Greetings from the Evermore team! Introducing the Evermore family: Douglas Brock, Tandy Lewis, Ray McCall, Nha Kim, Johnny Bonilla, Patti Klinger, Joshua Ralstin, MaryAnn Peterson, Chad Willman, Lauren Ann Hostousky, Shu Han Guo, Yolynn Valdez and Hilary Stone! Today, we had two workshops about leadership, an Improv Night, and a great Fireside story!
Today’s theme was “Leadership Day.” We started the day by listening to our guest speaker, Dan Brubaker’s wonderful presentation about the real meaning of being a leader. Guess what?! Dan is also an YLC alumni! This summer will be his 16th time visiting YLC! He grew up and graduated from Kansas School for the Deaf. He has had many rich experiences; he rode on a bike all way across America in 70 days, traveled to 58 countries, and graduated from Gallaudet University!
In his presentation, he talked about the eight parables of leadership. Parables are short stories with morals; Dan shared us stories that taught us about leadership. The Parables he talked about were: “Spizzleinctum”, “Old Dogs, New Tricks”, “Shut up!”, “U1, M2, Always”, “Smart fools”, “Safe Death”, “Hot Air Balloon”, and “Wizard of Oz”. We will explain two parables to you, “Spizzleinctum”, and “Smart Fools”!
The word, Spizzleinctum, means, “To will to succeed” Brubaker showed us pictures of famous big dreamers such as Lance Armstrong, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gertrude Galloway, and Lizzie Sorkin (RIT’s first deaf SBG president!). He then explained us that leaders have to have the desire to reach to their goals.
The next parable is “Smart Fools.” We are sure that many of you might wonder if there really are smart fools. The answer is… YES!!! For example, a person in an audience asks a stupid question during a workshop speaker. That person is a smart fool, because he took a risk just to learn something new. Brubaker then explained us that leaders MUST take risks.
The whole point of his presentation was that all leaders must listen to others, take risks, and do their best at all times, no matter what! We were truly inspired by his words!
"I really enjoyed the 8 parables presentation! The nail story impacted me." -Stephanie Johnston
Later in the afternoon, Jennifer Yost Ortiz gave us a workshop about “Inspiration”. She emphasized that Inspiration is important in life. Then she explained to us about attitude; she mentioned how people would react to others when they asked a simple question like, “How are you?” she noticed that some people would say: “I am tired” or “I am not doing okay.” People don’t realize that those kinds of answers will put other people in awkward position. Therefore, we must put ourselves in their position and think what we should say. Moreover, people who say negative things like, “I hate this day,” will start off their bad day. Jennifer emphasized that “Attitude” is what it takes to either put yourself down or up. Then she applied attitude to leadership; she told us that a real leader must learn how to lead with right attitude because with right attitude, people will pay attention to you and you will achieve it.
In addition, Jennifer explained to us that we must use positive attitudes to achieve our passions or dreams. It is okay to fail 100 times, but we should never pull ourselves down. We can always find other ways to capture our passions even if you failed! Moreover, Jennifer said that it is up to us to believe in something or not. If you believe that you can do it, then you CAN! However, if you believe you can’t, then you CAN’T!
"I learned a lot! I was very impressed, it's one of the best presentations I've ever seen!" -Dakota Johndrow
Finally, after her wonderful speech, we analyzed ourselves more about our attitudes. We realized that we should always pay attention to what we say to others with the right attitude and right approach.
Tonight was Improv Night! We started the night by meeting our four fantastic judges from different places all over the world! Leon (aka Greg Beattie), a British rocker, who doesn’t know any American Sign Language. Second was Miss Hollywood (aka Lauren Sanchez), a celebrity from Los Angeles, California. The third judge was Miss Bean (aka Vivienne Schroeder), Mr. Bean’s cousin. Last but not least was Alfa and his sock puppet, Alf, who came here from another planet! They were all hilarious!
Jennifer Spensieri, our YLC staff and also our hostess, called four participants, one from each team, up on stage. Jennifer would give them a topic and they had to improvise their best acting skills in order to make the judges laugh. After that, the judges would bang on a drum to tell which one was funniest. Whoever won the performance would be given points for their team! It went well! We laughed all the night along till our tummies hurt!
Before we closed that event, Jennifer called out four volunteers from each team to act out different secret characters. Another four participants, one from each team, had to guess who the characters were based on their acting. If the participants guessed right, they would be given points for each one character they got right! Many of us did pretty good! It was a wonderful experience for us to conqueror our fear of being on the stage and learn to improvise!
Tonight, Dan Brubaker gave us his fireside story. He talked about his experience biking across America! He was determined to ride across America because his friends said he wouldn’t be able to ride his bike across America, and he wanted to prove them wrong! He and a friend rode from Virginia to Washington state! He saved about $2,000 for 70 days to buy what he need for his trip. On his way from state to state he saw many dead animals every hour, and had many interesting experiences! At first, all the dead animals disgusted him but later he got used to it. He and his bike partner slept in many different places such as churches, schools, restaurants, hotels, and even in strangers houses! We were amazed at his wonderful presentation. His funny stories and the exciting places he described inspired us, some of us are considering biking across America to gain the experience for ourselves!
"His story was great! He went through a lot and I am tempted to do the same thing some day!" -Michelle Mansfield-Hom
Dan Brubaker explaining about the parables!
Yes, Richard Bertling?
Jennifer Yost Ortiz talking about having the right attitude!
Meet our Improv judges! Alfa and Alf, Miss Bean, Ms. Hollywood, and Leon!
Chad Willman and Jordan Ramser improving during the questions game!
Jennifer Wrenn couldn't help but crack herself up while performing on stage!
Are you drowning, Dathan Brown?
Justine Webb showing off her improv skills!
Michelle Mansfield-Hom was overwhelmed with gratitude upon receiving an emmy award from Jennifer Spensieri!
Dana Hill trying to sell us all some Germ-X!
Lauren Hostovsky receiving instructions for her improv skit.
A great and inspirational speaker, Dan Brubaker!
We are extremely exhausted because we had a long day but looking forward for our next great day ahead of us! As usual, we screamed out our traditional “YLC ‘O9 GOOD NIGHT!”
