Panache Blog

Thursday, March 05, 2009

The Starshine Effect

At-risk children. Broken families. Poverty-stricken communities. Gang-ridden neighborhoods. Little did Jan and I realize that when we began our 12-day tour of Arizona and California that this Energy would be invited into the heart of one of the most desperate areas of Phoenix. And little did I realize how a school of children would touch my heart and give rise to the possibility of transformation for the future.

Starshine Academy is a Kindergarten through twelfth grade school that creates transformation within its at-risk students, their families and their communities by igniting and enabling the aspirations of their students. The administration and faculty are dedicated to helping every child uncover their talent – indeed their passion – and grow into peaceful productive and successful individuals. 

Early on our first day in Phoenix we entered an older, run-down school facility surrounded by locked gates only to learn that these children learn better knowing that their world is safe from outside danger and violence. Imagine our surprise and joy at being greeted by tiny five-year-olds who pushed each other aside like a litter of new puppies in the excitement of wanting to be first to greet guests to their classroom. Sweet faces excitedly blurted out names, and future careers. “Welcome to Starshine Academy,” we heard over and over again. “My name is Carlos and I am going to be a fireman… a chef… a policeman.”  Even the oldest students – more young adult than child – greeted us from the basketball court with intensity in their eyes and a conviction to more than a career, but to a changed mind-set… a passion for possibilities that will catapult them far from the violence, poverty, drugs, broken families and all other limiting constraints of the world to which they were born, to a point in the future when these students transform their own families, communities and beyond. That is the vision of this school… that is the Starshine Effect.

Peace is at the foundation of the school’s curriculum.  It is evident in how the children treat each other in the classroom and on the playground; in the care taken nurturing the community garden and how they play on the sports court; in how they interact with the adults in their lives and the empathy with which they talk about their world. Their neighborhood is slowly transforming as their families take pride in what the children are creating. It is a safer place than it was as the children draw to them the possibility of change.

Indeed we were honored to share this energy with the future peaceful and accomplished citizens of the world. We are evolving for children all over the world like them so that they may live in a world filled with love and acceptance instead of hate and fear.

Amor, Luz & Bendiciones…

Posted at 4:36 pm  |  Send to a Friend