7 News Belize

Motivated Enough To Walk On Glass
posted (May 5, 2015)
Last night, we told you how the international motivational speaker, Bert Oliva, and his crew have returned to Belize for a 4th Year. They are on a mission to inspire and motivate 50,000 persons, mostly children and youth, to reach their full potential to become successful in both their private and professional lives.

They are here for 10 days, and on each they, they will be speaking to several hundred children countrywide. This year, however, instead of focusing on the high schoolers, they will be speaking exclusively to students from standards 5 and 6.

That tour started today where several hundred students from Holy Redeemer, St. Ignatius, and Grace Primary Schools all sat in at the Bliss Center for 2 and a half hour session with Bert and his speakers. 7News was there and we spoke with one of the brave student from St. Ignatius, who made sure to sign up for the activity which requires the volunteers to walk on glass with their bare feet. Here's what she told us about the experience:

Reporter
"Talk to me about your experience here today. What message are you leaving with?"

Tashawn Lozano, Std. 6, St. Ignatius Primary
"You can do anything you want. You can achieve any goals in life and anything is possible. And you just have to work hard for what you want in life."

Daniel Ortiz
"Talk to us about walking on the glass, what was it like?"

Tashawn Lozano - Std. 6, St. Ignatius Primary
"I was nervous at first, I felt like I was going to get cut or something but then Bert, he just told me to believe in myself and nothing will happen. I was nervous."

Reporter
"Talk to us about the message you are going to share with your friends at school."

Tashawn Lozano - Std. 6, St. Ignatius Primary
"Believe in themselves. They can get and do what they want in life as long as they work hard."

Daniel Ortiz
"Do you think that you are going to talk to your parents about walking on glass?"

Tashawn Lozano - Std. 6, St. Ignatius Primary
"Yes I will. I can't believe I just did something like that."

Bert Oliva - Motivational Speaker
"It's awesome to be able to share that with the children to open their eyes. Because sometimes we take things for granted not knowing what's out there, because we don't know whatever their saying. But basically the rest of the world wants to come to Belize. So we are preparing the youth to be the future of Belize. And not only Belize but anywhere in the world. And we do this with all the children because once they believe that they have the potential and they find their super hero power, anything is possible."

Daniel Ortiz
"Did you have any difficulties up on stage today trying to move the crowd to accept your message?"

Bert Oliva - Motivational Speaker
"The crowd was already excited. They were already motivated. That's one of the reasons when I first did this four years ago, it was like, we started with like 3,000 children. And I was like wow, their so passionate. The Belizeans are so hungry in a positive way to be able to grow and get to that next level. They want it and they were already motivated. It was kind of easy because they were already in that level of greatness and so forth. It was awesome, I had a great time."

Reporter
"Can you tell me a little bit about the significance behind the fire-eating and the walking on glass?"

Bert Oliva - Motivational Speaker
"What it is, is that we've been conditioned by society. That you have to have a break down before you can have a break through. If you watch television, even in the United States the documentary you know, they tell you the person lost everything. They ended up doing drugs and then they found themselves and became successful. If you can actually have a breakthrough without a break down, that's even more impactful. So to be able to walk on glass, eat fire, is part of entertainment. Because when we're having fun, it's been proved scientifically that you will learn more and take the information in. so as part of what we do, we do 'edutainment'. Education and entertainment put together and the impact, you know, you saw it for yourself."

The topics for this morning included cyber bullying, and putting in one's best effort, and taking advantage of all opportunities. There was also another session in the afternoon in which students from St. Joseph, All Saints, James Garbutt, and St. John's Vianney Primary Schools.

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