Talk of the County | Pathways 2 Progress featuring Tei Street and Logan Booker

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:00:00

Welcome Franklin County residents to another episode of Talk of the County. I'm your county administrator, Kenneth Wilson. And as always, we are striving to inform and sprinkle in a little bit of entertainment and some Cbus flavor. Today, I'm lucky and fortunate, to have the amazing Tei Street, who is just a superstar when it comes to working with youth, and is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, which is, I I can't say anything. I just I was out of town, and there was the Delta takeover. And I I I saw all of the social media and it but I was not surprised. I was like, that is a sorority that is truly in charge.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:00:59

So I knew that they would, represent well in Franklin County and turn out and show up and show out, as I like to say. So I am so glad to have you, Tee, here with us. And we have, Logan Booker, who is a student, a junior in the day is the 1st day of school. Not for you. You've been in school already. So he's already been in school. And you attend Eastland Vocational? Career Center. Eastland Career Center.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:01:35

Eastland Career Center. So we are glad to have, Logan here. I met Logan, and he came to our, Board of Commissioners General Session along with, some other students. And I really wanted to, have the opportunity again to, talk with Logan about his summer experience, in Pathways to Progress, and, learn more about his journey, and how he is going to be, part of Franklin County's futures. And his future will be bright. I'm absolutely confident in that. So we're gonna we're gonna kick it and talk a little bit about, your story and the chapters to come. What are your goals and aspirations, and how you are motivated by a master cheerleader, a master leader in the amazing tie streets.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:02:39

So, Miss Streets, will you talk a little bit about how you guys started? What, was the thing that made you realize that your superpower was working with young people?

Tei Street [: 00:02:57

So I'm I'm the person, ironically, who always said I never wanted to have children and I never wanted to work with children. And so my mom used to always say, you wanna make God laugh? Tell him your plans. I never intended to work with kids. I didn't neither of my 3 degrees have anything to do with kids. After grad school, I worked at Mount Carmel. I thought that people go to college so that they can get good jobs and break the cycle of poverty. So my mother told me, go get a good job, go to college so you can get a good job and break the cycle of poverty in our family. My parents told me that.

Tei Street [: 00:03:29

So that's what I was doing. I was on this career trajectory, thought I was gonna be a corporator on the private sector side, making good money in my twenties. And back then it was like $77,000 I thought that was big money. I'm from the south side of Columbus. That was big money. And, I hated my job. I liked the money. And I went away to a weekend retreat.

Tei Street [: 00:03:50

I got invited and I was like, I don't wanna go on this weekend retreat. Director of the Boys and Girls Club, my friend Grace said, hey. Heidi's doing this drug free retreat, drug free kids all weekend in the woods in Delaware. I'm like, black people don't go in the woods. And I don't like Heidi, and I can't stand kids. I'm allergic. Come on, t. They need some more adults.

Tei Street [: 00:04:11

For the first time ever, they're gonna have 30 black kids out of 250, and they need some black adults. I'm like, I'm the worst role model in history. Why would I wanna go up into the woods with kids? She kept twisting my arm. I went for the weekend, and it changed my life. One weekend changed it all because I believed all the statistics and all the things I had ever heard and read about kids. And I was bad kids, so I believed all the things I knew about myself. So I'm like, uh-uh. I saw these kids, 250 kids over a weekend.

Tei Street [: 00:04:40

Went back to work on Monday. Nothing was the same. My boss told me, she said, we knew we weren't gonna be able to keep you. 6 months later, a position came up with this program. They asked me the kids asked me to interview because I'd been volunteering. I interviewed, got the job, and that's when I learned that when you work with kids, you make no money. They offered me the job. I said, okay.

Tei Street [: 00:05:01

How much? I'm making 77. $21,750. I was like, dude, I eat that much in a year. I'm a big girl. I eat that much. What am I gonna do with $20,250? So I kept saying no. I turned them down, and they didn't fill the position. Everywhere I went for the next 2 weeks, I was at Tuttle Mall.

Tei Street [: 00:05:20

Cindy Chang from Dublin Kaufman High School came up and was like, Miss T, we heard you coming to T. I was so excited. I was like, girl, I said no. Downtown City Center Mall, that's how long ago this was. City Center Mall, Jewel Malik from Independence High School. Big Afro. Miss T, what up though? We heard you're coming to TI. Like, yo, I said, no.

Tei Street [: 00:05:42

Sitting in church, your little girl slides beside me. Miss T, excited you're coming to TI. I'm like, I miss Tee. I'm a keep volunteering. Called my mom that afternoon. I said, mom, they offered me this job and get this. It makes $21,750. You know that program I've been volunteering with? I was sure she was gonna it's like, don't be no fool.

Tei Street [: 00:06:01

We break poverty cycles. That's why you go to college. She said, have you ever stopped to think that maybe God is trying to tell you something? I took the $55,000 pay cut and have never looked back. And, my journey has been amazing. I've been director of education for Mayor Coleman, director of community education engagement for state treasurer Kevin L. Boyce, the statewide minority liaison for Jennifer Bruner. I worked at Ohio Dominican with with the village of child program. I worked for SAVE with less right when she was here.

Tei Street [: 00:06:32

Just an amazing array of opportunities. But landing at Ohio State, being hired by now congresswoman, but then executive vice president, Joyce Beatty to come to Ohio State to do some education stuff in her department. And the first thing that Trudy Bartley gave me, because Joyce left, Trudy took over. First thing she said is, we don't know what to do with this program. Tag your end. Route 508. Route 508. All baby park and Travis students on route 508.

Tei Street [: 00:07:04

Yeah. That's That's the baby part person. She's loud. Trudy said, tag. We got this summer program. Joyce didn't know what to do with it, but you do kids, so it's yours. So the next summer, we created originally, we called the program, s y S YEP, summer youth employment program. But then we started to look at, like, what are all the ways that kids are trying to get access to a good future? And so about 5 years ago, I changed the title to the name of the program to Pathways to Progress, recognizing that there are multiple ways that kids can be successful, not just college.

Tei Street [: 00:07:38

College is one of the things we give them access to. We talk about careers. We talk about, going into the workforce, entrepreneurship. All of those things are part of what we're encouraging kids and the basic skills that we're giving them are skills they can use in any of those sectors.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:07:51

That is that is, such a good thing, because when I when I grew up, college was considered the Pathways, the way out. Nothing about skilled trades at all crossed my mind. And definitely, military didn't cross my parents. My mother would run off them military recruiters. They would we would be coming from the grocery store, and then one of them would just pop up by the driver. She's like, no. No. No.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:08:24

My son going to college. You guys

Tei Street [: 00:08:26

I love that.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:08:28

My son going to college. And then I thought I only had 2 career choices. Either it'd be pre med or pre law. I didn't know I had I don't know the whole catalog of of thing majors to have. Because it was the same thing you talk about. It was you are going to invest that money so that you can have upward mobility. Yeah. And it was like nothing else was was in the book.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:08:56

Mhmm. You know? And and and then, you know, I switched from pre med to switch to pre law, which led me to public administration and public finance. Otherwise, you wouldn't even I wouldn't even be who I am and where I am today.

