Today I, along with Pastor Lewis, Mrs. Willie Faye McFarland, and several youth from our church and Top Teens of America, attended the 2013 C.L.E.E. Conference hosted by the Excellent Teen Choice nonprofit organization of Arlington TX. The conference was held at the Turner Center (old Turner School) in Carthage and featured a dynamic panel of facilitators with varying fields of expertise. I want to say to Excellent Teen Choice Founder and Executive Director, Mrs. Sharon Jones and her committee members, you did a spectacular job and I truly wish every teen I know would have been able to partake of the vast wealth of information and guidance made available; it was awesome! I was literally captivated and left motivated to do some things in my own life, and more importantly, in the lives of our youth!
What was so impressive, too, was that the facilitators were mainly young Carthage natives who have excelled in their fields, including the reigning Ms Black Texas USA, Shunte Jones, who also has dual Master Degrees, is a stock broker and is financial advisor to several NFL, NBA and MLB players and other business professionals. Other facilitators included Tonya Hofmann, CEO of 7 businesses; Colonel Kenneth Allison, Professor; Dr. Queenie Williams, Anesthesiologist; Dominique Brewster, Pharmacist; Vernetta Freeney, Professional Blogger; Tiya Scroggins, Business Consultant; Kris Briggs, former professional football player; and several others.
The conference tracks included Character, Leadership, Education and Entrepreneurship (C.L.E.E.), and a speech contest with prizes totaling $275.00. Facilitators pushed the youth to achieve through vision, attitude, prayer, discipline, individualism, persistence, hard work ethic, planning, and much, much more. Youth were able to interact with the mentors and also were exposed to other youth aiming high!
If you missed it or want your son or daughter to have this kind of mentoring opportunity, we are planning to bring this awesome free event to Jasper. Please reply and let us know if you would like to have an event like this right here that would benefit the youth of Jasper and surrounding areas. Your 'likes' will generate sponsors and other needed support.
