I’ve had a fortunate share of wins. But, nothing compares to what happened last week. The 11 STOKED youth that I’ve been coaching won their first ever seed funding for creating the strongest brand, BRINK.

Last Thursday night, 3 cohorts, who have been working hard since October to produce an original skateboard brand, presented their work to a panel of experts at the NIKE Offices. To make the victory even sweeter, STOKED offered the winning brand an additional $500 budget to continue their work over the summer. When BRINK was announced as the winner, my students leaped and yelled and some even cried as they realized what had just happened.

It was euphoric. It was amazing. It was huge. So huge that I could barely process the moment, my brain couldn’t register.

I don’t think I actually realized what had happened until after the showcase. Because this kind of victory was very different; it was special.

The brand was 100% created by these students, for these students, and run by the students yet I feel like it was my own. I saw the brand’s birth even before it had a name. I then watched the students nurture it and give it values. This growth has been an amazing thing to witness. Being a STOKED coach has empowered me to become an agent of growth. Agent of growth sounds crazy, right? Well it is, but it’s not at the same time. Simply put, STOKED has empowered me to become an ear, a cheerleader, a facilitator, a think tank, a mentor.

The one essential thing I will take away from this experience is that being a coach or an agent of growth has nothing to do with telling youth what to do. Being a coach has everything to do with helping youth understand what they do, who they can become, and why they matter. It’s about creating value and eliciting the best in someone. STOKED and all of the students have taught me how to do that, and I cannot wait to see how everyone will evolve. In BRINK’s words, coaching has enabled me to make it matter. And that’s far better than any win I’ve won on my own.

Congratulations to all the brands, Road Dog – The Brooklyn Latin School, Concrete Capitol – Urban Assembly Gateway School, and BRINK – City Polytechnic High School, and to the coaches, partner teachers and schools, and all of the supporters who’ve made this program possible.

All photos by Debbie Miracolo. Go here to see more from the Youth Brand Showcase.

The post Better Than Winning appeared first on STOKED Action Sports & Youth Development.

You love the shred lifestyle and everything that surrounds it. You live and breathe it. You go for what you want in life but you want more. You want to pass on what you love about skating, surfing, or snowboarding to the next generation. You see what action sports has done for you, but you’d like to do more. Be more.

Apply for our pilot coaching training program. This summer we’re looking to have a new breed of positive mentors who work part time afterschool and on weekends to help run our snow, skate and surf youth development programs this next school year. You will be trained in our unique style of youth development and to enhance your skills, your education, and your potential by changing the life trajectory of underserved youth.

Fill out the quick application so we get to know you a little bit and if you write something interesting we’ll be in touch.

The post Pilot Coaching Training Program – Work at STOKED appeared first on STOKED Action Sports & Youth Development.

Get involved with STOKED! 

It will not only do wonders for your job, but it will empower a lot of kids and invigorate our organization. A perfect example is Prolific Interactive a new media agency specializing in mobile that’s based in DUMBO, Brooklyn. They are basically our neighbors. 

Last summer we started talking with Prolific about ways we can work together. When we were thinking about how we could partner, the first thing that came to mind was their help in creating a curriculum for our program.

We wanted to learn more about what it takes to start a brand and how we could implement that with our current Year 2 Stokers. We picked their brains and got what we needed to launch the youth brand creation.

But then Prolific started proving their name right.

We had several meetings where they engaged their CEO, COO, Managing Director, a Strategist, a Designer, and a Developer. Over the course of 2-3 months, they helped STOKED create an authentic and engaging curriculum that has helped our students learn how to create their own skateboard brand.

It didn’t stop there. Prolific basically adopted our City Polytechnic High School after-school program. They visited the students and mentored them from developing the brand, creating a mission, and helping students with their sales deck for selling the skateboards. 

Before the students launch their company at our program wide brand showcase, the sales team went to Prolific to pitch the whole company their skateboard brand in hopes of selling a few skateboards to employees. Prolific and their employees ended up buying 3 skateboards, 6 t-shirts, and stickers. 

For a company who’s used to helping major brands and companies launch into the mobile and social space, we’re very glad and grateful to have them help launch the City Poly Technical High School skateboard brand called BRINK Skateboards.