Tei Street [: 00:09:15

And you gotta do what brings you joy.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:09:17

And you just you kinda find it. I was not, the most, and I've talked about this in other podcast. I I wasn't service oriented, as a youth coming out of high school. I must have been there. I was not, thinking about anything close to a house and a white picket fence. I wore a big house, a big car, big cars, and all the material things. So for me to have the life that I've been blessed to be now, in the way I care about things other than myself and my inner circle, God is amazing. That's all I can say is God is amazing.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:10:07

Because I did not see myself. And you took that, you know, you took that $55,000 pay cut. But you think about how many kids over all the years and all the course of your career that you've lifted out of poverty or potentially incarceration or potentially worse that you touched. That's real. As that is that is real talk. That is what we're gonna do. And we just started to having this conversation. And I'm I'm ready.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:10:40

That's emotional stuff right there, all alone. And that's that's how you get the nickname amazing when you're willing to do it, and have a pivotal decision in life so early and make it. The the life skills camp at OSU, were you involved in in that formulation at all?

Tei Street [: 00:10:59

I was not. So that life sports program, but I sure not put my son in it. My son, when he was little, that was his of all the programs that were out there, life sports was his favorite. Every summer, the students looked forward to it. There were, like, groups of kids that knew each other. When I was growing up, that program was called NYSP. And we would hop on buses and go to Ohio State and learn 3 sports in the summertime. So I learned to play tennis.

Tei Street [: 00:11:22

That's how, enhanced my swimming and got my certification. So they just changed the name. It was around when I was a kid. And so that's how we met kids all over the city. Was ending up at what was then called National Youth Sports Program.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:11:35

Yeah. Yeah. Parents parents to this day get up and wait in lines for the opportunity for their for their time to be in in that in that summer program. It's amazing stuff. But let's get back to, Pathways to Progress. Loma, what have you tell me what tell me what it is and and how it has changed your

Logan Booker [: 00:11:59

world view. Yes, sir. So Pathway to P2P, as we call it short, we it is a summer program that it shows you everything like career wise. It's not just college as as you were saying, a lot of people are growing up on you have to go to college. There's no other way. It's college, college, college. We had we had trades. We had people talking to us from every every field imaginable.

Logan Booker [: 00:12:23

It was beautiful. It's it's a summer program. 8 weeks long if I'm correct. 8 weeks long. You have people from everywhere. Gahanna, Riddlesburg. You can inner city, everywhere. So it's a lot of diver it's a lot of diversity.

Logan Booker [: 00:12:35

A lot of it's it's just so beautiful seeing everyone coming along. And we're we get a project. We do it for 8 weeks. You're with random people. And that's what that's what was me my first day. I'm like, I'm with random people I have never seen, never met. We don't even have the same interest. How are we gonna get along? And through the program, you slowly they slowly get closer and closer to being your family more than friends.

Logan Booker [: 00:12:55

And having leadership leaders like Miss T and other staff. Not to mention the staff is college students. You would not expect that when you got all these teachers out here. They wanna pick up a check and go home. Having college students that can lead you to success is that was beautiful. It so it's 8 weeks of a project. Like, last like this latest summer was mental health. You had a video and you have to show a video and photos of mental health or and homelessness.

Logan Booker [: 00:13:25

It's showing that like because it's real difficult to show mental health in a photo. It could be anything. I can take a picture of you and be like, this is mental health. No. There's nothing wrong with the photo. It's just a picture of you. But it's mental health. You can't see when people have mental health issues.

Logan Booker [: 00:13:38

And a lot of times, at least with people I know, you can't see if they're homeless or not. So it's just it was the project and having people around you with the same mindset, trying to work all together and all that. This is so beautiful. I can't even it's hard to put

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:13:52

it into words. It's beautiful. If if you could put it into one word, what would that word be? Amazing. Amazing. No pun intended. It would be amazing. Okay. What are the 4 c's of college, career,

Logan Booker [: 00:14:11

and work? It's critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. Yes. And so for me, because I go to the career center, I'm in aviation dealing with planes and all that. And you have to have all 4. Like, the teacher, the first day I got there, that's exactly what they brought up. You have to be able to think critically. You gotta be able to communicate with your people. When you fly in a plane, you're not the only one flying it.

Logan Booker [: 00:14:36

Especially commercial, you gotta you have to be on the same page, communication. The create, critical thinking is like what if you go through turbulence or it's bad weather. You're not going. You have to change so many things on that plane so you get through it. And they just showing like, if you gonna get through get through high school alone, not even though, like, work and college on, you have to have the 4 c's. You have to. You're not gonna be successful without them.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:15:00

They take you as far as you wanna go. Yes, sir. You're gonna be able to just put them and package them away. Yes, sir. Being able to think critically, be able to think, under pressure, and to be, exceptional at anything, those at the highest level perform the best when under the most pressure situations. Yes, sir. You know, we you think that, making a free throw in a national championship game for the in March, it's it's tough. You just gave a a more critical example.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:15:43

Flying a Boeing 767 through turbulence with a plane full of people. And you gotta be able to be cool, calm, and collected. And I've been on a plane or 2 when it's jumping around. That pilot really gotta to be under control. Yes, ma'am. The pilots, I mean, like

Logan Booker [: 00:16:06

you said, it's not just one person in the plane

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:16:09

you coordinate with. Yes, ma'am. So what what and and you always have to visualize, you know, what you ultimately wanna do. How are you training your brain? What type of things you do to try to train your mind? So for what you wanna be to pass all of those tests, to get in those flight simulators you you will have to, get in. How are you preparing yourself mentally?

Logan Booker [: 00:16:38

Yeah. I was just wanna say the first thing mentally, you have to want it. No one else can have wanted more for you. You have to want it yourself. And that's what that was my thing, going to the career center. Understand this is what I want for my life and no one's gonna stop me if I put my mind to it. That's the biggest thing. So when tests come around, I'm not nervous because previously taking tests.

