#construction trade schools degree in philadelphia | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dejesd1 · 5 years

Text

A Sweet Future Ahead

I believe that Sugar Relationships will continue to thrive. According to Berman (2018), 2.5 million of Sugar Babies on Seeking Arrangement are students. 1 million are from the U.S. alone. With the growing increase of school costs such as tuition, supplies, books, and the looming presence of student debts, the appeal of a Sugar Relationship has risen in popularity, and in my opinion, will continue to do so. Furthermore, it is easier to find a Sugar Daddy or Sugar Baby today with the increase in Sugar Dating websites (Sugar Daddy, 2018). For instance, Berman (2018) stated that Seeking Arrangement, the largest Sugar Relationship website, has 10 million clients. Moreover, mainstream media is slowly beginning to normalize the idea of a Sugar Relationship (Sugar Daddy, 2018). As a college student, I know many girls who have engaged in such arrangements to help pay for school, bills, or leisure activities. I too have been inquired about looking for a Sugar Daddy before! However, the idea of being a Sugar Baby is not all that new—though I am unsure of where the term was first coined. For example, “Charity Girls” existed back in the late 19th to early 20th Centuries. Peiss (2004) describes “charity girls” as a “subculture of working women who fully bought into the system of treating and sexual exchange, by trading sexual favors of varying degrees for gifts, treats, and a good time” (page 16). In modern terms, Charity Girls could translate to college aged women engaging in arrangements with Sugar Daddies in exchange for financial or material goods.

An important dynamic that I would account for the growth in popularity of Sugar Relationships would be the movement of sexuality from the private domain to the public eye. As a result, this paved the way for the release of the first issue of Playboy, James Bond’s Goldfinger, and the premier of Deep Throat, which introduced the new male sexual consumer. Comparatively, Sugar Daddies can be likened to the male sexual consumer in that he exchanges money for emotional or physical intimacy with a Sugar Baby.

However, Sugar Relationships are still heavily influenced by the dominant heterosexual ideologies in our culture. According to Hawkes (1999), the media “continues to prioritize male-centred erotic practice” (page 118). For example, it is essential for the Sugar Baby to please her Sugar Daddy, whether that be through sexual relations or emotional intimacy. Once again, this represents the male active role and the female passive role that has persisted for decades. Furthermore, Hawkes (1999) states that “...the central position of heterosexuality was both retained and strengthened in the progressive construction of sexuality” (page 72). For instance, although sex has been detached from marriage and reproduction, Sugar Relationships place the Sugar Daddy, the older and wealthier man, in a higher position of power than the Sugar Baby. Although these reflect the same issues that have been debated over the last century, I would also argue for a future of Sugar Relationships shifting away from these dominant heterosexual ideologies. For example, the Seeking Arrangement website offers LGBTQ+ arrangement options. This may not completely subvert heterosexual ideologies, but it contributes to the liberalization of sexuality.

references:

Berman, Robby. (2018). Where in the world sugar daddies thrive, why, what’s being done about it. Big Think. Retrieved from https://bigthink.com/robby-berman/the-troubling-persistent-phenomenon-of-sugar-daddies.

Hawkes, Gail. (1999). A Sociology of Sex and Sexuality. Philadelphia: Open University Press.

Peiss, Kathy. (2004). Charity Girls and City Pleasures. OAH Magazine of History, 18(4), 14-16.

Sugar Daddy and Sugar Baby Arrangements Are The Future Of Dating and Everyone’s Happy. (2018). Sugar Babies. Retrieved from https://sugarbabies.co/blog/sugar-daddy-and-sugar-baby-arrangements-are-the-future-of-dating-and-everyones-happy/.

#blog entry 2

0 notes

peach-bottom · 7 years

Text

Peach Bottom - Prologue

-ch1->

It was the second home she had lost.

That was the first thought Tye had, stretched out on the highway, her blood sinking down into the porous, cracked up tarmac. The second was that there were more homes than those two, and here she was again, too late in recognizing it. Another was being lost as she bled.

Heat was a slow river over the road. She could feel the ground cracking underneath, unable to contain the green, the green and the blue, every shade of human grey susceptible to the raw power of green and blue.

And red. Her red. She should be thankful that somewhere, she would still be part of it, even as the part of her that could appreciate that all ended, slipped down into the earth. She was watering the future with her blood, her blood.

