We've featured Dianne Finnegan's second chance education program, known as the Youth Apprenticeship. It's an outreach mechanism where at risk youths who've dropped out of formal education get an opportunity to re-enrol, and they also learn a trade.
She's also featured motivational speakers, but today, her students got to meet basketball star Reeves Bruce Nelson, who had a major career in College basketball as a star of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the NCAA tournament in the US. He had a brief stint in the NBA as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, and he's now signed a contract with a pro team from the country of Belgium. Also, they were introduced to the up-and-coming music producer, Jonathan Myvette, who's worked with big name celebrities like Chris Brown and others.
We got a chance this morning to sit in on their session with Finnegan's students where they discussed the power of positive thinking and how it can help to escape one's environment to achieve success. Here's what they told the students:
Reeves Bruce Nelson - Professional Basketball Player
"Belize has been an amazing experience for me. It's something that I will take with me for the rest of my life. I heard good things about it from people who have come here before and they really didn't do it justice with how good it was even if they spoke highly of it. It's a wonderful place with wonderful people and like I said I really enjoyed myself."
Daniel Ortiz
"Tell us about what you've been doing here in Belize with Ms. Dianne Finnegan and her team and the kids that she works with on a regular basis?"
Reeves Bruce Nelson
"I've just been spending some time with Dianne trying to learn as much as I can from her, she is a very wise woman. She has been very good to me and with the kids here, she just ask me if I could come and share a little bit of my experiences from my life from overseas and just see if I could help them in any way with any advice I could give and at the same time the kids have help me by showing me like their purity and what they come from and made me appreciate stuff more."
Jonathan Myvette - Music Producer
"I feel like it's getting across, of course at first it's still kind of like 'I don't know about it' but once they start practicing and they see the works then they'd be like 'he is right.'"
Daniel Ortiz
"Is there something that grabs your attention, the life experiences they have shared with you?"
Jonathan Myvette - Music Producer
"It's different because like in the States like people don't understand what it is to struggle. People just think you get something handed to you, but it's not that. So when you come here, it's like real life. It's going to be even easier for them to get what they want because in the States your mind is so clouded by all the BS, all the stuff that everybody is telling you, you can do but you still don't do it, but here it's a one track mind - like everything is like more calm."
Reeves Bruce Nelson left the country after the session with the students. He and Myvette had been in the country interacting with the students for a few days.
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