Logan Booker [: 00:16:54

I was just taking tests just to get the grade and everyone's talking about congratulations. But that's not what I wanted. But now finding something I want and I know that I need for my life. I'm gonna pass that test. I'm gonna study. I'm gonna do everything just to prove everyone that this is what I want and this

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:17:08

is what I'm doing. No matter what y'all feel. So you feel confident and you don't get nervous because you prepared.

Logan Booker [: 00:17:14

Yes, sir. It's all it's all too.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:17:17

But you don't even have a little bit of anxiety?

Logan Booker [: 00:17:19

You have a I think everyone get a chance to get

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:17:22

nervous anxiety.

Logan Booker [: 00:17:22

I get anxiety.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:17:23

You get anxiety. I like you. I like to prepare. I don't like when I was in school, I didn't like to do all nighters. I like to pace things out out. Because I didn't like to be frantic.

Logan Booker [: 00:17:33

I'm not so I don't really get a lot of anxiety tests. But testing anxiety. Mine is definitely to study. And being up past my bedtime, I'll be having a bedtime. Because 6 o'clock come too early. 9:30 I'll be in bed. Sleep. But it's about when you want it's just when you want it.

Logan Booker [: 00:17:51

Like, when you want it so bad that you're studying. You don't even care what the time is. The time gonna pass. Like, you're not thinking about anything. You just want it so bad. Mhmm. You really, like, you can't you can't fail yourself. You just gotta get through it no matter what no matter what it is.

Tei Street [: 00:18:04

It's a part of what we talked about in our year round program. Because last year was the 1st year we took a a delve into expanding our our summer program into a year round program. And one of the first things that we did with our students was walk them through the process of how to have critical conversations with adults and be heard. And, gave them some strategies and some skill sets, that sometimes you guys get so frustrated that adults can't hear you because your emotion is here, but your rationale is down here. And so how do you level set that? And so that was one of the first things we did in the fall. And I remember Logan sharing that he wanted to have a conversation with his mom to tell her that her dream for him wasn't his own dream for himself. And so we talked about the strategies for how to get that done. And so that's why he's at the Greer Center.

Tei Street [: 00:18:50

And his mom, it's been a process for her because you dream for your kids from the moment they're born. But his mom is now on board and and it's so awesome to see. She said, you know, one of the things that she's grateful for is that giving him those skills has really enhanced their their relationship. They have a better relationship than they had before. And she said that to me. She's like, I'm so grateful because, you know, Logan and I talk all the time and, you know, he shares now what he's what he's not just about what he's trying to do with his life, but the funny stuff and the silly stuff and just building those kind of strong relationships. And I think that we don't do enough of understanding that our kids don't always have the skill sets, even in their families, to make good conversations possible and build stronger relationships in families, build stronger relationships with their peers, and with the community that is around us. And so part of what I believe is my task is to make sure that I'm giving kids all the skills that they need to be successful in all the different areas of their lives.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:19:47

How how how do you place the emphasis so strongly on communication and expression? Because that is such an important building block, mistreats for for individuals. Yes. You know, marriages fail, friendships fail, jobs are lost Mhmm. Because people aren't open and able to express themselves and communicate effectively.

Tei Street [: 00:20:17

We spend a lot of time in our summer program on that communication piece. We've got a this year, we had a 115 kids. We've got kids from all over Franklin County. We've got kids who have never met each other, and they don't work well together to begin with. And so walking them through the process, when they're frustrated in school, they walk out. My job is to say, this is what we're not gonna do. We're not doing that.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:20:42

What we're

Tei Street [: 00:20:42

gonna do is we're gonna learn how to communicate your frustration and say to your peers, when you said this, it hurt my feelings. When you said this, you you I felt disrespected. Giving them the language, giving them the tools and saying, walking out is not the option. Because if you walk out of here, you'll be walking out of things for the rest of your life simply because you didn't have the skill set to have the conversation. And we don't screen our kids. People are like, Tee, how do you get all these great kids? I'm like, I have kids with autism. Do we not Autism this summer. We have kids who are special ed.

Tei Street [: 00:21:13

I got kids who can't read. I got kids from across the spectrum. I I've had I got a kid with ankle monitor on who was then this summer on my youth staff. We get kids from all over. I don't screen kids. I take the kids that apply. And my job is to give all of them skills and communication is one of the basic ones. But it's also we start off with a simple thing of how do you greet? When I come in every morning, I said, this is how we greet people.

Tei Street [: 00:21:43

Cake is good. Pizza is good. People are what? Well. People are well. So everyone I say, good morning. They say, good morning, miss t. I said, how are you? They say, we are well. And I said, and then what you go? And how are you, miss t? I said, I'm well too.

Tei Street [: 00:21:56

Thank you for asking. When we have guests, we practice that thing. They're like, Ms. T, you're right. When we go out in public and we say it in our families or at the mall, people are shocked when we say well. I said, they don't have high expectations of you. Make them have high expectations of you. When you walk into a place, command people's respect by how you carry yourself.

Tei Street [: 00:22:15

You know, and saying to them, I'm gonna use lots of big words this summer. That's why you have journals. If I say a word you don't understand, write it down because profanity is for people who lack vocabulary. So I'm gonna give you lots of vocabulary this summer. So students will be like, Miss Diva, what does that mean? Oh, I see summer. So students will be like, miss Steve, what does that mean? Oh, I see. It means this. And so, enhancing and giving our kids as many skills as we can, and having higher expectations than they get at school.

Tei Street [: 00:22:41

Unfortunately, I don't think our schools, not just Columbus, I'm I'm so over everybody thinking it's Columbus. I have kids this summer from 14 of the public school districts and I can tell you none of them come from school districts that have high expectations. How don't I ask the question? How many of you got grades that you didn't earn? How many hands

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:22:59

go up?

Tei Street [: 00:22:59

Everybody raises. Every hand goes up. And I say, you're gonna learn so much about yourself this summer and what you're capable of, you're gonna go back and ask those teachers, why you hate me? Because when people love you, they have high expectations of you. And if I raise the bar, you'll jump. If I never raise the bar, you don't even know that you can. So I'm never lowering the bar. All the kids had to say, my kids with disabilities, my kids with all everybody has to perform at your best. I don't need Logan's best for Sierra.

Tei Street [: 00:23:29

I need Logan's best for Logan. I need Sierra's best for Sierra. So

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:23:34

talk to the county food for thought. Profanity is when you lack vocabulary.

Tei Street [: 00:23:39

So I'm a give you lots of vocabulary so you can do away with the f's and the b's. I'm a give you fundamentals that broaden your horizons. That's your new f and your new b.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:23:50

And being and in in having high expectations, people tend to not always respond well to that. I'm gonna let you Tell me how did and I know I know this part of her program. How did she teach you all during these 8 weeks to deal with constructive feedback? Or some people say, you criticizing me. Nothing I can do is right. You

Logan Booker [: 00:24:20

you gotta first learn if they're giving you constructive criticism. They care about you. They love you. Something has to mean something. If they were taking time out of their day to judge or tell you what you did that you can do better. That off rip. I would say you have to be open minded. You can't take everything to the heart.

