By Desiree Flores |
Many students gather at the doors to get the message of a lifetime, to feel like students should be heard. Like they should have a change being made when it comes to them. Students all have a purpose here so why not hear their story before judging or getting after what you think is “bad behavior.” Purpose. That’s what made Ali Goljahmofrad put the Night of Truth together.
“I know how much potential is on this campus,” Goljahmofrad said. “I know that our students and faculty are patient I know they’re motivated, I know they’re capable of finding their own success I think the one thing we sometimes lack as teachers and students and just people in general is purpose. Sometimes we don’t know why were doing what were doing.”
So he brought Tobe Nwigwe and Rayla Crawford, along with some alumni, in to speak at the Night of Truth Oct. 6. He hoped for a big crowd, but they actually packed the house.
As seats fill up top to bottom, line
s began to get shorter and shorter. As things finally get to a calming point they began to speak. The crowd quiets down. He begins to tell how hard he had to work to get where he is at now, at this position. Darnell Barnes graduated from Roosevelt in 2004, played football all four years and is currently a football and soccer coach
“Just like life, you get out what you put in,” Barnes said. He talks to the crowd about how students don’t want to come to get a education feeling the teachers don’t know their struggle so why come to school to get yelled at?
“You have to hear about their struggle before you can teach them,” Barnes said.
Crawford spoke on how women should be treated with respect, they have better things to prove themselves for, which is brains not just beauty.
“Now a days women have to be more than just beautiful,” Crawford said. “Men see them as just prizes to win, not what they have in their brain. When I step on stage I want to be defined as me but you best believe if I come to your place of employment I’m gonna smack you with my Ph.D.”
Then Nwigwe took the stage. The Houston-based motivational speaker and artist spoke out to everyone about how both men and women should be valued, how men put them self down thinking the way they do because women only see them a certain way.
“Women put them selves down because, they feel men only want them for one thing and one thing only,” Nwigwe said. “Silly Queen on your head belongs a crown, you can’t ever find a man because you’re always looking down.”
Tobe reached out to the young men in the crowd, speaking that they listen and see what the world has taught them, but what is happening is not always good for them.
The messages really sunk in for the students who attended.
“Having guest speakers was pretty amazing, hearing their story and giving us a message really spoke to me, I know that now in life having ups and downs will lead to something bigger and greater,” junior Esmeralda Garcia said.
It’s all Goljahmofrad could have hoped for.
” If we all bought into that idea of having a purpose in everything we do,” Goljahmofrad said. “We can take our entire campus to the next level.”
Angelica Quintanilla contributed to this report.