She was going to stay here, somehow, and that was alright. Oh, that was more than alright.

Green and gold up above. She could hear birds behind the sound of fighting, the sound of screaming, then silence, then a jumble of sound - words, but they didn’t-

If there was one thing Tye’d learned by living in the flooded remains of old Philly, it was always that the swamp rose first. Pavement broke under the force of vegetation. Human roads and houses were flimsy to face it. And in that moment, Tye didn’t mind. She could feel nature hatching underneath her, cracking that road, ready to take it all back, and that was fine, fine, fine. It was all already lost, anyway. Lost, like Peach Bottom.

Tye never knew how to explain Peach Bottom to people.

“Peach Bottom?”

“Yeah! That’s my hometown,” and this, right here at the beginning, was where she normally lost them. They’d shoot her an amused, incredulous look that said exactly what they thought of that, a town called ‘Peach Bottom,’ and it only got worse from there.

“So many fireflies,” she’d say, hickish twang getting that much twangier with the subject close at hand, “all summer’d be hazy with them, night almost bright as day, So many they were pests - sometimes Ma’d wake up howling she couldn’t sleep with the things sparking up in the ceiling like that.”

And

“Half our food came from the back garden, and a quarter from the wood. Only thing we bought in-store was spices and flour and shit like that. My dad baked bread in this brick oven he and Ma’d built with the help of some neighbors, and we had these four little ducks and two goats - we’d trade their eggs and milk for our neighbor’s apples, and sometimes meat whenever someone was slaughtering a pig or something. Mushrooms, acorns, walnuts, venison - that’s deer - all these came from the wood.”

And

“The stars looked like spilled milk,” this was her favorite, “So bright! So bright, all the freckles were, but beyond those, space was all so thick you could see this creamy haze right down the middle, where the milky way stretched. Suns and planets - bright white mist, from horizon to horizon.”

This last one she wasn’t even sure about. It was something she’d seen on TV for sure - that away from cities, away from the pillars of electric brightness, the sky seemed less like lonely, hazy sparks and more like one big spill of brilliance. But it couldn’t really be true, because logically she knew that by 2031, the year of her birth, at least where Peach Bottom, PA was, light was everywhere. It didn’t matter that cities were this distant, crystaline dream where it never got dark - Philadelphia’s poison had leaked into the heavens on one side and Harrisburg’s on the other, and even so far away from both these places the stars must’ve been muddied, at least. The milky way was only visible in places like Antarctica, where folks didn’t even try to cut the dark.

This was the nature of grief-infected memory, though. When she looked back, she saw a sky like gleaming, glittering milk. Like the way she’d imagined unicorn blood, or faerie blood, or any other huge magical dead thing - the sky was the carnage of something bigger and more magical, and she remembered it that way. Same way she remembered bartering and trading with neighbors for goods, collecting mushrooms and nuts, but didn’t quite remember the desperation of her and her brothers picking through the rotting fall woods for those moldy nuts because winter was coming and starvation was a real possibility. Keeping her gender identity a secret out of a cold, hard fear of ridicule, and the shit she and Zenia had faced when they started dating - a double whammy, her being a Black Christian and Zenia a white Jew, their togetherness not nearly heterosexual enough even on top of its basic un-holyness. She remembered fireflies, but not the other pests, really. The beetles getting into the tomatoes, her mother sobbing in the garden, hands cracked open with the effort of growing a harvest that had been demolished in under a week. The corn blight: withered, rotten little kernels, but they’d eaten them anyway. The winter they’d had to kill the goats, which had both hand names, rather than starve. Her only sister, still a wee, small thing when she’d died of lyme disease, a circle bruise blooming on her skin like a target before she was struck down.

She’d wanted to leave when she lived there, is the weird thing, the strange thing, the selfish thing. The ignorant thing. She hadn’t known she’d take herself with her.

“Everyone knew one another,” Tye’d say, and it was true. It was true in the city too, but Tye wasn’t exactly the most well-liked in Mt. Danu, so she didn’t mention that, along with a few other things. It wasn’t that she forgot that some people hated each other, that family feuds and racist neighbors were forces real and dangerous as scraper police and warring gangs. The memories were just kinder - Tye afforded her childhood the same kind of hazy softness many bereaved people grant dead things. Because it was dead.

