An Open Letter to Anyone Who Has Ever Questioned Whether or Not Good Still Grows in North Carolina- Dear (Insert Your Name Here), I am from Butner, North Carolina, a small town in rural Granville County. I am the only child of an Army Veteran and nonprofit Business Manager. I went to school and graduated with a degree in Political Science from UNCG. I live in Greensboro, North Carolina. I work for the Center for Creative Leadership, one of the highest globally ranked organizations in the world. I am a very blessed woman. Although I have traveled a great span of our nation and our world, I have never permanently lived outside of North Carolina. I love my beautiful home state. While the majority of our nation spent yesterday resting from work, I worked and attended the closing conference for a leadership program. This program gives Scholars (college students who received a scholarship from a statewide foundation) an opportunity to develop their leadership capacity, work with an Action Learning Coach to help them reach their personal goals and apply their new skills to a paid summer internship geared toward their career interests. Yesterday morning, we had an opportunity to walk a gallery of photo voice projects the Scholars created, giving us a glimpse into every part of rural North Carolina. In case you didn’t know, 85% of the state of North Carolina is rural and rural communities are known for their challenges. Eight five percent is an overwhelming number. The odds are stacked against us. I know that there are those who believe that North Carolina is doomed to fail and to those people, there is a strong rebuttal. Tell that to the young woman who organized a career camp for high school students and gave them an opportunity to consider including college in their future. Tell that to the young man who is so passionate about exercise that he led 70 programs which got citizens more physically active in their home communities. Tell that to the families with young children that learned more about healthy meals to feed their families because of a program created to empower them to make wiser choices. Tell that to the 177 Scholars that were at this weekend’s conference and watch them prove you wrong. Great good does not require one million. Great good can start with one. I dare to believe that there is a new reason to hope today. The youth of today are our hope. They are our future. The world should expect great good to become of their leadership. While much of our world may have frowned because of the news that has populated the media about my home state, I still believe that great good grows in and will rise from North Carolina. Mark my words. Sincerely, Brandi Nicole Johnson Lover of North Carolina
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 15:32:36 +0000
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