Logan Booker [: 00:24:36

Like if you do something wrong and they tell you that you do something wrong. Don't shut down and just be like I'm done. I'm never doing that again. Take what they told you and implement it. That's the best way I can tell

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:24:50

you. You wanna elaborate more? You you worked for Logan, but elaborate more on that. But I

Tei Street [: 00:24:55

think we see it we see it with all kind of kids. We see it with, the high expectations is something that they're not used to. Like, when we start off the 1st week, I don't allow guests then. 1st week is just us because I'm level setting. I'm telling them when I have guests, these are my expectations. My expectations, we teach something that is research based called what? SLANT. Logan and I are gonna practice SLANT for you. When they were doing the closing the achievement gap workshops, this is a research based technique for kids on how they can raise their grades simply by how they show up.

Tei Street [: 00:25:27

So we teach Slant. And I said when we have guest speakers, this is how we show up. We sit up. What's the f? Lean forward. Lean forward.

Logan Booker [: 00:25:35

Ask and answer questions is the a. N is never never check out. And t is the t zone, which is where you're sitting in the it's the front in the middle. It's the front and in the middle of the t shirt. So always show that you're engaging. Even if you're not, you could be sitting there and they could be talking and you just following them. But because you're in the front, they're gonna think you're paying attention to it.

Tei Street [: 00:25:57

And when you and I asked them. I said, I I want we tell kids stuff, but we don't tell them the methodology behind it. I said to them, I said, look. What what is really happening? I said, the research says if you do this consistently for 6 weeks without even turning in your homework, you can move from an f to a c, from a d to a b simply by doing I said, What are you communicating when you sit up in a in a teacher's classroom? They're like, that you're present. I said, When you lean in when somebody leans in, what does it communicate? It's communicating that you're listening and that you want to hear what they have to say. Every teacher wants to believe that you care about what they're talking about. I said, I asked questions in school that I already knew the answer to, but I would say, so are you saying that? What is asking and answering produce? It says that you're engaged with the material. Never check out.

Tei Street [: 00:26:41

I don't care how bored you. I don't care if your ADHD kick in. If you sit in that that front row, just keep listening. Keep engaging because if you don't check out, when when the teacher has a decision to make between the c and the d, you get in the c because you get the benefit of the doubt. In a classroom, the t zone is the room. The t zone is the front row, middle seat. That's the magic seat of a classroom. You you preaching magic.

Tei Street [: 00:27:06

My kids have told me that they use it

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:27:08

in college. You preaching magic when you say never check out. People checking out in Fortune 500 companies in staff meetings. And you look at them and you know they checked out.

Tei Street [: 00:27:22

Mhmm. Our kids, we we don't give them all the tools that they need to be successful. For me, I'm I'm telling kids, I say, guys, these things work whether you're in the, a college classroom, whether you're in a boardroom. They work whether you're at sitting at I'm like, I used to sit at at city council meetings when I was director of education, bored to tears, practicing slant and pretending like I was engaged listening because the television cameras were always on us. I would see my colleagues laid out. I'm like, I'm not doing that. You know? And so giving kids those strategies, when they struggle in school. And I'm like, you need to be in that front row because it's not distracting you.

Tei Street [: 00:28:00

All the stuff behind you, you're not paying the digital because you're right here in the front. It also tells the the instructor something about who you are.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:28:08

And when and when you practice not checking out, it becomes a it becomes a habit. Mhmm. And and you can't, you know, it's not easily breakable that way. And then not checking out goes further. And before you know it, you didn't improve upon your character. Because the biggest character test is who you are when nobody's watching. Well, if you condition your mind and you always, focus, you're not gonna turn it on and turn it off as easily.

Tei Street [: 00:28:44

How do you feel about that?

Logan Booker [: 00:28:45

It's just staggering. Definitely true. And for even me, well, like, when I'm talking to one of my parents or something, when they're leaning in and it looks like they're engaged, even if they're not. It's still as a person I'm thinking that you're listening to me. So it just goes a long way with communication. Not even that speaking wise but if I see you that you're always listening when I'm talking, you're always engaged, and you're always listening, I'm always I'm a always be the first person like, if I have a problem, I'm a go to the person that's always listening and understanding.

Tei Street [: 00:29:17

Mhmm. I agree.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:29:19

That's a truck. It build you build you build trust and credibility with people by paying attention to them. One of

Tei Street [: 00:29:26

the things we we practice is a safe space. In the summertime, with all these kids, you never know what you're gonna get. We have a lot of kids and and I think as we start to look at the mental health issues of Franklin County kids, you'll see it. We have a lot of kids who are battling anxiety, and they don't go to school. A lot of our kids who drop out drop out because they are high anxiety ridden. We had a kid last year who, had missed 4 months of school for anxiety. Her mom's an educator. And so I got the call like, hey, don't make her talk because you know, she's, she has high anxiety.

Tei Street [: 00:30:00

I said, she's gonna talk and you're gonna get to see a presentation at the end. She's gonna come out of her shell. And they're like, no, she's she has really bad anxiety. And I said, just you gotta trust the process. I talk to the staff all the time about trusting the process, because it takes a minute for kids to get it. And, I remember her assistant principal came in, they were doing an activation with Drip The Dawn, the rapper. And, she was up and filming and he was like, Dee, how did you get her?

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:30:27

And I

Tei Street [: 00:30:27

said, schools are not safe spaces. If you're battling any kind of mental illness, the worst place you can be at school. And that's unfortunate. It's not a safe space. We don't disrespect each other. I don't disrespect kids. I don't allow them to disrespect each other. We set the boundaries of what it is.

Tei Street [: 00:30:43

We had a parent this summer who came literally and disrupted the whole program disrespecting her daughter. Kids were angry. Oh my god. And then they thought she hit me.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:30:54

Oh, damn.

Tei Street [: 00:30:54

They thought she hit me up because I I walked them out to the hallway and, you know, put my hands on. I was like, I cannot let you put your hands on your daughter. If you do that, I'm calling the police because I'm a mandatory reporter. If you put your and so I my hands are up and she's walking into my hands. She swung at her daughter over me. We did indeed call the police. She swung at her daughter and the kids were watching from inside. They thought she hit me.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:31:16

She

Logan Booker [: 00:31:16

almost had a 115 kids out there ready to fight.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:31:21

So so

Tei Street [: 00:31:22

I walked back in.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:31:22

She's tease out on me.

