All of our updates are on Facebook!

Hey!

So I know we haven't been updating our blog at all, internet connection in Africa was pretty sketchy, but if you want to see all of our team's updates, head to our NGA Facebook Fanpage.
There's reports, pictures, and videos! Lot's of great stuff, check it out.

Peace,

Team Burundi

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If you follow the link and go to the donations tab, our group is at the top of the list.

Your support is greatly appreciated, thank you!

"Own It" Week 2

This past week we've been working on Aiyana's idea for a healing workshop. We were thinking of presenting this workshop to the college students in possibly a span of 2 days with the first day working on character education. With this healing workshop, we are each going to talk about a subject that we are passionate about, and using that to inspire the students. I am using art as a reference to dealing with emotions and growth, as well as connecting that with other virtues. Soniyae is working with me to incorporate dance/music with visual expressions and we plan on coming up with a hands-on activity to get everyone involved. Aiyana is working with service in terms of helping others and the "Parent-Child" relationship. And Kester is doing a leadership portion of the healing workshop; his ideal of this project outcome is to bring about the potential of each individual through their unique talents.

We are going to have our first opportunity later this week to teach one of our lesson plans to a public school class. We now have an outline for two skits that we are going to be presenting that are made for the grades 3-5. We also started working with the 8-12th grade lesson plans, but since there are no real skits in the upperclassman books, we were thinking of coming back to them to plan out our own skits to incorporate with our lessons on virtue.






Working hard!



Visiting the Portland Family Church!

Ps: Aunt Beatrice is a wonderful cook, and we are all getting plump.

Kester Wilkening

Hi everyone! My name is Kester Wilkening, and I am excited to be a member of NGA Team Burundi 2010!

I am 19, and I grew up in Bowie MD. I consider myself a nature-lover, and I recently fell in love with the Rocky Mountains during a cross-country road trip with my Dad. I love soccer (futbol), ultimate frisbee, ballroom dancing, singing, reading… well I like a lot of things, and I’m constantly looking for new aspects of life to explore.

Last year (2008-2009) I finished my freshman year at Cornell University, and I loved it. But I also felt that I wanted more out of life than I was getting at college, so I decided to take a year to really figure out who I am and where I’m going with my life. That desire led to NextGen Academy (NGA), and it has been a great experience so far.

The past three months on NGA I have learned a lot about myself, both strong and weak traits: I have incredible leadership potential, I can bring power to my words through emotion, it’s hard for me to trust other people, real humility is extremely difficult, and I need to listen much, much more.

During these next few months I have the opportunity to begin practicing these life lessons. I’ve learned a lot, but that doesn’t mean anything if I don’t live what I’ve learned. “It’s one thing to know what to do. It’s completely different to do what you know.” And let me tell you, this isn’t easy. Working in an intimate team situation challenges all of us to grow, and I am no exception. Actually, I am very grateful for this experience, and I am looking forward to these next few months.

Right now I’ve got a personal struggle with a foot injury, and I’m really trying to heal so I can be there for my team. I hope all of you can learn something from our experiences, and I thank you for reading! You’re awesome : )

Aiyana Adshead

Bonjour! My name is Aiyana Yuki Adshead and I am originally from Canada, but now live in the Seattle area. I am half Japanese, half Canadian and 17 years old. I decided to finish high school early this year in order to go to Burundi, Africa. Ever since I was a child I was very inspired to dedicate my life to service and improving the lives of others in developing countries, particularly those in Africa. Other than my calling for changing the world- I enjoy writing, performing, feeling & creating music. It is an essential part of my life along with art, my “peace time” in nature, and the relationships I have in my life with friends and family (which are all family to me). Life is a beautiful mystery and I’m so excited to get lost in it all doing one fulfilling thing after the other, country after country and then sharing all my experiences and blessings with the world.

So I am hoping through these summaries you will have learned a little bit about our team and all the incredible things we plan to do in the beautiful country of Burundi.

Thanks for all your love and support.

Soniyae Stephens

Hi, I’m Soniyae Stephens. I am 18 years old and I’m from Maryland. I love to sing, dance, and make people smile. When I graduated from high school in 09 I had my heart on going to NGA. It is truly an amazing program. My brother, Heungkook went to it a year ago and so inspired me to apply. And once I was accepted I was extremely happy. Being on this program really taught me lot about leadership, teamwork, and even about myself. If I could suggest any program it would definitely be NGA. I can honestly say that it has changed my life for the better and I am looking forward to everyday of it. Anyway NGA has so many wonderful aspects to it. It has given me a safe environment to express myself, it has taught me important lessons of being a leader/teacher, and all in all being a better and more confident person. This February my team is going to Burundi and I am super excited. I am so passionate about helping Africa. I want to help all I can by teaching character education and making leaders out of the youth there. I absolutely believe once the youth in Burundi find the potential in themselves they can change their whole country. And being apart of that transformation, even in the smallest degree is so motivating. Haha Well, I love my team, I am loving life, and loving the fact that I’m going to Burundi! <3 Thank you so much for your support!

Burundi Team Introduction

Hey everyone! So this is going to be the first post leading up to our trip to Burundi, Africa from February 18th to March 18th, 2010 . Our team members include, myself ( Youngshim Gontijo), Soniyae Stephens, Kester Wilkening, and Aiyana Adshead. We’re all part of a non-profit youth leadership program called Next Generation Academy. Every year teams of three or four initiate their own service projects as well as prepare a curriculum for teaching character education for the students of developing countries. This year we have 20 high school graduates/college students traveling to six different countries in Africa. There are teams going to Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and the Ivory Coast. Each team has their own vision on what they want to accomplish in their country. Some are working with teaching HIV/AIDS awareness, hosting a sports festival in a community, and working in orphanages. Our team is in the process of planning our service projects in Burundi. As of now, our general idea is to teach character education to the college students and then involve them with the high school students in their community to do service projects together. We have in mind organizing workshops on leadership training, painting a school, as well as volunteering our time in clinics. Our main point in doing this is to give the college students an opportunity to put into practice what we taught them by giving them leadership roles in their area. Please understand that we are still in the process of planning our projects, and so we will be updating our progress on this blog as well as during our time in Africa and after. If you have any suggestions or contacts, anything would be greatly appreciated! Donations are also wonderful!! Thank you!

Here’s our link if you’re interested in finding out more on who we are and what we’re doing, check us out!

http://www.nextgenacademy.com