Weekly I visit my old High School, The George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science and help a group from the Engineering class with their Green Building Project. I am always honored whenever I am asked to help out at the school that gave me so much. Aside from the memories of friends I once clung during a very tough period of my life, this High School gave me so much more. I discovered who I was and what I wanted to do during the short period of time I spent behind those enclosed walls.
At the time I did not know it but 20 plus years later, after a long career in the Architecture Design field, I realize what was deposited. I didn’t know if it was my drafting teacher, Mr. Horn or my Architectural Concepts teacher whose name I cannot remember. It could have also been the drafting teacher Mr. Avant who spent many lunch periods mentoring myself and many other students who hung around him. I conclude that each teacher deposited something within me that gave me the confidence to continue through my remaining years of high school, throughout college and my career.
So I give back to pay back for what I received. I give back to help someone else. I give back because I was taught that “it is better give than to receive” and I have received so much. I give back to give encouragement, to invest in the future; to mentor to offer what I know to those who need it because they just might be right where I was.
At the time I did not know it but 20 plus years later, after a long career in the Architecture Design field, I realize what was deposited. I didn’t know if it was my drafting teacher, Mr. Horn or my Architectural Concepts teacher whose name I cannot remember. It could have also been the drafting teacher Mr. Avant who spent many lunch periods mentoring myself and many other students who hung around him. I conclude that each teacher deposited something within me that gave me the confidence to continue through my remaining years of high school, throughout college and my career.
So I give back to pay back for what I received. I give back to help someone else. I give back because I was taught that “it is better give than to receive” and I have received so much. I give back to give encouragement, to invest in the future; to mentor to offer what I know to those who need it because they just might be right where I was.