Tei Street [: 00:31:24

I walked back in. And one of my kids one of one of my kids, he he's my ankle monitor boy. He doesn't have it anymore. He's oh my god. He's doing so well. He came over. He's like, auntie, did she hit her? Did she hit you? Did she put her hands on you? I said, she did not. She did not hit me.

Tei Street [: 00:31:40

And I had to announce to the kids what had happened. And, the kids were angry at the mom because they thought she mishandled the situation. And I said to them, I said, you understand that sometimes y'all are not the problem. Sometimes adults are. And we still have a responsibility because the whole time that the mom is disrespecting the daughter, she's never disrespecting her mom back. And I said to, I said to my staff, I said, so what did you see? They were like, that sometimes they're part of the problem. But watching our kids be responsive and they were upset for the girl over a cell phone. You came to her job and removed her physically over a cell phone that happened at home, not at work.

Tei Street [: 00:32:22

This kid is showing up to work, and this is what you as a parent did to disrupt the process. It's not okay. And we've as a community, one of the things that I'm really interested in engaging in, in addition to all the work we do with kids is talking about how do we as a community, redevelop expectations for our kids and how they act in community. When they go to parties, why is there always a fight? How can I have 115 kids and no fights? But everywhere we go, it's always trauma and drama surrounding kids. And I said, it's because our community doesn't enforce a code of expectation for behavior for our kids anymore. As a larger community, I treat all kids like their mind. When I see a ministry, I'm like, young man. Oh, my bad, ma'am.

Tei Street [: 00:33:06

My bad, ma'am. You know? And I always look at the ma'am because I never disrespect them. I'm like, can you do me a favor? See all these adults standing here. Can you not drop that? Mom, I don't know these kids. My bad, man. I'm up out. I didn't mean to say that in front of you. You know you made me mad.

Tei Street [: 00:33:19

Having an expectation and clearly communicating that expectation to our kids is something we've gotten away from as a community.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:33:30

That leads me to ask a question. Talk about, Logan, what you see as the culture of p2p.

Logan Booker [: 00:33:44

Can you restate that question? I just wanna

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:33:46

What do you see as the culture of p2p? It's the the environment that it creates. How How there's an expectation as miss T talked about of this is how we treat each other. So being in

Logan Booker [: 00:34:07

the program for 2 years, I definitely could say, it's a safe space like, if you ever had an event, if anything was happening you could tell almost anyone and they would respect it. They would help you. They would do everything. And, for what the culture, what the high expectation was that it came from love. It wasn't coming from, I'm mad at you. I don't know. I'm just here to collect a check and go home. And I have to have your act right so I'll get this money.

Logan Booker [: 00:34:31

It's more like, it's out of love. She's trying to better you. So when you know that they expect better and you know better, you're gonna come better. You're not gonna walk in. If your mom's principal, you're not gonna walk into school acting crazy. Same way is we know that miss t loves us and she's trying to better us. We're not gonna walk in our program and act crazy. The code the culture, like, with with the safe space we had we had kids going through all types of stuff in there.

Logan Booker [: 00:34:59

They would say out loud, they wouldn't try to hide it. Such at school, you have something going on at home. You're trying to hide it. You probably might tell that one friend that you have. Compared to P2P you had, they would tell their group and then they would try to solve the solution there instead of going straight to that one person or a higher up by Miss T and telling them. They would tell one of us and be like, Oh, I'm just going through this, I'm going through that. And for them to be able to vent and just be able to tell us what they're going through alone and being vulnerable, it's just the safe space of having it. You're not being vulnerable with everybody out here because they won't use it against you.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:35:34

Can't let anybody know in the water you bleed Yeah. In a pool of sharks. Yes, sir. But in p two p, you you don't feel that whole Safe. Lion's den feeling or whatever analogy you wanna use. Safe.

Logan Booker [: 00:35:55

I definitely say a lot of kids they get to be their self. When you're out in the real world you're trying to you're trying to like to the way you dress to the way you talk you're always trying to fit in or you're trying to act like other people to get I don't even know what you would consider what is considered. But you're just trying to fit in so you're not being judged and misheard. Compared to B2P, we had kids act like some of the kids that some of my friends that I knew growing up, they'll come to b2p act totally different. But that's because it's love and it's a safe space compared to when I see my school. They gotta act all hard or they gotta act like they're from a place that they're not, so they fit in.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:36:32

Not they don't wanna be a victim. So they they wanna try to wear that wear that robe so they're not so they're not a victim. Yes, sir. That's I know in in in schools and in neighborhoods, it's like, you know, you gotta walk and talk a certain way to get picked up on the, for a pickup game of basketball. And there's kind of that mentality that you can take into the classroom and it don't that don't fit in the classroom or training building.

Tei Street [: 00:37:03

I loved last year. I love how they come to respect each other. Having nothing to do with us. Having nothing to do with the adults. I remember remember the first time we had a speaker and Mir's ankle monitor was going off. And the kids were, oh, that's just Mir's ankle monitor. Like, it was no big deal. Nobody was treating this kid like he was like he shouldn't be here.

Tei Street [: 00:37:24

Everybody was just like, oh, this Mir. And watching this boy oh my god. That's what I wish I could've brought with me today. Yeah. I asked the courts for some kids last year. I said, I wanna go deeper into the risk pool because I wanna show you that you can turn all kinds of kids. And so one of the kids that they sent me was this young man. And when he showed up to sign up, he showed up with his mother.

Tei Street [: 00:37:48

His locks down in his face, little skinny skinny little boy and he had a little ankle monitor on that the courts had referred him. And his head is down and the mother starts off with, he was referred by the courts. I said, ma'am, not important to me. What's your name sweetheart? And you told me his name. I said, can you look at me? Hold your head up. Why your head bowed down? And he said, I got this thing on. I was like, is that who you are? Or is that what you have on your ankle? He's like, what I have Michael. I was like, look at me.

Tei Street [: 00:38:15

I said, mom, I don't wanna hear what he's done. That's not important to me. I looked at him and I said, if you trust me, I will not let you fail. That was my statement to him. Last year, he was a student in the program who completed well. This year, he and Logan were both

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:38:34

chosen as, out of the 50 kids, as one of the 10

Tei Street [: 00:38:34

youth staff. Chosen as out of the 50 kids as one of the 10 youth staff. And when the kids talked about it, his impact on their lives, this young man who last year was an ankle monitor, he said, I'm not doing well in school. I convinced him to go and enroll in one of the alternative programs at Ohio Construction Academy that he completed. He's now like, what can I do next? I gotta work with you. I gotta work with you. We were enrolling him in our program. It's done for him.