“If it was so fine,” some city folks would say with their fast-speaking, different tongues, an open, hostile kind of amusement always hovering behind any questions anyone ever (finally, finally) asked her about her hometown, ‘why are you here? Why not live there?”

“It was destroyed in the war,” she’d always say. This was always accepted without question. So many things had been destroyed in the war. Mt. Danu itself had suffered at the foot of one of the government towers, which had been bombed early. And since no city funding every seemed to go towards the ground level except in the form of policing, the wreckage was all still there in the market - an area that had been a traffic circle in the age of gasoline, and was now crowded with ramshackle stands and even some walled and covered stores made from recycled materials - the shells of old trucks, sheets of metal and wood, and even one large center produce tent partially constructed from some of that iron and concrete rubble - the rest of it now a kind of jungle-gym for the children, who didn’t remember the day it had gotten there.

It did not seem too out there to assume Peach Bottom was part of the body count, because the body count seemed too innumerably large. Her town was weak, too - small. Far away. Not like the grounder neighborhoods of the city, which all seemed savvier, brighter, sharper (especially to the Philadelphians) than the fragile bodunk village they must imagine when she said ‘Peach Bottom.’ Like they were a knife, and Peach Bottom was a gummy toddler spoon.

It was kind of a lie, though, to say her town was ‘destroyed.’ One of the only lies Tye was capable of telling without shaking and dropping her eyes - because it was also true. It was true, even if it wasn’t true in the way the city folk who half-listened to her fiercely nostalgic ramblings believed it was. She knew when she said that, they imagined the kind of all-encompassing wreckage they’d known from the war. They pictured all those thin-walled cottages flattened, the screened-in porches caved in, the river flooded up over the streets and the town center - just a bar, a drugstore, the station market, two churches - blown away, or abandoned and then raided, or something, something with a precise end, something that was decidedly dead instead of the empty undeath that had actually taken Tye’s town.

The children of Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania had been reaped in increments. First, at the start, the volunteers.

As with many poor, rural towns, there was no shortage of beguiling patriotism for a country that hadn’t ever really done shit for them. Kids fresh out of high school and some even younger had signed up at the recruitment station that had been set up just outside the school gym. They’d been given crisp, clean uniforms and had been photographed with younger siblings, babies drooping in their arms, parents with heads dropped on their barely-grown child’s shoulders, nervous but proud expressions sturdy on their faces. Flags went up all over town, fights in the bar became about larger politics that until recently hadn’t mattered out in the sticks, far away from it all. Kids were shipped away. And none of them - none of those few in that first purge ever, ever came back.

Tye had been in middle school herself during that first burst of patriotic sacrifice. And then she’d been in high school, and then, by the time the draft was in effect, she’d been old enough to go, so she’d gone, because there was nothing else, because in the wake of so many dead children the town just had to believe there was cause, because to not fight was to betray those ghosts, her older brother, her brother’s girlfriend, her own ex-girlfriend, neighbors and cousins - all sacrificed, and in those days it was unbearable to know it was for nothing, empty loss omnipresent, all of them left over still reeling, still in shock, still to some degree not believing, because bodies were never shipped home, no fuel was needed for the living forces. Because of them, and also just because she’d been too scared to run, she’d gone with the rest of her class when the draft called them, barely a week after graduation.

And then, there had been the war. A horror orchestrated by those who never suffered for it, suffered only by the martyred masses. Poor folks like her who hadn’t been able to get out of the draft.

Tye had gone home once, after the war, back when Dom was still alive and she was pregnant and she knew her parents were dead but she’d hoped, just hoped, that maybe one of her brothers or her auntie Kaye or someone had kept their little trailer by the river whole and safe. She hadn’t even glorified her childhood yet, thinking it was still alive in some way, but coming from war, anything else had seemed almost painfully soft. Her and Dom had come home damaged, she knew it, felt the break somewhere deep in her soul, and struggling to live somewhere safe, familiar, and away from strangers had seemed infinitely better than struggling to live somewhere unfamiliar and surrounded by strangers. It was the best they could think to do.

Peach Bottom had been silent.