A special thank you to Devon, Bobby, Dan, Jack, Alicia, and many others for partnering with us to close the opportunity gap for not just City Poly, but 3 other high schools with the curriculum.

The post You Have a Job, So What? appeared first on STOKED Action Sports & Youth Development.

The 2013 Trishredathon was a day of pure determination and community.

We raised over $20,000 for STOKED Los Angeles.

177 people donated to support our Los Angeles programs.

We had nearly 70 people snowboard, surf, and skateboard in 1 day.

And STOKED youth walked away with a triumphant experience.

We want to thank everyone who helped us exceed our goal of $20,000 and who mentored our youth through an epic day. We want to send a thank you to our sponsors, Asymbol Gallery, Travis Rice, Sal Masekela, The Kelly Clark Foundation, Flat Fitty, Zoo York, Snow Summit, Triple 8, and Malibu Makos for supporting us. And a big thank you to our youth for sharing their inspirational energy on such an unforgettable day.

Check out these awesome photos captured by Adam Reynolds and David Barton. For more, click here!

The post 2013 Trishredathon Recap appeared first on STOKED Action Sports & Youth Development.

You know the song that just does it for you? It speaks to you. Maybe it’s the beat or a lyric that strikes a cord.

It gives you goosebumps. The song defines a moment. Your moment. Your history. Your life, both present and future. 

This is a strange comparison, but that is I how I felt when I met the young gentlemen in the picture.

You see, this group of guys is a small group of students in our STOKED Los Angeles program. They’ve committed to STOKED by participating in our afterschool and weekend mentoring programs.

I visit Los Angeles about every three months, so when I get into town I’m pretty focused on meeting with staff, donors, supporters and doing my best to soak up as much energy from the kids as possible. 

It was the end of the Trishredathon. It was an emotional day. Two students were injured and I had spent part of the day in the hospital with them. We pulled off a challenging event and got almost 70 people to snowboard, surf, and skateboard in one day while simultaneously raising over $20,000 for Los Angeles.

We arrived back at HQ and as the kids were packing up to leave, I see a few students giving each other a weird handshake. My interest perks up. Are there gang kids in STOKED? Our neighborhood in LA has the highest concentration of gangs in Los Angeles, so this thought wasn’t absurd.

I asked, “What’s going on?” One of the students replies, “It’s a secret handshake.” I replied, “For what? You guys in a gang?” Another student chuckles, puts his head down and says, “No, it’s our crew.”

“What kind of crew?” I ask.

Another responds, “We push each other in school, sports, and life. We’re The Wolf Pack!”

This was my ‘I must have this song’ moment. I wanted to learn more. I told the kids to meet me at the office the next day so we could talk.

So at the end of the following day, Stoked Kat, Stoked Charlie, and I sat with the kids and asked questions and listened to what they had to say. 

I learned that these students don’t have the fears of your average youth. They fear failure in school. They fear being overcome by negativity. They fear becoming a statistic. Their fears are substantiated by the fact that there are over 30 gangs in the neighborhood. Being jumped by a gang is a very real chance every day. It has nearly happened to them within a few blocks of the STOKED office.

The Wolf Pack started when one of the members was watching National Geographic Channel and saw how wolves take care of each other. He thought it would be a good name to use to form a crew and to combat the negativity in the neighborhood.

Not anyone can join The Wolf Pack. They recruit you. They have a strict code of 1) No alcohol or drugs, 2) Must be positive & respectful, 3) Have fun, and 4) Be healthy & exercise.

The members of The Wolf Pack all play sports and work out everyday. In fact when I first met them, as one of the members was leaving another member said, “TNDO” – which means “Take No Days Off.”

I asked them what more can STOKED do for them and they said that we give them a safe place to go after school, opportunities to expand their horizons, the chance to meet positive adults, and they are learning life lessons that they wouldn’t get in school.

For all intents and purposes, we’re doing what we set out to do. It was why we started STOKED. Give students who want a chance to succeed an opportunity to succeed.

However, I think we failed in one aspect. We didn’t provide enough peer mentoring. These young mavericks saw that they needed something that their home, community, school, and STOKED didn’t provide. They took it in their own hands and are using STOKED along with their organic and homegrown crew to uplift them out of their current surroundings. They are creating their future with motivation, support, and friendship.

