
Hope your week has been great!
February has been very busy in the world of Mustang Activities and Programming. On February 21st we welcomed motivational speaker, actor and author, Monti Washington, to Stevenson to drop some inspirational knowledge on us. He was simply amazing, one of the best motivational speakers that we have brought to campus! His energy was phenomenal and his story inspired everyone to follow their passion despite the odds are stacked against you. Each person who was fortunate enough to go, took a piece of Monti’s message with them. While everything Monti said on Tuesday night was inspirational, one particular message stuck with me: “You are not your story—you don’t look like your story.” The activity we did during the presentation showed how much everyone had in common, but would have never been able to tell from face value.
Monti is a product of a one-night stand. He was abused repeatedly in foster home after foster home, and raised sleeping in parks. These are just a few of the daunting obstacles in Monti’s journey from the streets to the stage. Monti’s passion for helping students stems from the adversity he faced early on in life. Forced to live in poverty due to his mother’s drug addiction. Despite this adversity, Monti would go on to obtain two college degrees, become a state basketball champion, award winning poet, McDonalds All-American nominee, a nationally recognized actor, and co-founder of Truality.org, a non-profit organization aimed at inspiring youth to be TRU The Real U.
We discovered Monti at NACA, which is a conference for college programming boards. Ever since we met at this conference, I have followed Monti on Instagram. He posts daily motivational videos and inspirational words, which he has cleverly coined Monti-vation.
I will leave you with this week’s Montivation post:
“Your Mind Must Arrive at Your Destination Before Your Life Does.”
Think about it.
Until next time Peeps!
Keyara N. Blackmon
MAP Programmer