The streets, normally bursting with people on Sunday morning, folks coming home from church or stopping by the market or splurging on a big breakfast at the bar - none of those familiar sights or sounds. Roads like bare bones bleaching themselves dry in the sun, the sound of her breathing too loud. Dim lights on in the bar, but only a few huddled figures inside, no food smells, no church bells, nothing but the squinting stares of the folks on porches, shotguns at their side, faces full of wrinkles and grey hairs and this open, festering wound, a vacancy so complete it seemed to suck at the edge of her soul. She saw absolutely no one her age or younger.

The trailer had been locked, abandoned, and then later, by the looks of the windows - robbed. The river had been shockingly close - much closer than she remembered it, the whole house tilting slightly towards it, bookshelves and cabinets scooted all into the tilt and anything that could be of value to someone who didn’t care taken, which hadn’t been much. The old family laptop was gone. The TV. The few pieces of jewelry her mother hadn’t sold during hard times.

Tye had taken her brother’s sketchbook, her dad’s harmonica, and her favorite cup, a tin mug with painted sunflowers. She left the door gaping behind her, a frantic horror rising hard and terrible in her throat, and then her and Dom had gotten the fuck out of there, taken the first train, and his nervous eyes had kept on flicking back to her, his great, thick arms around her, hands touching her shoulders, her neck, trying to soothe whatever he saw in her face without effect. The silence caught in her soul and stayed, grief bleeding her like nothing she’d ever felt, and no matter how far she got it still seemed stretched thin after that. A thread connecting her eternally to Peach Bottom, to her home, as far, far away from her, it continued to slowly die.

“It was never quiet. Not like here, though - no traffic. Crickets, cicadas - Oh! You’ve never heard cicadas. No lie - they scream. It’s a mating call, but it sounds like screaming. HEY SWEET THIIIIING,’ Tye’d bellowed once at a smaller, babier Xena in winter, blankets hung over all the windows and a space heater between them, soft and orange, a gentle glow on her chubby face. Xena’s eyes wide and shining, wondered rapture like she was hearing about dragons or faeries or something else that couldn’t exist.

She was the only one who listened to Tye go on about this anymore without accusing her of bragging, like being from Peach Bottom meant anything remotely better than being from the Mt. Danu Ghetto. Bright, beautiful, best-thing-in-the-world Xena, her father dead and her sight going and neither of those things would’ve ever happened just twenty feet up and to the left, in the close, beautifully contained community worlds of the scrapers, where the rich lived. Diabetes was a minor inconvenience up there, and here on the ground, in the half-flooded remains of the lower city where her and Dom had eventually settled after those lost post-war months - here in the neighborhood of Mt. Danu it meant her husband died and her daughter was going blind, her daughter was going blind, her daughter was going blind.

She imitated cicadas as best she could, that screeching trill, lunged forward and tickled Xena as she did, and Xena screeched too, hysterical with giggles, imagining a world she’d never known, her vision already too blurry to see the circles under Tye’s eyes, the flat pallor, the exhaustion so complete on her face.

That was right before she got the job at AedosDynamic. She was still doing the preliminary work, then - making money any way, every way, hoarding it, saving for her first initial payment to the woman in the Microsoft tower, who’d agreed to let Tye use her address while applying for jobs for a ‘small’ price, and then later, as a surprise, for an additional monthly fee.

Officially, you needed a job inside a tower in order to be approved to move into any given tower. Unofficially, you needed to live in a tower to get a job in the towers.

Their little row home in Mt. Danu had been home enough, though. She could only ever see that looking back - her, asleep with her head on Xena’s leg as Xena finished her homework wrapped in two layers of sweaters, face an inch away from the paper, her little lantern flickering - no, they would have to buy batteries soon, oh no - humming a focused little song, Xena’s dog Goober snoring softly in her bed, paws twitching.

Through the only little window in their home, she’d been able to see the bright, sterile lights of the AedosDynamic Tower rising into the sky, stretching from one side to the other, pale electricity spilled across an empty night.

Lost. All lost.

Oh, Xena.

