Inform & Empower.
Classroom Lectures Discussions
Raising mental health awareness has never been so relevant. While the prevalence of mental illness continues to rise, especially in young adults, educating our nation’s youth about the significance of mental hygiene is certainly a priority.
For the past few years, I’ve been a sanctioned high school sports official, and as of Jan 2021, I’ve become a certified substitute teacher. Meaning, I find plenty of opportunities to interact with my target audience in many different settings & atmospheres which frequently refreshes the connection b/w myself & them as I grow in my own journey.
As part of the W/M outreach, I organize classroom speaking engagements with local junior high & high schools. Where I come in as a guest speaker, not to lecture, but rather and spark discussion to shed some light on what it’s really like learning to ‘adult’ and building a Life worth dying for.
With W/M student engagements, I focus on the transition from the classroom to the real world, and just how important our mental hygiene is during this pivotal development period. Highlighting the connection between authentic self-expression and mental health & vitality, I offer all the insights that I didn’t hear enough of sooner in hopes to inspire young individuals to further inquire into what truly moves them and find/create ways to embrace & reflect whatever that may be.
Furthermore, in an effort to help dissolve the stigma associated with mental health care & those who seek it, I share my personal history with mental stress & impairment and communicate the current magnitude of the mental health crisis present in this era. Not only do I advocate mental hygiene, but I also often highlight local & online resources readily available to young individuals. — I believe that everyone who’s willing to seek counsel should be made well aware of the opportunities there are to do so. — Acknowledging the strength it takes to ask for help, and bringing awareness to the advantages of a well-equipped & educated community, we can overcome the barriers that have kept so many from receiving the help they may want & may very well need.
— Inquiries about speaking engagements can be made at the bottom of the page. —
Aspire to Inspire
It all begins with the interest, “Who am I?” — In a pure sense, we are who we aspire to be. In a more pragmatic sense, we are who we practice to be.
Most people don’t begin really digging into these questions about identity & purpose until their juvenile dilemmas become their internal crises. Most people require much more Life experience & suffering to initiate this kind of self-inquiry.
Nevertheless, we all inquire — either within ourselves or somewhere else, but either way we’re looking for wisdom, clarity, for some kind of guidance as to where it is we really mean to be — what it is we’re truly trying to connect with.
Every individual desires to move freely and fulfill a purpose. I hope that I am able to not only represent what that looks like, but also demonstrate how it’s done — or at the very least, how to get started.
