When we have children, we project our hopes and dreams onto them. We know they will be successful. We know they will change the world. But, during their teenage years, we look at them with a little doubt. They seem to lack the drive that we did at their age, at least in our minds. They seem less focused, but we convince ourselves that all will change with a few more years of life experience. As we grow older, we acknowledge that the children we brought into this world are the future. As our sense of adventure and wonder diminishes, theirs takes off in directions that we can’t even imagine, and we can only hope that we as parents and the educators to whom we entrusted them did a good job teaching them what is important.
And so, we hope. We decide that in a perfect world, our children will make great leaders. They will strive to be the best and make decisions that build a stronger foundation than the one we gave them.
In a perfect world, our children will be captains of industry, sending the profits of their endeavors back into the community.
In a perfect world, educators will have the time to teach and facilitate learning. They will send well-rounded, well-educated, and talented people into the workforce to build a better tomorrow.
For years, we have done the tried-and-true methods of education and hoped for a miracle after graduation at the high school level. But those methods aren’t working anymore. It is not the educational system that is totally at fault, but the many facets and complexities of the world today.
And the world is not perfect.
Our children need more than we are currently providing to be successful and to take over the reins of responsibility for the future. There is a gap in learning that doesn’t have anything to do with an approved curriculum but with time.
Franklin Roosevelt said, “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”
And that’s what we need to do.
For the past 18 months, Teen Scene, Inc., has been planning a new initiative that blends the focus of “tomorrow’s voices today,” with the promise of a new vision. Our visionary Communications & Leadership Academy is a vehicle that will launch our teens and young adults into the next level of learning. That step between finishing high school and either starting college or a technical career is right around the corner, and it is a step worth taking.
The mission of our Communications & Learning Academy is to help motivated young people achieve a lifelong advantage by learning how to effectively communicate via the written word and spoken thought. It is to engage them in community activities and introduce them to the value of long-term community service.
Our vision is to enhance students’ communication skills through teaching, editing, and publishing their written articles and thoughts. To teach them to work in audio and visual media and partner them with local educators and experts. To broaden their horizons past the classroom and into specialized programs.
We plan to build students’ confidence in public speaking and presentation skills through workshops, seminars, and mentoring opportunities.
We need to prepare our young people for the next stage in their lives—be it college, technical careers, or community leadership. We as a community must be responsible for building this platform and supplying the resources to make our program thrive.
We know there is a need here. We in Brunswick County are ranked nationally as one of the fastest-growing areas in the country. New businesses are coming to us every day—businesses in a variety of industries. We need to look past the excellent location that businesses see in coming here. We need to look past the tax incentives of which they may take advantage.
Going forward, we need to ensure that we have a strong and viable workforce that can support these industries and raise the skilled employment workforce to make those industries successful here in Brunswick County. We need workers, planners, managers, and captains of industry.
And so, how do we do all of this? We need the support of the school system, but more importantly, the support of the business community to recognize the need for a well-educated workforce.
We need sponsors who will pledge dollars and expert resources to build our program. We need people who will act as mentors. We need our educators to be willing to take the next step with us and build on the platform that they have provided for our young people.
We need the recognized leaders in our community to step up to the plate and be part of our vision. That means dollars, time, sharing expertise, and staying committed to the mission. We need internships with major companies. We need a meeting space.
Our program goes beyond “book learning.” We want to teach business etiquette, dressing for success, public speaking, the rules of effective meetings, the ability to communicate with workers on all levels, the importance of the written word, and the importance of community service.
We can give back to our Brunswick County community on a whole new level—we just need the support of this community to help us open our Communications & Leadership Academy.
We can help our children and the leaders of tomorrow, but we can’t do it without you. Help us help them. Help us help Brunswick County. Help us help the world of tomorrow. Contact Gerald Decker at [email protected] or Jan at [email protected], and pledge your support.