- ch1->

#serial story #original work #peach bottom #webcomics #queer webcomics #update

95 notes · View notes

abujaihs-blog · 5 years

Text

Titan Trust Bank Set to Redefine Retail Banking in Nigeria

Barring any last-minute changes, one of the five new banks licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Titan Trust Bank Limited, is set for entry into the Nigerian banking industry in grand style, in a matter of weeks, The Witness can authoritatively reveal. This newspaper had reported that the CBN recently approved licenses for five new banks to operate in the country. While others are still recruiting and putting things in place, inside sources say Titan Trust, a national financial institution, has completed its processes and is set for take-off soon. Led by seasoned banker and former deputy governor of the CBN, Mr Tunde Lemo, as chairman, the new commercial bank, sources informed The Witness is starting operation with a solid post capitalization financial base in real cash. Some of those already on board the new bank are experienced financial gurus, giving the signal that the bank is ready the compete with the long-standing and well-rooted Nigerian banks. According to the lender, the bank was formed to take advantage of the identified gaps in the banking sector and address the unmet needs of the retail mass market, SMEs and corporates. The new bank headquartered at Plot 1680, Sanusi Fafunwa Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria has the following facilities: Commercial Banking, SME Banking, Digital Banking amongst others. On its commercial banking services, the lender said on its website: “As a national commercial bank, we are committed to supporting businesses, giving them the power to build a better future. Each day, companies are working together to create sustainable economic value.

“We are committed to that vision by ensuring we provide business capital and resources, primed to support these visions, as we continue to tell Africa’s story.” Titan Trust Bank believes there is nothing like a small business. “All businesses are exactly that; businesses! Our team is made of professionals with an entrepreneurial mindset, working to help you and your business take advantage of the many benefits of banking with Titan, and give your competition a run for their money,” it said. Titan Trust further posited that it will leverage on digital platforms to empower the emerging pan-African economy, whilst showcasing the industry pioneering solutions, expertise and professionalism. Established on December 12, 2018, the bank obtained its national banking license on April 26, 2019, to operate as a commercial bank with national authorization. Others in the titan team are Mr Andrew Ojei Mr Andy Ojei is a Fellow of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria as well as a Fellow and Council Member of The Institute of Credit Administration of Nigeria. He was the pioneer managing director of Zenith Bank, Ghana. He left Zenith Bank Plc in June 2013 as an executive director after 21 years of service. He is a seasoned businessman with interests in real estate and information technology. Mr Ojei, an alumnus of the University of Lagos, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, INSEAD (France), Stanford (Singapore) and Wharton (Philadelphia) currently serves as a member of the Governing Council of Ritman University, Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State. Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 30 years’ experience managing and leading businesses across the country. He is the managing director of Syndicated Investment Limited, a construction firm. He has held this post for over 33 years. He has also been the chairman/CEO of Impex Limited, a security, contracting and trading company since 1993. Alhaji Aminu Bashari Alhaji Bashari Aminu (Iyan Zazzau), is the chairman of the Board of Directors of Vital Products Limited. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Financial Accountants (UK) and a Fellow of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria. He is a senior title holder in the Emirate of Zazzau and was a Senior District Head of Sabon-Gari, Zaria in Kaduna State from 1979 to 2018. He is currently on the board of several companies. Mudassir Amray – MD/CEO Mudassir Amray is a banker with over 25 years of global exposure across six geographies (US, Nigeria, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Pakistan). He has held senior positions in global banks such as: Citi New York – Managing Director & Head of Global Capital Management (LATAM), Citi Nigeria – Managing Director & Head of Corporate & Investment Banking, Nigeria and Ghana, Al Rajhi Malaysia – Country Business Head, Citi HK – Head of Capital Management, Asia Pacific, Citi Singapore – Head of Islamic Banking, Asia Pacific, Citi Pakistan, Country Business Head. Adaeze Udensi – Executive Director Adaeze has over 23 years’ banking experience, and was until recently, an Executive Director in Heritage Bank. In her four years as executive director, she supervised the South businesses; oversaw Retail, Private Wealth, Collections, E-Business, Customer Experience and IT functions; and served as Executive Compliance Officer. Adaeze also acted as managing director of Heritage Bank in 2017. Prior to this, she spent 16 years in Zenith Bank growing its Oil & Gas, Public Sector, Commercial and Retail businesses into the 2nd largest portfolio in the Bank, leaving as a general manager. Adaeze has a first degree in banking, and MBA’s from Rivers State University of Science & Technology, and the University of Bangor, Wales. She has also attended several Executive Management Programmes in Wharton Business School, Kellogg School of Management, Harvard Business School, and INSEAD. Stella Nwihim – Head of HR Stella is a seasoned professional with over 21 years’ experience spanning Human Resources, Sales and Banking Operations. She has held key HR positions in Zenith Bank Plc and UBA Plc including Head Workforce Planning, Head Shared Services and Head Business Partnering, where she made significant contributions in organizational development, performance and change management and business strategy. She holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. (Biology) and an MBA (Management) and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Mark Oguh – CFO Mark has 22 years’ experience in the banking industry covering Operations, Audit and Financial Control. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in accountancy and business administration and an MBA in banking and finance. He was the financial controller at Diamond Bank from 2015 to March 31, 2019. Ademola Ajayi – Chief Compliance Officer Ademola Ajayi is the chief compliance officer of Titan Trust Bank Limited. He holds Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting (First Class Honours) from Babcock University, Ilishan Ogun State. He also holds Higher National Diploma in accounting with Upper credits class from the Polytechnic, Ibadan. He is a fellow (FCA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN). He is also an Associate of Compliance Institute of Nigeria (CIN). He is a Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) registered Compliance Officer and a registered professional of Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN). Internationally, he is a Certified Compliance Officer (CCO) and Certified Fraud and Crime; Investigation and Prevention by GAFM USA. He is also a fellow of GAFM USA.

