“Fourteen years of working with kids has helped me become the Executive Director of the P.U.S.H foundation. I worked at the Eau Claire Academy, which is a treatment facility, and I work at the Juvenile Detention Center. I’ve seen it all. My personal background too. I come from a low income, single parent household. I grew up in a gang and drug infested neighborhood and I was able to make it out. I went through my struggles, but I was able to get out. You have to persevere and you have to be strong mentally to do those things. There’s a lot of kids who lack that sometimes, so what we are trying to do is help them understand that you need to become a whole person in order to make these changes. There were people that definitely guided me on my path to success. Jameel at the community center. Jean, who played a role in helping me get to that college stage of my life. I want to help our youth, the way these people helped me. You have to want it for yourself. For me, I was afraid of consequences. I didn’t want to go to jail. I knew what it would be like. I had perfect examples around me about what life would be like if I followed that path. So, with P.U.S.H, we are trying to make sure that the kids are whole; mentally, physically and spiritually. And that they’re able to grow. The P.U.S.H foundation is a nonprofit organization. Our main goal is to try to help kids in the community become better in the home, in the school, and in the community. If you can help kids in those 3 areas, you’ll have a greater impact on the community. No matter what kind of struggle they’ve been through, no matter what kind of obstacles they face, we want to help. We want to give them the knowledge we have, and if we don’t have the knowledge they need, we want to be able to have that connection to provide them with that knowledge.”