As one Wolf Pack member says, “It’s working. Our grades are improving, too.” They’re tutoring each other. So I did what any entrepreneur would do and asked them if we can take the concept and grow it. They seemed OK with the idea, but they’re going to keep their core crew and slowly add members as they see fit.

For me, the lesson is that if you want to accomplish anything in life and you want to change your current circumstances, you form a mastermind or get a mentor. The only exception is that it took a group of 16 year olds to remind me of that.

Thank you, Wolf Pack. TNDO. 

The post Why The Future Belongs To You(th) appeared first on STOKED Action Sports & Youth Development.

“STOKED goes beyond extreme sports, it has helped me gain confidence and I was able to break away from my comfort zone.”

Have you ever looked back at who you are today and wondered in amazement how you got here?

Many of us don’t live in the city where we were born or work in jobs that we didn’t expect to get or are in relationships with people that we never would’ve thought we’d be in.

In every step of the way, you just have to enjoy the journey.

You have to remember that at some point in your life, you made a decision – a decision that was really pivotal in allowing you to have the life that you have now, whether you like it or not.

Placing young individuals within unique experiences, relationships, environments, and equipping them with the tools to take full advantages is what we do at STOKED. 

So I couldn’t have been happier to get a letter from a STOKED alumn, Maricela who’s about to complete her freshman year at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. 

Maricela is from Los Angeles and she joined STOKED in 2009. The neighborhood she lived in wasn’t the safest. There are more gangs in her neighborhood than any other part of Los Angeles. The statistics for students graduating from high school in her community wasn’t the highest. But somehow, someway, Maricela did not become a statistic. In high school, Maricela made the decision to join STOKED and as a result of that, her relationship with her mentor, and her determination, Maricela became a success – a high school graduate, college student and a snowboarder.

I think there are lessons everywhere and to me there’s none better than watching young people succeed. Here are pieces of her letter that she wrote that I think you’ll enjoy and you too can enjoy the journey. 

Remembering Your Roots

Maricela snowboarding at Snow Summit.

Every Friday I have the opportunity to snowboard in Walla Walla, Washington, and I realized that I have STOKED to thank because it introduced me to snowboarding as well as surfing. Every time I am on the lift, I can’t help but wonder if I would have had the opportunity to snowboard and surf if it wasn’t for STOKED. The thought itself makes me shiver because I have developed such a huge passion for both sports that I cannot see my life without it, in fact, my life would seem incomplete.

Get A Support System

Maricela with her mentor of 4 years Pamela.

I am truly blessed that I had the chance to be paired with my mentor, Pamela. STOKED and Pamela became my support group and I know that I can rely on them for anything. That is the beautiful quality that STOKED has because it always makes me feel part of something greater than myself: it is a community, a second family, a safe place that I can consider home. My fellow peers are also an important contribution to my experience because it is us as a whole that make STOKED. I had the opportunity to see my peers grow, share their experiences and help motivate one another. I feel great happiness when I see more and more youth join this program, among them my siblings. I hope they learn to appreciate and cherish STOKED as much as I did.  

Be Open To Knew Experiences

Maricela with Pro Surfer Monyca Byrne-Wickey

STOKED goes beyond extreme sports, it has helped me gain confidence and I was able to break away from my comfort zone. My attitude towards life and society became more optimistic and I grew confident within my actions, thoughts and self. Through STOKED I met so many amazing people and I learned how to expand my social circle by becoming social and less shy. 

Don’t Try, Do!

Maricela racking up community service hours.

STOKED made it a policy to ensure that youth never try but rather act because doing is powerful and it makes a statement. It is something that has been engraved in my mind and in my heart. In everything I do I make sure I give it my all and never think that I can’t because the bottom line is that the way you think greatly influences the outcome. There are so many words that can express how I feel but it can never capture everything. I know that whether it is through STOKED or another organization I will make sure that I give back to my community because youth need inspiration and they need a role model and I want to be just that. 

Do you want to support more youth like Maricela? Join us on March 24 for our 2nd Annual Trishredathon and you’ll give some amazing youth like Maricela and her sister who is now a member of STOKED a chance to enjoy their own journey.

