FYBY BGC Ridgemont

Hello blog readers!

This week I want to highlight the FYBY Boys and Girls Club (BGC) Ridgemont group.

Each week, I meet with 10 passionate young boys at the Ridgemont High Library that are working on their video and workshop for the FYBY Summit.

In December of 2011 we started talking about mandatory volunteer hours in school. Some of the students don't like the idea of volunteer hours and some of them have already completed more than they need to graduate, with 2 more years left of high school to go.

So I asked... How is it that two our of ten students in this room have started their volunteer hours while the rest have not? 

This question raised discussion as to why some students have not completed their volunteer hours yet. What isn't working with the current volunteer hours system? How do the schools help you to complete your hours? Do students know what resources the schools have for you? and so on.....after researching and speaking with the students, it became clear that many students are not very interested or motivated to complete their volunteer hours early because they cannot seem to find something that engages them.

I asked the students to write down their thoughts by creating a pros and cons list on mandatory volunteer hours. After brainstorming the list, they made the connection that there are as many pros as there are cons. They asked - "How can there be as many cons as pros if this is mandatory in school? There should be no cons and all pros, right?"

Throughout the next few weeks the BGC Ridgemont FYBY group will be looking at the volunteer hours system and brainstorming possible upgrades to suggest to the school board to get more students engaged in this mandatory credit. 

This is a topic that they feel VERY passionate about and I've heard from other groups that the issues the students face with volunteer hours are the same as what the BGC Ridgemont students face. 

Stay tuned for this workshop! I feel a lot of students will be able to relate to what they are saying and agree with their alternate solutions. 

Kareem and Inshar, both inspiring poets and lyricists, will be creating a rhyme on the pros and cons of volunteer hours as a tool to engage their audience and express their critical thinking in a creative way!

Check out Inshars video, which featured many of the students in the FYBY BGC Ridgemont Group titled "Time is Money". It is a very positive message about thinking about others less fortunate and not feeding into selfish habits. Below is the video information!

Lyrics:
People are too busy chasing an income
"It's all about money to be fully happy" ye that is the system
Leaving your mind vulnerable, your facing a prison
Where they feed on needs to hush their greed a beast's metablism
Too much spare time, not enough spare change
Too much into nonsense, nothing going into a process
We see things as objects, each having its own test
Can we hear the message or maybe we're tone def
Hmmmm....Hear me out
We like to invest in games and hate being played
We like to drink away the pain but hate being drained
We spend it all away and don't care about what's being saved
Currently it occurs, see it's currency
Encourging us to take away our coloring
And all you have left....is the color green
But I know a place without financial needs
Its where money is time and I pay to humanity
Aint no problem here, we all in here to volunteer
To give a hand out to all my peers so they can persevere, their thirst appears
And I am not going to be blind
You gotta give that time
Libraries, Homeless Shelters, Old Homes, Social Networks
Dont repeat the concept of notes like a broken record
Do it for what its worth, step in the skin of a hopeless lepor
Volunteer for hours so the cash is saved
Volunteer for the help and not the salary
Volunteer for 40 hours just to graduate
This world is ours if only we can start today
Dont waste that time put it to good use
Help others who have gone through abuse
See the world through their eyes, try to view their views
Help kids with no learning let the see the truth
Make them read a book
Homie we can rule
Expand your knowledge
Its not what's left in your pockets but what's left in your watches
The clock waits for nobody so help somebody, its not some body

Be the heart that beats involuntary
Making a voluntary movement a possibility
Your the fresh blood we're one body
Volunteer to help an event, tell all your friends
Every second is a dollar and 67 cents, so in a minute your left with a hundred
Ayyyyyyyyyy
Hundred smiles, hundred blessings
hundred lives saved and changed because you just gave them something
You got community fairs and so many festival
So many chances then why turn into criminals
Don't waste time homie we're short on it
Make the best of yourselves and others, people have walked on them
So pick a machine that CHINGS! or a clock that TICKS
Imagine a man who puts his hands against a wall-n-tears up
You can take a stand just volunteer once
Shhhhhh.....
If time was really money think about what this world would be like
What's the price of a minute when you spend it on a life
Time is priceless
How great minds think - eventhough the pendulum's motion doesn't lose momentum
Your in a moment that's TIMELESS
now its up to you to fill the space, bridge the gap, give it shape, lit a match
So they can find their way in the darkest place and the hardest maze
The heart's the bass to the melody of life
So let it be one, people let us all unite
Put sands in the hourglass so it can see the light
While we stand still
on this still land
and
freeze the hands of
TIME!