He has been in the Nigerian Banking Sector since 1996, well over 2 decades, with experience cutting across financial control, credit review and monitoring, business development, banking operations, internal controls, internal audit, inspection and compliance functions. His career in banking started in NAL Merchant Bank, where he did the mandatory one-year national youth service. Immediately after his service year, he was recruited by Zenith Bank, where he performed creditably well in banking operations generally, controls and risk management related functions, and later with specific focus on compliance risk management role. He played a key role in setting up compliance department in Zenith Bank and took same to an enviable height. Ademola AJAYI is a team player, and will positively impact any team he finds himself. He has attended compliance trainings, locally and internationally. He is also a competent trainer on compliance matters. George Aiyudu – Head of IT George is a certified COBIT implementer with over 21 years banking experience covering Banking Operations, International Operations and Information Technology. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and also holds a Masters Degree in Business Information Systems. He was the Group Head, IT Change and Transformation at Diamond Bank. Source: businesspostng Read the full article

0 notes

nilority-blog · 6 years

Text

BE Modern Man is an integrative program that honors the essence, image, and accomplishments of today’s man of color. With features of today’s leaders, executives, creatives, students, politicians, entrepreneurs, professionals, and agents of change—these men share the common thread of creating a new normal while setting the bar in tech, art, philanthropy, business, and beyond. The BE Modern Man is making a positive impact, his way, and has a story to tell.

BE MODERN MAN REV. JONATHAN A. MASON SR.

Age: 45

Profession: Pastor, Northeast Baptist Church, Philadelphia; Owner, JAM Media Solutions L.L.C. (full-service advertising agency and radio ownership group)

Social Media: Facebook: Jonathan Mason | Twitter: @Projectswwac | Instagram: @Projectswwac

One Word That Describes You: Tenacious

What does being one of the BE Modern Man 100 Honorees mean to you?

I am honored to be selected for this great honor. I have been a BE reader for years. Reading BE stories about successful black entrepreneurs that overcame obstacles and achieved their goals inspired me to work harder and dream bigger. Never did I think my name would actually appear in one of your publications. I am truly humbled.

What is your “Extraordinary Impact?”

For 20 years, I worked as a sales leader in the radio industry. I spent 17 of those years in New York City working for some of the largest stations in the country. In most cases, I was the only black male in a leadership role. Exceeding goals and expectations was not just an expectation, it was an obligation. I viewed my success as a way of opening doors for others. My teams were always the most diverse in the city. The collaborations that came as a result set sales records that still stand today.

I recently completed my term as the International President of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. Phi Beta Sigma is a 104-year-old community service organization with over 150,000 members initiated. During my term, we made sure that Sigma was present and accounted for in critical matters that impacted our communities. We stood in protest over the death of Trayvon Martin. We traveled to Ferguson, Missouri, to rebuild black businesses after the death of Michael Brown. We paid for buses to travel to Staten Island to stand for Eric Garner. We met with President Obama and his team to execute strategies to combat gun violence, raise scholarship dollars, and promote healthy families in our communities. We built a technical and vocational school in Suhum, Ghana. We also placed a great focus on mentoring our next generation of leaders through our youth auxiliary group, the Sigma Beta Club. As a result of our social action based focus, membership numbers reached record levels and our IMPACT was felt across the globe!

