Week in Review

Monday December 25, 2017

As our class goes through the program, it amazes me how much we have changed. For instance, today we had a Toastmasters class in the dorm due to the Christmas holiday. International Toastmaster’s is a course that helps us develop good public speaking skills by speaking in front of an audience and practicing proper word usage. When we first started the class, almost all of us could not even introduce ourselves without uhh’s and um’s. Now most of us can go through an entire speech while keeping our audience’s attention. Honestly, I really believe this class has helped us a lot, because many of us had a fear of speaking in front of others. We are all comfortable now speaking in front of an audience. As of now most of us are working on our final Toastmaster’s project, which we will present in the PEP room in front of all our brothers with difficult objectives. Many of us plan to use this as an opportunity to practice our business plan pitch as well. We have less than 2 months for PEP’s Business Plan Competition (BPC), so we are all grateful for the extra chance we have to practice giving our pitch in front of each other. Today, we believe we are ready to pitch our business ideas in front of a panel of executives. If you would have told us that we were going to be presenting a business pitch to a panel of executive volunteers, we would of never have believed it. Today was a day of preparation not only to benefit us now, but to help us build a solid foundation for our future.

Eric S. (a.k.a. “Guacamole Dip”)

Tuesday December 26, 2017

Today was a fairly relaxed day. Some of us helped out serving and helping the next class during Leadership Academy. We came to class around 12 p.m. and were ready for any pop quizzes, because anything that is handed out is subject to being tested over. We walked in as usual and prayed in together to start our day in Phase Two. We were informed that a couple of our brothers have been granted parole and will be released soon. Afterward we watched an hour of World History. Our class really enjoys refreshing ourselves with World History.

We are getting excited because we are less than two months away from graduating. It has been a learning experience for all of us. Without the Prison Entrepreneurship Program, many of us would have never washed off our prison mentality. Many of us have learned so much going through the program, including how to budget, have a vision and so much more. Today was another great day, and a day closer to graduation!

Marquel S. (a.k.a. “Sweet Forehead”)

Wednesday December 27, 2017

Well here we are right before the New Year! We have been pushing hard and staying dedicated to achieving our main goal, which is to graduate. Now, with seven months completed and two months left to go, we can now see the bright light at the end of the tunnel. Today we stayed busy studying for our entrepreneurship test tomorrow. This is supposed to be the most difficult chapter to test on. There has been a lot of reading and studying today. We have also created résumés that go in our business plans. That is the last assignment we have pertaining our business plan. We have been working on our seven to 12 minute business plan pitch, and it is only one more month before we go in front of a panel of volunteer executives to present our business ideas. All of the Sovereign Kings of ‘18 want to win the Business Plan Competition, but we understand that there can be only one winner.

As we are near the end of our journey, we have brothers in the Phase One (character) class who are just starting their PEP journey and are looking to us for guidance. As busy as we have been, we will still be great servant-leaders and help them out as well when they need any assistance. I want to thank PEP for helping us find our full potential through entrepreneurship and our 10 Driving Values system we live by!

Chase S. (a.k.a. “Millhouse from the Simpsons”)

Thursday December 28, 2017

We had a busy day in PEP today. It started early at 4:30 a.m. with a tasty breakfast of biscuits and gravy, oatmeal and a green apple. This is the fuel that our Phase One brothers needed to go to class. In the Phase One class, we had a “change” presentation which focused on the reasons why we needed to change the direction that our lives were going, and realize that change comes from within and is an inner-decision. After helping serve our Phase One brothers, we headed back to the dorm to study and prepare ourselves for the Phase Two entrepreneurship test over Chapter Eight. We are really focused and dedicate a lot of time and energy into learning the material. After a wonderful and amazing lunch of taco meat, mashed potatoes, corn and white tortillas, we went to the Phase Two (business) class and took our test. Then the coolest thing happened: we got to watch another art history video about Monet. “Issues and Tissues” went smoothly, and we finished the class with a final art history video.

We are wrapping up the Entrepreneurship class, and our morale is at an all-time high. We are so excited about putting our seven to twelve minute pitch together. We are all looking forward to our next event, the Business Plan Workshop on January 6, 2018, and marching along strongly!! We are PEP!

Jared S. (a.k.a. “Peek-A-Boo Princess”)

Expressions

“He grows until he goes.”

~ Quincy Jones

I believe one of the things this quote addresses is a man’s education. A man learns until he dies, because an educated man continues his education long after his years in high school and even college. A truly educated man is authentic and original. He is not trying to be someone he is not. He is comfortable in his own skin. This quote has inspired me to never stop educating myself, because we will never be too old to learn new things. We will always have room in our brains to learn and share our knowledge with others. A person should always look for ways to progress no matter how old the person gets. In this program we have brothers from different walks of life and of various ages. We encourage one another to keep learning new things and not to be content with the knowledge and education we already have. Someday we will be able to share with the upcoming generations the experience we have had.

Courtland S. (a.k.a. “Petree”)