This iReport is part of an assignment:
Breakthrough Women
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- Posted April 30, 2012 by
- authorniema Follow
Location
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Assignment
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Finding my greatness through my tragedy
I am the founder of Life Preparatory Skills which focuses on our young women in preparing them for the life skills they will need after high school whether they are going off to college, the workforce or trade school. In the last three years doing motivational speaking has been a key with being able to identify with young girls and share my story about forgiveness and how dealing with my childhood tragedy changed the course of my life in a positive direction. (I chose to forgive my father after he murdered my mother in front of my siblings and I at the age of seven).
There are two different main messages I share with teens when I speak with them and one is about how you can discover your greatness by just finding the parts in your personal story that fuel the direction in which you want to take your life. Everyone has a story and that story holds the key in seeing that you have something to offer the world. The second is based on my experience as a professional track and field athlete, how I went from the slowest runner on my team as a college freshmen to a four time national champion. The message through that is, hard work is real and although I had many accomplishments in that field I was not happy because that was not ultimately what I wanted to do so having to change the course of my life was not the end it was just the beginning.
Although motivational speaking allows me to share my personal story I wanted to give teens girls even more. I wanted to give them relevant information that would help them for years to come and so I started with the life skills program and also wrote a book called Discovering Your Greatness Now. This book is really a one stop shop for teens whose parents cannot afford career prep classes or they themselves may lack in life training skills and career development. We discuss topics such as financial planning and awareness, cover letters, resumes, finding your strengths and connecting that to a career to the importance of being emotional healthy.
There are two different main messages I share with teens when I speak with them and one is about how you can discover your greatness by just finding the parts in your personal story that fuel the direction in which you want to take your life. Everyone has a story and that story holds the key in seeing that you have something to offer the world. The second is based on my experience as a professional track and field athlete, how I went from the slowest runner on my team as a college freshmen to a four time national champion. The message through that is, hard work is real and although I had many accomplishments in that field I was not happy because that was not ultimately what I wanted to do so having to change the course of my life was not the end it was just the beginning.
Although motivational speaking allows me to share my personal story I wanted to give teens girls even more. I wanted to give them relevant information that would help them for years to come and so I started with the life skills program and also wrote a book called Discovering Your Greatness Now. This book is really a one stop shop for teens whose parents cannot afford career prep classes or they themselves may lack in life training skills and career development. We discuss topics such as financial planning and awareness, cover letters, resumes, finding your strengths and connecting that to a career to the importance of being emotional healthy.
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