Tei Street [: 00:39:01

He's like, I I need to stay connected. Reached out to another provider and said, I can't lose this kid. And I told him that shit. I said, I'm not burying you. You're not gonna die in the streets. You're not stealing anything else. You're not We will always have money in your pocket from having good jobs till we get you to your place. And watching him move with his he's 17 and he's supervising with an with one of my college kids, 10 high school kids, some of whom were older than him.

Tei Street [: 00:39:29

And they're like, like, mister Muir said, and mister Muir did this. And when when this was happening, he encouraged us, and he told us we didn't have enough research in our project. This is a kid that other people had

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:39:41

He rechallenged. And when I tell you He re challenged. He re he re re re reprogrammed.

Tei Street [: 00:39:47

He did. When I tell you, if I look at my phone right now, I bet I got a text right now. Hey, auntie. How's it going? Hey, auntie. How's it going? I tell him, I said, you know, my kids to me are family. Mhmm. You know, pretty soon I'm not Misty. I'm an auntie to the kids that that avail themselves.

Tei Street [: 00:40:01

We become, that piece. I have an amazing young woman, that's my assistant director. She's 24. Because, you know, as I think about retirement, I needed someone who understands how to build strong programs that work, that are that you can replicate year after year after year, that I could train and teach, but who had a heart for young people. So she staffed for Mia for a couple of years and then we hired her full time and she she's amazing. She's amazing.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:40:29

She's amazing. You didn't have to take her to the woods though.

Tei Street [: 00:40:31

Didn't have to take her to the woods. She's, she graduated from Ohio State in 22. We hired her. And she's she's simply amazing. And I told her, I said, I'm sorry. If you wanna work for me, you gotta go back and get another degree. So I made her go back. She started grad school last week at Ohio State.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:40:48

That's that's great.

Tei Street [: 00:40:49

But amazing.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:40:50

If I wished anything, it would be that if educators would compensated better even in 2024?

Tei Street [: 00:40:59

I wish that some educators would compensated better. I wish that all educators gave our children the kind of education that they want for their children. And I can guarantee you being in schools, that's not happening everywhere. I want the salary that you take off the backs of my children. My son went to Columbus City Schools. You won't give him the education that you use the salary to pay for private school for your kid or to go into a suburban district where your kids get access, but you won't give our kids the kind of education that you want for your child. I give every kid in my program the kind of program I wish I had been able to give to Christopher. Period.

Tei Street [: 00:41:41

So good teachers, I want them well compensated. But for me, I think that there ought to be a scale. Kids will tell you, there are teachers they know don't care about them and don't and don't educate them.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:41:51

Well, there's been a before it seemed like before p two p, I've heard Logan say a few times in this conversation. I didn't point out I didn't I didn't point it out, but he was like, I know the teacher just wanna get a paycheck. They just want me to go to get a check. So I know at some point, at points in his educational experience, to you have

Logan Booker [: 00:42:28

year talking about they have better things to do to be here. And I'm thinking, I'm like, they talking to us like we made you go to college, get a degree, and become a teacher. Like they talking to us like we the reason why they're here. Like we here because we legally have to be here. You're here because you decided to be here. And it was just that that always just stuck with me. Like you can't you put in whatever problems you had, you putting it on us and then talking about, oh, I have better things to be due to be here. I'm here for money and all that.

Logan Booker [: 00:42:57

I'm like, but if you're here for money, there's way more jobs that pay more. So why waste our times and waste our like, you making it miserable for everyone else because you're miserable. You can go somewhere you can go to Amazon and almost make as much.

Tei Street [: 00:43:10

I love you, Logan. That's a mic drop.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:43:14

You said, why are they here? They they they could've been fishing

Logan Booker [: 00:43:18

or anything. Yeah. Something. Yeah. I don't know why you I'm like, you teaching all the stuff I can I'm like, are you teaching all the stuff

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:43:27

I can look up on Google or AI? I can get it in 10 minutes. Not AI. See, I wouldn't have been able to say that.

Tei Street [: 00:43:32

See, you got that not not 3 years ago.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:43:34

Art of issue intelligence, he can look it up.

Tei Street [: 00:43:38

But I I think that when when people ask me and, people have always asked, like, T, what's the magic sauce? And I said, it's 2 things. High expectations and an ethic of care. Those 2 things. I don't care what program I've run. I run it with those 2 things. Very high expectations. The thing that changed my life was a teacher named Emery Hill, who made me believe in myself and an administrator named JT Harris, former superintendent of Columbus East Schools. I saw her this morning.

Tei Street [: 00:44:06

And I'm always grateful to them who had these really high expectations of me that I didn't even have of myself. I thought my parents had high expectations. I hadn't met high expectations until I met Emery Hill. And, the first test she gave, most of the students failed it. I got a 100. And she asked me, did I cheat? I'm like, I had to cheat on your little test. And she said the closest score was a 69.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:44:31

And so

Tei Street [: 00:44:31

after that, she just kept raising the bar and raising the bar and raising the bar. And she's the reason why no matter what my parents had said, I really wasn't planning to go to college. This is the teacher who made me believe I could do anything.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:44:41

She was putting you in the gifted without

Tei Street [: 00:44:43

you going into the gifted. She had All of her classes were gifted.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:44:46

Yeah. She had her own with the kids.

Tei Street [: 00:44:47

She's the reason why I came to Delta. I knew I knew from her own example of who she was, she was a Delta, that I wanted to be like this woman. And, and then I've been I've been blessed, and so I try to give kids the same thing that I was given, all along my Pathways. It's why I have college kids on my staff. My staff are all I don't hire teachers in the summer. It's $38 an hour like some of these programs. I hire college kids, because I had mentors in college, Ruthaly Gresham, who made me believe in myself. And then when I entered the work world, Kathy Espie was my life time mentor until she took her last breath in 22.

Tei Street [: 00:45:22

She promised me that she would mentor me and she said, when you mentor people, you always have to make sure that they're in the room. So I invite kids to things that I go to because I want them to get exposure. When I get invited to these fancy lunches, I try to invite young people to the table. I want them to see the other part of the world that exists, when, you know, when you guys are having an event. I want our kids to be in the room and see how people network and how they negotiate with each other and how they build relationships that are not just transactional, but are transformational. And so you gotta take kids into those spaces. And so this year, we're gonna take some kids on college tours and we're gonna do a conference in a couple of weeks with the Urban League kids. We're bringing our kids with the Urban League kids for a year round.

