Week 20
Week in Review
Monday February 12, 2018
Mondays are always the same no matter where we are in prison or not. Sleeping in on the weekends still requires an adjustment on Monday morning. Class was great. We spent most of our morning working on our Coats of Arms projects. Several people started working on their t-shirts for teddy bears they will give to their children at our graduation ceremony. The detail and craftsmanship are amazing. It surprises me to see just what these guys can create with crayons or colored pens and markers. The fellowship is great also. Some of the guys were going around the room to offer their expertise, as some are really great at drawing certain shapes like faces or cars, and then others are really great at different lettering styles. We have all come a long way.
Today we also reached an additional milestone: we are finished with art history! I am sure we are all happy to be finished with that. Today’s seating chart showed that we are down to 45 participants in our class – we started with 144! When I think about it, I can’t help but wonder if I could have done more to help a few more guys to persevere, to think a little bigger, to see the potential benefits that those of us who have endured are able to see. I can see the truth and reality of our mission statement: We are servant-leaders on a mission to transform inmates and executives by unlocking human potential through entrepreneurial passion, education and mentoring. I am proud of myself and my brothers.
Corey J. (a.k.a. “Captain Crunch”)
Tuesday February 13, 2018
Today we went to the PEP room bright and early. We have worked really hard to get to this point in the program and had our trials along our journey. Graduation day is almost here, and we can see it coming. When we came to the PEP room, we worked on our Coats of Arms that we will present to our families. They represent the transformation that this program has made in our lives. When we did our original Coats of Arms six months ago, the segregation was obvious in the groups among us, but today it was apparent that this is a brotherhood that has formed through our adversity together, lifting each other up and pushing each other to be better and do better. It was beautiful to see this prosper in us – complete strangers just nine months ago, now working and playing as one. After we had worked on our Coats of Arms for a while, we watched American History so we can learn about the trails and hardships our nation had to go through to become the great superpower it is today. Then we practiced our pitches for the Business Plan Competition. At one point, we had our own fun by dancing up and down the aisle to kill a little time, which is a little trick we learned while we were bonding. We finished by praying out and were done for the day.
William L. (a.k.a. “Peter Griffin”)
Wednesday February 14, 2018
Wow, it’s been a really long and fun journey. Today was funny for us because we were all learning the graduation steps we have to complete on graduation day. We must have done it 10 times before we got it right. It’s actually quite the spectacle. It’s really funny because we all try to make light of the situation. I know everyone is really excited to graduate and see our families. We really have put a lot of hard work and dedicated a lot of our time to this program, and it’s just nice to know that all of our hard work means something. We have all grown and changed so much over these months of PEP. It’s inspiring to see others around you succeed, and we are so close to the finish line that we are overflowing with excitement. When we first started PEP, we were waiting in anticipation for this time to come, and now it’s finally here for us. Now that we have begun our graduation practice, we know the end is near. But the end is not truly an end, but a new beginning. So we wait for our new beginning to start.
Caleb M. (a.k.a. “Carrot Top”)
Thursday February 15, 2018
We started early today by getting up and going to computer class. It has been a great blessing to all of us. We know we have increased our knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint with the lessons we have learned. We spent some time voting on our peers in class today for awards that will be given out at graduation. Most of our classmates in Thursday’s scheduled classes also facilitate for the PEP class that will be after ours. So we left straight from computer class and went to the PEP room to assist and direct the new class.
In the PEP classroom, we watched the Quest for Authentic Manhood videos by Robert Lewis, sessions 19 and 20, which were about a man and his wife. We learned about the models of marriage, which are top-down traditional marriage, the 50-50 marriage, and the side-by-side biblical marriage. The side-by-side model even has a term we are driven by: servant-leader mentality, which is one of our 10 Driving Values. They brought up a great focal point for our group discussion, that we then presented as the acronym S.E.R.V.E.: SEE the future, what is your and your family’s mission, goals and plans; ENGAGE and develop others (as a family, how can you help each other achieve your desires and goals?); REINVENT continuously and don’t limit your growth; VALUE friendships and results by caring, valuing and rewarding each other; EMBODY values and live up to the standards you set. It was a great discussion.
We also spoke on our driving value Fun and did some chicken dancing that had everyone laughing and enjoying themselves. Yes we can have fun in a healthy manner in prison. Really it is so nice to forget the stress and pressure we have to endure if only for a little while.
Justin M. (a.k.a. “Little Teapot”)
Expressions
“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
~Zig Ziglar
The Prison Entrepreneurship Program has taught us to become outstanding servant-leaders. This allows us to help others with any problems they encounter and provide them with the things they need. This allows all of us to grow.
There is a great sense of satisfaction in knowing that you are able to help someone else out and see that person grow. I see it in every one of the executives’ faces when they come up here to one of our events, or when I see videos of them helping someone at one of PEP’s transitional homes. They have just about everything they could ever want in life; the last missing piece is helping someone else get what they want!
Nicholas M. (a.k.a. “Barney Rubble”)