.

Revised D in AIDA: Desire

Here is a revised version of D.

I think it's a lot more coherent!

Check it out:

These students’ gaps in academics and economic struggles result from cognitive and noncognitive skill deficits, which opened up early in their childhoods (0 - 5 yrs) and progressed into adulthood.  

Because mothers spend the most time with their children early in their lives, they largely control the investments in their children’s skills.  But with little formal schooling and knowledge of resources available, these children’s mothers know they must invest in their children but they don’t know how.

Consequently, early on Hispanic children are read to less than optimally;  are exposed to less vibrant, expansive language and vocabularies; and are less frequently enrolled into high quality preschool programs.  

As Hispanic students remain the fastest growing student demographic in the US, these children will continue to drop-out of school at the nation’s highest rates; they will continue to academically underperform relative to their white peers;  and they will continue to struggle economically.

Re-Branding and Re-Wording for Optimal Future Sustainability

Yo Guys,

I followed AIDA from marketing to focus ALMas' content and and lay down the foundation's of ALMas' marketing and fundraising strategy.  It all focuses on making our program stand out using the time-tested and empirically tested strategies of story-telling and adapting the message to fit the reader/listener.

I got this from reading a book called, How to Write Fundraising Materials That Raise More Money by Tom Ahern.  It's a GOD-SEND.

It really focuses on how to make materials for your organization that clearly explain its importance.

I'm trying to implement that right now, and it has also been a great way to pull my organization members together and hash out elevator pitches, program descriptions, and get everyone in-line with the organization's mission and purpose.

So here's my AIDA for ALMas:

Attention

The Hispanic community and its children in the United States are in danger.

Interest

Compared to all other ethnicities in the US, hispanic students have the highest high school dropout rates, and they academically underperform compared to white students at every grade K-12.  Consequently, as adults these children can expect to be unemployed, earn low-incomes, and struggle as they straddle the lines between life and poverty.

Desire

These students’ gaps in academics and their struggles in economics are the result of their cognitive and noncognitive skill deficits that opened up early in their childhoods and continued to grow larger into adulthood.  Early in life, these children are read to less than optimally; they are exposed to less vibrant, expansive language and vocabularies; and they are less frequently enrolled into high quality preschool programs.  Their mothers, who largely raise them, know they should invest in developing their children’s skills--but they don’t know how.

As immigration trends remain constant for the foreseeable future, where largely  disadvantaged and uneducated Hispanic mothers and families immigrate from Mexico and Central America to raise their children in the US, these children will continue to drop-out of school at the nation’s highest rates; they will continue to academically under-perform their white peers;  and they will continue to struggle economically in the labor market.  

Action

But there is a solution.

If we intervene in these children’s lives early (ages 0 - 5) through high quality early childhood literacy programs  and programs geared towards working with these children’s parents, we can raise their high school completion rates, raise their employment rates, decrease their poverty rates, and raise their incomes!

ALMas: Pre-K Literacy and Mentorships is doing just that.  We’ve implemented an after school pre-k literacy program based upon the most recent research in early childhood education, and through that same program we work with parents to teach them how to help their children continue learning; growing at home; becoming productive citizens in a new advanced, technical economy.

Adapt. Believe. Persist.

These are the major lessons I've learned.

I couldn't go to sleep tonight.  I tried sleeping after my 7 mile run.  But I couldn't stop thinking.  I couldn't stop thinking about this article my friend posted from Inc. Magazine, "The Psychological Price of Entrepreneurship."

I couldn't stop thinking about the potential failure of ALMas, of being incapable of ultimately getting everything together, of ultimately lacking the ability to lead and get something meaningful and big done.

I kept thinking about the possibility of failure.  Of resentment.  Of sadness and disappointment that would engulf me. I kept thinking, I'm not done yet.  I haven't put my best foot forward.  If I fail, it's on me.  No one else.

And then I got up and started working, getting work done.  I had to find all the books we would need for a standardized set of books to start our after school program.  First I began with Eric Carle and moved my way through others, like Rikki Tikki Tambo (awesome, b-t-dubs).  Then I moved on to bilingual and Spanish books.  Got them too!

I mapped out local grocery stories, or " las mercaderias" as they are called in the Hispanic neighborhoods.  Looks like my team and I will be going on foot to these locations over the weekend and setting up meetings as well as hopefully getting some snack commitments for our kids!

Fingers crossed!

But now I feel better.  I took control.  I adapted to the situation at hand.  I believed in my abilities and my vision.  And I continued, persisted.

If there's one thing I've learned over the course of "Creating ALMas," it's this fundamental key to change and impact:

ADAPT.  BELIEVE.  PERSIST.