Tei Street [: 00:46:07

We're actually gonna do a oh, what do we call it? We call it work and leader force conference. And so we're gonna expose kids to all the different things that they can be doing. We're gonna do it on a PD day for Columbus City School. So while kids are out of school, they're still learning. Mhmm. So just finding innovative ways to put our kids in positions to win.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:46:27

Mentors a part of the legacy by inheritance to create a new legacy for people to follow. I agree. And they all don't have to be and it don't have to be blood.

Tei Street [: 00:46:47

Mhmm. It doesn't.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:46:49

It don't. And most times, it's not blood. Mhmm. When you find that person that likes that spark. And that's why you can always have a shot when you can see people in places. Mhmm. And you can imagine otherwise, how you do hard work to get there. Absolutely.

Tei Street [: 00:47:13

What's the great one?

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:47:14

If you can see it, you can be it. The difficult thing is many times, some people that the difference between those that make it and those that don't, they don't have that opportunity to see somebody that are that's in a space to where they have a God given talent that they aren't able to find because of that.

Tei Street [: 00:47:34

I tell my kids all the time, you know, I said, how many of you have ever been told you can be whatever you wanna be? And all the hands go up. I said, that's the great American lie. The kids are like, what? I'm like, that's the great American lie. You can't be whatever you wanna be.

Logan Booker [: 00:47:48

You can't teach what you don't know. You can't leave where you wanna go.

Tei Street [: 00:47:52

Can't be what you wanna be. You can be what you

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:47:55

Work. Work to be. I

Tei Street [: 00:47:57

said because the only place success comes before work is in the dictionary, Vince Lombardi.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:48:01

Chris Rock got all kinda laughed in one of his stand up comedian shows. He was talking about he let his daughter's school and they came in. Y'all can be whatever y'all wanna be. Like, he or dad.

Tei Street [: 00:48:12

That's a lie. That part. He's a lie.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:48:16

You ain't about to be what

Tei Street [: 00:48:18

That part. Tell the kids, I said, you know, that's what we we have served you done you a disservice telling you could be whatever you wanna be. You can be whatever you work to be. Our kids I'm like one of the things I tell them all summer is, Miss Dee, I I don't know how to do all this research. This is hard. My favorite phrase is, you can do hard things. Know what we tell you all summer? You can do hard things. And when they get to those projects this summer, both summers, these kids showed out in these projects.

Tei Street [: 00:48:48

The end of the summer projects, we invite everybody to come in and judge. This year we had William Murdoch from Morpsey, and Lisa Pat McDaniel was a judge, and Erica Clark Jones was a judge, and, Shannon, what's what's Shannon's last name? Oh, at the shelter board.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:49:04

Shannon Isom?

Tei Street [: 00:49:05

Shannon Isom was a judge. Trudy Bartley was a judge. They sat here like this. And and every year, they're like, how do you get these kids to do this? We're all sitting back like this and the judges are

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:49:18

because it's

Tei Street [: 00:49:19

a competition. Yeah. We actually have winners and people are like, well, everybody should get something. I'm like, uh-uh. No participation trophies. You compete. You win or you don't. Until the folks who win, they get a they get a they got a laptop.

Tei Street [: 00:49:32

The 2 teams that won got laptops. The homelessness team that won and the, mental health team, they got laptops. And so guess what? Everybody doesn't always win the competition, but all of you complete it. And then when they come for their parent presentation, we ask them the question, what was your greatest area of growth? And so, they stand before their parents and they talk to their parents about the area this summer where they saw the most growth in themselves. It's powerful. Parents are like weeping and crying and you're like

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:50:07

So one of the hard truths of P2P is you can be whatever you work to be.

Logan Booker [: 00:50:13

I won't even call it sad. I'll call it truth. I'd rather know the truth than be lied to my whole

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:50:22

life. You you just wanna be always told like it is. Okay.

Logan Booker [: 00:50:27

Be direct. Indirectness, it don't it don't help. It just doesn't help. Because, no, I can't be anything I want. I can't be an NBA player, and I'm playing 2 k at home. I need to be in the gym 20 47. That's right.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:50:42

You got you got different kind of people in the world. You got people when presented with a problem, they want the good news first before they hear the bad. And then you had those that are wired to say, tell me the bad news first. And I wanna figure out how to deal with that. And then the good news is just the dessert.

Tei Street [: 00:51:03

That's me. Just tell me what it is.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:51:06

I'm trying to sugarcoat it. When you walk in the mouth, it's just always been my philosophy. A lot of it's probably been the way I was brought up in sports and and and then the the the supervisors I've had, bosses and mentors, over the years. It's like you just gotta and you don't have to and and the greatest leaders don't have to raise the tone of their voice either. You know they command respect. You're gonna listen to them very closely so that you so that you as people say, understand the assignment each time. And and not come back with excuses along your journey to complete the assignments.

Tei Street [: 00:51:54

My favorite phrase is when someone's speaking, I'm like, oh, I hear a voice if Logan is speaking. I'm like, Logan, hold hold on for a second. I hear a voice and that's clearly not yours. So in other words, why are you talking when someone else is talking? I'll be like, I know the sound of my own voice and I hear voices, not mine. And so creating those expectations in that place because we set our kids up for failure. We make them believe that the world is just a playground. It's not. There are places where people have expectations of us and how we show up.

Tei Street [: 00:52:21

And, you know, I remember my first battle with Logan last summer when he was a participant versus you staff was, I want to see you. So one morning I walked over, he walked around with his little locks. He used to have thick long locks and hung in his face. And I walked over one day and I took a scrunchie and I pulled his hair up out of his face and I said, you're beautiful and I want to see you. And he went home and his mom called me. She was like, how did you get him to pull his locks out of his face? I said, I pulled him out and just told him I wanted to see him. I said, because he's hiding behind that because that's his Linus blanket. That's one of the blankets that is his, you know, insecurity.

Tei Street [: 00:52:58

It hides him from the world. And I want him to know that there's greatness in him and I wanna see him as we pull that greatness out of him. And, you know, our kids don't wear hoodies in my program. I'm like, no. No hoodies, no hats, no beanies, no bonnets. We have all these rules of what we don't do in this program. They don't have to dress up. They can be comfortable and casual.

Tei Street [: 00:53:18

But I remember the first time I saw him, the locks out of his face, and he was smiling. And then she said, I had to go to the store and buy him all the scrunchies to get his locks out because she wants to get my locks out of my face. And he she's like, I've been begging him and begging him and begging him. And I said, he can't hear your voice. In adolescence, it's not uncommon for young people not to be able to hear the voices of their parents. That's why you have to have mentors and you have to have all these other people who are the voices in the void. I'm like, I don't want your children. I don't want yours.

