Mentorship: The Power to Change a Life.

[00:00:01] Welcome to episode number 41 of the Going For Greatness Show. My topic today is around

[00:00:07] an organization that is incredible. It's called Breakthrough Miami. It's impacting the lives

[00:00:12] of kids by feeding them with academics, character building skills and building confidence in

[00:00:20] higher risk population of kids who are very motivated but need an extra boost. These

[00:00:26] kids meet on Saturdays and in the summer. There's 1300 kids around Miami that are reaching

[00:00:33] their potential through this program, Breakthrough Miami. My conversation with Jamar Howard is

[00:00:38] one such scholar. Jamar is going full scholarship to Syracuse University in the fall of 2024

[00:00:46] and things could have gone very differently for Jamar. Through his family, his belief

[00:00:52] and Breakthrough Miami, Jamar is going to set the world on fire. Here's my conversation

[00:00:58] with scholar graduate Breakthrough Miami superstar Jamar Howard. A senior in high school, you're

[00:01:04] teaching other Breakthrough Miami students. What are some lessons that you learned?

[00:01:09] Honestly, the biggest lesson I've learned is that kids are more resilient than you

[00:01:13] think. Breakthrough kind of builds this model of like pulling out people with

[00:01:17] or kids really with a lot of potential, but it's not just about the potential we

[00:01:21] create for them, but also what's already inside of them. And also in my experience,

[00:01:26] things never really get easier in terms of work. It's always going to be difficult.

[00:01:30] If you want to succeed, you're going to have to continuously do what you need and

[00:01:34] build habits to grow and support your own forms of success. And being a fellow really

[00:01:40] taught me how to be more organized as well as being having a focus for my ambition

[00:01:45] as to what goals I want to achieve. Even if it wasn't for something long term,

[00:01:49] still building practices, trying to create that future of success, whatever that looks

[00:01:54] like and wherever that time span may be. Now you're heading to college next year.

[00:01:58] What are your goals? Well, right now I really hope to get into

[00:02:01] Syracuse University, fingers crossed. I want to study advertisement and hopefully

[00:02:05] become a creative director. Some of the professors at Syracuse, like I've known

[00:02:10] Neil, have worked with Lego. My goal is to kind of work with Disney or Adidas

[00:02:15] or Nike and work on campaigns to give a voice to people like me in the media.

[00:02:19] So whether that's talking about social justice or mental health or education resources,

[00:02:25] whatever brand or company I may work for, I really want to work towards giving,

[00:02:29] amplifying that voice. I know your mom had you at a very young age. She was,

[00:02:34] I think, 15. Things could have gone differently for you. You had a loving family. You had

[00:02:40] grandparents, Aunt Raquel who helps now and helped then. Your mom, of course. Jamar,

[00:02:47] you seem like you are a driven person and a lucky man too because you're the best

[00:02:53] of how a civil society is supposed to be, right? Family helping, non-profit helping,

[00:03:00] and also individual responsibility. You're very driven. You're very focused. Where do you think

[00:03:06] all of this focus has come from? Honestly, it'd be hard to really pinpoint it.

[00:03:11] Ever since I was born, I really wanted to be there for my mom. When my siblings were born,

[00:03:17] I wanted to be there for them. And I always kind of had this curiosity about everything.

[00:03:22] What do you think your biggest struggle is? Currently, my biggest struggle was definitely

[00:03:28] school but more specifically time management. I am the director for a theater piece. I am

[00:03:34] the president of my school's theater troupe, also the theater club. I'm also organizing branches

[00:03:40] within that club. I am still very affiliated with breakthroughs. So I volunteer or I go

[00:03:46] through programming on Saturdays. There's always a workshop or performance or competition.

[00:03:52] A beauty pageant?

[00:03:53] Yeah. So guys from different clubs get shown off and there's a whole performance and you

[00:03:59] get a crown at the end. It's really, really fun. But once they found out I could dance,

[00:04:02] I started dancing with them along with directing in my school's theater troupe,

[00:04:07] along with branches of the theater club. So almost every single day is either a choreography

[00:04:12] day or a vocal day or a performance day or colleges with friends or helping other people.

[00:04:18] How difficult was the process of applying to college? You're just starting that now

[00:04:23] or are you applying early decision anywhere?

[00:04:25] I am currently applying early action to FSU. I'm more focused on scholarships.

[00:04:31] So I've been really honored, which I'm proud of myself for because senior year can be really

[00:04:35] stressful, especially when you're constantly everywhere all at once. So it's more about

[00:04:40] for me at least finding time in the day when there is no time. I think I've been doing

[00:04:44] pretty well.

[00:04:44] It's a lot of pressure on a senior in high school, isn't it?

[00:04:48] Yes.

[00:04:48] Yeah. How do you relieve the pressure for yourself?