I am the proud pastor of the Northeast Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I grew up there. My roots are there. My family is there and it is important to me that the community knows that we are there because we care about their well-being and their soul salvation. An area of primary focus for me is the young people of the Frankford community. We have developed programs that keep them off the streets and allow the church to serve as a safe haven. Our summer camps, weekly small talk sessions, Friday Fun Nights, monthly outings and weekly youth dinners help us to develop mentorship relationships that positively impact our youth. All we ask of them is to get excellent grades, obey their parents, and be a blessing to someone else when they are in a position to do so.

I’ve also been blessed to complete the construction of Camp New Joy. CNJ is a camp for at-risk youth located on 23 acres of land in Rustburg, Virginia. The goal is to bring young people there and allow them to see men and women that come from similar backgrounds and have been able to overcome all obstacles and win. We want to show them that they are to be defined by their character and not by their zip code. More information about this free camp can be found on our Facebook page, Camp New Joy or on our website, campnewjoy.org.

Lastly and most importantly, being a great father to my sons Jonathan and Jackson is essential. They have been entrusted to my care and their future is my priority. I can’t find the words to explain how blessed I am to have these two young kings in my life. To God be the glory!

What are you doing as a BEMM to help support black male achievement now or in the future?

I established Camp New Joy as a way to support black male achievement. Each week during the summer, we will bring 10 to 15 young men to the camp located in Rustburg, Virginia. They must leave their iPhones, iPads, and all other electronic gadgets at home. While at the camp they interact with volunteers that provide coaching sessions in the areas of conflict resolution, family values, economic wisdom, community service, and continuing education. They also have an opportunity to participate in team building exercises such as rope challenges, obstacle courses, and water sports. Rustburg is located in the mountains of Virginia. So, the planned activities along with the close connection to nature, provide for each camper with a unique experience that will change their lives. Through Northeast Baptist Church and my company, JAM Media Solutions, scholarships are provided to help our young people continue their education. We’ve also established a $25,000 endowment at my alma mater, Norfolk State University. I always tell the young people I come in contact with that the greatest gift they can give us is their college degree!

What are some examples of how you have turned struggle into success?

In junior high school, I averaged 250 detentions in a 182 day school year. Through ninth grade, I was suspended at least three times per year. In ninth grade, I was expelled from the public high school and transferred to an alternative school. The administrators informed my parents that I would not go to college and that I would need to learn a trade. My experience at the alternative school caused me to make a promise I kept! I told my parents if they would get me back into the public school system I would change my ways and obey the rules. Not only did I keep my promise, I ended up as a championship heavyweight wrestler and a member of the championship football team. I maintained a B+ average and received a full scholarship to college! I am so thankful that when the administrators closed the book on my future, God kept writing! I’m a living witness that anything is possible!

What is the best advice you have ever received?

I went to Norfolk State University on a football scholarship. My freshmen season was not stellar and my adjustment to the college environment was not smooth. I decided that I was not going to attend spring football practice and focus my energies on wrestling. My offensive line coach, the late Tom Morris, was my health teacher. He noticed I hadn’t been showing up to practice. He pulled me aside one day after class, looked me in the eyes and told me to finish the game! Wow. His words still ring in my ears to this day! I ended up as a three-year starter on the football team. Someone is struggling today and someone is thinking about giving up. Don’t do it. Finish the game! You’ll be blessed!

What advice you have for other men who want to make a difference?

Get started! There is enough need in our communities and all of us can make a difference. God did not provide you with gifts and talents for your own benefit. He expects us to be a blessing to others. Do not allow anyone to douse your flame or cause you to question your ability to make an impact. Learn to make your haters your motivators! Let’s go!

It’s our normal to be extraordinary. Follow @BEModernMan and join the conversation using #BEModernMan.

Come celebrate the BE Modern Man 100 Men of Distinction at the 2nd Annual Black Men XCEL, Aug. 29–Sept. 2, 2018, at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

The post BE MODERN MAN: MEET ‘THE DIVINE ONE’ REV. JONATHAN A. MASON SR. appeared first on Black Enterprise.

Go to Source BE MODERN MAN: MEET ‘THE DIVINE ONE’ REV. JONATHAN A. MASON SR. BE Modern Man is an integrative program that honors the essence, image, and accomplishments of today’s man of color.

0 notes