Tei Street [: 00:53:48

I raised my own. Don't want your children. I just want to be the voice in the void until they can hear your voice again. And so, I said, but then why is he showing up? She said, he likes it when you come over and put them up. I said, well, he's still showing up without it. He would I'd walk over and he'd hand me the scrunchie and I'd put his hair up every day, but that was our connection. Other kids, it might be when they come in, I got a fist bump. It's figuring out what it is that are keeping these kids from loving themselves unconditionally without apology.

Tei Street [: 00:54:16

Because if we can get to the root of all these issues, which is low self esteem, if we can get to the root of it and root it out and help our kids believe in the greatness that's already in them, not who they have to become that's already there, we can do transformative work, but we've gotta get to the root first.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:54:32

Sometimes parents have to be relying on other voices.

Tei Street [: 00:54:36

That part.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:54:37

I I that's difficult.

Tei Street [: 00:54:39

Because but when you love your kids, it's not. When you love them and you I don't feel threatened when somebody wants to speak life into my son. I'm like, oh, thank you. Because I know he can't hear my voice. And so I'm always saying to parents, let me be clear. My job right now, I'm not telling them anything that you don't tell them. The difference

Logan Booker [: 00:55:04

wanted me she used to want me to have styles so my hair go bad because she hated it, like, in my face. And I just always did, like, I was going, getting in the front no matter what. Like

Tei Street [: 00:55:13

And and but then you have to I have to walk parents through processes. Last year, I had a fight with Logan's mom on the first day of school because Logan and all the other kids at 90 degrees, 95 degrees, all had hoodies on on the first day of school. And she made a post on social media. And all these moms came on cosigning it. And I called her and I said, is this hill you wanna die on? For the 1st year ever, he's excited to go to school. You wanna die on a hoodie hill? You gotta pick your battles. Take that post down. All these moms who don't understand that these hoodies are Linus.

Tei Street [: 00:55:47

They are Linus blankets. They will get past that. You gotta give Logan a process. Hill of the hoodie. We know you got money and you can buy him a decent outfit. Under that hoodie is a decent outfit. Stop dying on senseless heels. And she was like, okay.

Tei Street [: 00:56:09

I said, take that post down. I said, because when he sees that, you've reduced his whole excitement about school to a hoodie. And she's like, you know what? I needed to hear that from you. I was like, we're all trying to figure this parenting thing out. None of us gets it right all the time. And so knowing who he is, I knew that someday we would get him out of a hoodie. I knew that he would start to see himself as the the handsome, smart, intelligent young man that he is. Last year, he called me.

Tei Street [: 00:56:38

They doing a book club in school. He gonna ask me about a book that you better not name on on on camera. Auntie, do you know about this book? I'm like, I do. How do you know about this book? Oh, me and my friends ordered it on on Amazon. I'm like, I didn't find that book until I was an adult. I needed that book early in my career, man.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:56:59

Wow. Okay. This has been a this has been a great conversation, Logan. I wanna thank you for for sharing your insight. Yes, sir. Coming from a young person's perspective. I think this is the first talk of the county where we may have heard it, from the perspective of one of our youngest, Franklin County residents. And we say we're about every resident every day.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:57:24

So just a matter of time, when we talked to the county before, we got to someone like you, mister Booker, and to hear your world view. And I know that you will, soar high. Yes, ma'am. That's what, you know, the air force slogan is, aim high. So you wanna be in aviation, so you just aim high. And you're gonna always be in the stars once you once you shoot up. The key is that always to shoot up into the air at whatever you try, to embrace. And I know you show you during this conversation, with the direction of, miss t, you you have all of the tools necessary to be very successful Yes, sir.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:58:11

In life. So,

Tei Street [: 00:58:13

And shout out to this amazing mom. He's an amazing

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:58:17

mom. And, yes. Mothers, are are so pivotal. And mothers just tend to always have this quiet confidence that they baby boys can do anything. No matter how how old they get, they don't they they they believe in you. They believe in you on your on your dimmest day. Mothers tend to believe in they sons on they dimmest day, boy. Yes, sir.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:58:45

Always, you be like, you know don't don't don't don't pump me up that much.

Logan Booker [: 00:58:49

They don't want you to grow up. Then when you grow up, they want you to be a baby and give me away.

Tei Street [: 00:58:56

I always close out my program with my parents. Thanking them for the opportunity to serve their kids. Thank you for trusting me, with this amazing responsibility to help be a part of the village. We always say it takes a village to to raise a child, but the actual proverb says that it takes an entire village to raise a single child. So, it takes all of us for every single kid needs a village. Every kid. And so, I I feel honored and humbled. One that kids like Logan let me in, that they trust my voice.

Tei Street [: 00:59:25

But I I feel honored that parents continually, year after year, trust us. And we're grateful to Franklin County Commissioners and Franklin County for continuing to support programs like Pathway

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:59:36

to Progress. Well, you you you you making your, you know, you're gonna your your mother's, hard work and and prayers for you, you're gonna make all of those pay off on confidence. And and don't don't think it's going to lighten. I'm half a century plus 6, and my mom expects to speak to me every 24 hours, it seems, over the telephone. So they she gonna still be there. She gonna still be there for you and still wanna hear from you. So Yes, sir. It's a blessing though, Logan.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:00:11

It's a blessing that you and, you you're gonna keep on, and and miss t is not going nowhere. I got a feeling when you when she touch your life, she don't go anywhere either. Uh-huh.

Tei Street [: 01:00:24

Yep. I've got kids. We were laughing. I had kids this summer, that I had their parents when they were in high school. They're like, Misty, my mom said she was in that program. We were at the program I told you that started me up. I had 3 kids last summer that their parents did. So I have programs, TI was, yep.

Tei Street [: 01:00:44

Got kids now. So now I'm serving second generation kids. And so, yeah, been in this a minute.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:00:49

Still in it. Any any any words of, you wanna depart with for top of the county listeners? I do. The amazing t street?

Tei Street [: 01:00:58

Whether you're in churches or you're in civic organizations, you're in schools, or you are working in places, every single kid in this county belongs to every single one of us. I promise you, if you take the opportunity to invest in our kids, the dividends on the other end will far exceed what happens when we don't invest. I can tell you the greatest investment you can give a young people is you, period, with 2 d's.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:01:34

Those were mic drop words, folks, listeners who talk at the county. Logan, again, thank you so much for, sharing with us today your experiences in the Pathways To Progress program. And best wishes to you. Thank you. And, I can't well, I I hope to be around and get on the airplane. And and you be guiding me through the friendly skies. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:02:03

And as we depart with my final words, do you because no one else has time to.