[00:04:51] I do a pretty good job of making weekends my early Saturdays, my fun days. So those are

[00:04:59] parties with friends or birthday hangouts or self-care days. The day where I can kind of

[00:05:05] just de-stress in my brain and do something that doesn't require a lot of energy, that way I'm

[00:05:10] ready and recharged for the rest of the week and ready to restart again. Like my family,

[00:05:13] I think I'm lucky to have them in the aspect of getting their own perspectives and

[00:05:18] experiences growing up. But in terms of the success I've made in my academic career,

[00:05:23] I do think it's more about my own drive and ambition. I like to believe that as long as

[00:05:28] I do what I need to do, I can control my own fate. And it's a concept that I've been

[00:05:32] thinking about a lot in terms of religious faith and spirituality along with reality

[00:05:38] and how those two things kind of combine because my family is partially religious.

[00:05:43] And a big thing I thought about in terms of like colleges and schools and programs is that

[00:05:49] I have to do everything that I can do first before I let another power sort of help me,

[00:05:55] which is why I believe that most of my success at least comes from my own drive and my own

[00:05:59] work ethic, if that makes sense. I agree with you. You cannot teach work ethic.

[00:06:04] It has to come from within. You sort of mentioned it earlier that Breakthrough Miami

[00:06:09] in particular, they look for the high achievers in fourth grade. Maybe that's part of the

[00:06:14] success that that program has is they identify those kids that are just innately driven.

[00:06:20] I definitely feel there's a sense of camaraderie along with unity within Breakthrough groups

[00:06:27] because we all have that in common. We all have something we're passionate about. And even if

[00:06:30] it's not something that you're passionate about, you still have some sort of drive to do

[00:06:35] something and Breakthrough is kind of there to help you find specifically where you want to

[00:06:39] put that energy into. I do think it does a good job of finding students who aren't just doing

[00:06:44] well in school, but are also driven to succeed past fourth and fifth grade. And we'll keep

[00:06:49] working with them. When you look at your biggest accomplishment

[00:06:53] and your almost 18 years, Jamar, what do you think it is?

[00:06:57] It's been the biggest accomplishment and also something that I think could be better,

[00:07:01] but my virtual art showcase called Miami Artists Movement. And it's an idea I came up with

[00:07:06] my junior year of high school because I really am passionate about the arts. I study music,

[00:07:12] theater. I'm also a dancer, even visual arts. I started to appreciate it a lot more.

[00:07:18] And I realized last year that I had never really done many things where when I got

[00:07:23] the idea for Miami Artists Movement, I also used Breakthrough to help me with like short of

[00:07:27] getting the logistics of how I could put together an event by myself without having to

[00:07:32] pay any money. Honestly, it ended up being really successful. I got a full lineup of

[00:07:37] young artists from different schools, whether it was Miami Dade College or Ransom or Gables.

[00:07:44] I also had people to help me with social media management, like a talent coordinator

[00:07:48] to go through audition list and then someone else to help with the design of the entire look

[00:07:54] of the Instagram. So promotions and release dates, the whole shit bang. I think you can

[00:07:58] only get better. You're an entrepreneur for sure. I mean,

[00:08:01] we can just tell you right now, someday you're going to be owning the ad agency. It's your name

[00:08:06] on the door. And I love that you are introspective and I like that you're obviously

[00:08:13] you're a religious person and have your direction and faith. Is there any secret sauce?

[00:08:19] What would your wisdom be to pass on to the younger generation of Breakthrough students in

[00:08:25] fourth grade? What would you tell them? Oh, fourth grade. That's stuff that kids

[00:08:29] don't like to listen. I would probably say holding your hand at times and really letting

[00:08:34] them know like this will be worthwhile in the future. I think that's sort of what we do now,

[00:08:38] like telling our kids like, I know it kind of sucks because you're going to school during

[00:08:42] the summer and you'd rather be playing Fortnite or at the pool or your friends are staying up

[00:08:46] to deep hours of the night. But you know, it really is worth it in the future if you put

[00:08:50] in the work now. And that's really all the advice you can give, especially for someone who's

[00:08:55] just starting out. So it's an academic and social overall enrichment program that's held on Saturdays

[00:09:02] in schools around Miami, is that right? Yes. And also during the summer, during the summer,

[00:09:06] we have a more academic aspect in terms of core classes. And during Saturdays,

[00:09:12] we've moved more into social justice or environment sustainability, the arts and STEM.

[00:09:19] It's amazing. So will you come back and talk to me again after you come back from college

[00:09:23] and start your ad agency? Of course. I'm very excited to have the chance to speak with you

[00:09:28] today. And I look forward to staying connected in the future and watching what you do with

[00:09:33] your amazing life. Yes. Thank you, Jennifer so much. Thank you for listening to episode

[00:09:37] number 41 of The Going For Greatness Show. I'm your host, Jennifer Weissman. If you

[00:09:41] found value in this episode, please share it with a friend. Until next time.