The post Enjoying The Journey appeared first on STOKED Action Sports & Youth Development.

Imagine you find your ideal company to work for, get hired, and in 3 years, you become recognized as one of the best people in your field?

Sounds like a joke, right? Nope, I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

The above picture is STOKED Sophia, our Senior Program Manager. On February 28th, she was honored with the PASEsetter Award. A PASEsetter Award is given to five of the best and brightest youth development professionals in New York City.

Watching her accept the award and beaming with absolute pride, feeling like the coach of an MVP, I couldn’t help but chart the path of her ascension. I decided to not only write this post as an homage to her accomplishment, but as a guide for anyone, adult or youth, so that you can apply it to your own life.

I should first state that if you aren’t in your ideal job, please start looking for your ideal job. Here are the Top 4 ways you can be the best in your field.

1. Reach Out to Your Ideal Company

We all have the most ideal company that we’d love to work for. Send them an email. Connect to someone on LinkedIn. Follow them or the CEO on Twitter. STOKED was easy to reach. Our email is on our website. Too often, we feel as if we could never email or call to express interest or inquire about a job. Sophia reached out because she was a fan of our work. By the time she sent the email above, she had spent time on our website, read our history, and learned all about us. Make your email personal, friendly, and warm. Just take the first step.

2. Don’t Be Afraid of Hard Work

Working for a small organization like STOKED can be very hard. We’re understaffed, but we have big goals. This isn’t the type of place you work and expect to be perfect every time, simply because it never is. Sitting at your desk and sending emails and doing the bare minimum won’t work in our culture and Sophia has consistently set the bar with how hard you have to work to get things done. In a team environment, everyone has to pull their weight and it’s easy to see who’s not doing that. After running 5-6 miles a day, she rides her bike to work. She sits at her desk, focuses on her job with laser like precision, then hustles over to  monitor her programs in 3 boroughs. It’s quite fascinating to see. The best part of her job is that she loves it. 

3. Learn Everything About Your Job

Last year, something switched in Sophia. She developed this deep desire to become the best at her job. I think it first started with being accepted into the PASE Emerging Leaders Program. For 12 weeks she would spend her Fridays taking graduate level classes with other emerging leaders in the youth development field. She came back to work on Monday bright eyed, inquisitive, and hungry for more and more knowledge. Then she sought out even more knowledge and began forwarding me education articles from the NY Times and her favorite website Stanford Social Innovation Review. Honestly, just her learning more and attending that program has elevated our conversations around the office and she got to understand the big picture beyond her job.

4. Seek Mentors

Quite possibly one of the biggest aspects in becoming the best in your field is to learn from someone older and more experienced than yourself. Get a mentor. Even though we use mentoring to work with underserved youth, I never saw myself as a mentor to my employees. Sophia was open to feedback, direction, and coaching on everything from presentation skills, program direction, even managing employees. She told me over a year ago that she liked learning from me and wanted to spend time talking about work and understanding my vision. Without her saying it, and without me knowing it, we developed this mentoring relationship that enabled her to be the best at her job. I learned a lot from this experience and further cemented the fact that I’m advocating mentoring for myself, volunteers, supporters, staff, and YOU.

So, what will it take for you to be the best at your job? 

Please join me in congratulating Sophia for winning the PASEsetter Award and for serving as a shining example of success in the STOKED community.

The post 4 Ways To Become The Best In Your Field appeared first on STOKED Action Sports & Youth Development.

Last year, ground-breaking X Games athlete, STOKED mentor, and successful entrepreneur Pamela Z. participated in the first ever STOKED Trishredathon. Pamela documented her Trishredathon experience from registration to finish in a Tumblr Blog and her story is this week’s Throwback Thursday piece.

“For those of you who know me and my passion of all things actions sports, know how much I love Stoked Mentoring! Those of you who have ever heard me talk about Stoked Mentoring know how passionate I am about it,” Pamela wrote. “I have been a volunteer/mentor for over four years. I LOVE IT!  We teach inner-city youth to surf, skate and snowboard. Through the process, the kids learn valuable life lessons. (And so do the adults.) I am blessed to be involved with such a wonderful organization!”

“When I was asked to be involved in fundraising, it was a big YES!” Pamela added. “Then along came the brilliant idea of surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding all in one day! YES, YES and YES! The TriSHREDathon was born.” To read more about Pamela’s Trishredathon journey, read here.

There’s something powerful and magical about a triple threat like Pamela. On March 24, STOKED’s presenting another day of it’s own triple threat magic – the second annual Trishredathon. We’re inviting action sport enthusiasts to complete what’s also known as the California trifecta – surfing, snowboarding, and skateboarding all in one day – to raise funds and awareness for STOKED Los Angeles. But there is even another triple threat component in this picture: community, culture, and creativity. The Trishredathon embraces those three elements plus the three action sports we use to mentor our youth. How’s that for a triple threat event?

The registration for 2013 Trishredathon closes on March 10, 2013, so sign up soon! For more information and to register, go to Trishredathon.com.

The post Triple Threat Pamela Z. appeared first on STOKED Action Sports & Youth Development.

“When I first joined STOKED, I didn’t fully know what I was getting myself into. All I knew was that this program would teach us how to surf, skate, and snowboard. No one ever mentioned that one of their goals was to have us step out of our comfort zone and speak in front of everyone. If I had known this, I would have probably not signed up but I am glad I didn’t know this at the time because I ended up joining STOKED.

I feel that I have grown as an individual through this program. I feel more confident when speaking in front of people. The volunteers and other Stokers kept a very friendly atmosphere that helped me feel more comfortable when getting to know new people.

The STOKED circle also helped me in understanding that I should be sharing my thoughts and ideas with others. With this, I contribute more in class discussions or even in regular conversations. There are many other ways in which STOKED has benefitted me, but this is the most personal and effective way that I find to be the most important.”

Lesslie graduated from Roybal High School. She’s now 19 years old and a current Humboldt State University student. We’re super proud of what she’s accomplished and excited to learn what’s next for Lesslie!

The post Throwback Thursday: STOKED Lesslie appeared first on STOKED Action Sports & Youth Development.

Have you ever felt the profound effect of someone that you never met? Perhaps it was the author of a book? Or a movie? 

For STOKED, it’s from a 20 year old young man and former competitive snowboarder named Cameron Howe.

We got a phone call from his mother in September 2012 who let us know that Cameron had passed away and that in lieu of gifts, his family had directed donations to STOKED.

While something like this has happened before, this felt different.

Online donations began to trickle in one by one.

And checks started coming in the mail one by one.

Then, as if a faucet was turned on, we were getting 5, 10, 15 donations a day of all sizes, from across the world. 

You see, I have come to learn that Cameron was truly a special young man. He was someone who would have an idea and pursue it with full passion and determination.

Originally from Connecticut, Cameron decided that he wanted to attend Stratton Mountain School for high school and become a competitive snowboarder. He was many years behind his classmates, but he did it. He achieved his goal.

At the time of his death, Cameron was a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He had travelled the world snowboarding and touched the lives of many people along the way. 

I got a chance to meet his mother and father, Patti and Jim, and spoke with them a few times since Cameron’s passing. When he passed away, Patti and Jim wanted a way to memorialize his name and legacy and they chose STOKED to be the avenue.

As Patti told me about Cameron’s adventures and shared stories about the lives he touched, she said he “packed a whole lot into his 20 years of life. He lived a big life.”

That phrase really stuck with me and it resonated with his family. At our 2012 Stoked Awards, Jim and Patti Howe announced that they have created the Cameron Howe Live a Big Life Fund. So far, the fund has raised over $10,000 in donations for STOKED. The Howe family has also paid for new bibs for our snow season in both New York City and Los Angeles. The bibs, which come in three different colors (black for staff, white for volunteers, and blue for students), have the STOKED logo and “Live a Big Life” written with Cameron’s name – so all of our kids will ride with Cameron.

We’re extremely honored and privileged to be an avenue for the Howe family to keep Cameron’s name and legacy live on. We look forward to creating a lasting partnership with them so that our students can live big lives themselves. That is our promise to Cameron’s life and to his legacy. We urge all of you to “Live a Big Life.”

The post We Promise to Live a Big Life appeared first on STOKED Action Sports & Youth Development.