Voices of Ambition: A Conversation with Inspiring Young Achievers
Download MP3Unknown Speaker 0:00
You're listening to locally produced programming created in KU NBC Studios on public radio K, u and v 91.5.
Unknown Speaker 0:11
You're listening to special programming sponsored by making moves life coaching services, the content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jobs and more the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Unknown Speaker 0:41
You can see what's going on what's going on? What's going on?
Unknown Speaker 0:55
Good morning, Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 jazz. And I'm Dave Washington, your host, I'm very excited. In regards to the guests I have today. I have three granddaughters and a cousin who will be on the line today. And we're going to have a little brief discussion with these young ladies about some of the activities that they're embarking upon as young ladies, in our community. And in our once again, I'm happy and pleased to have them here. I want to before we get started, I want to just cover a couple things real quickly. Once again, they are the king Week activities that will be going on. All I can do is say check your local listings, I was hoping to have the former Assemblyman and current president, longtime president indeed of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee of Las Vegas, one up wheels on able to touch base with him. So again, check your local listings, they will have a lot of activities that will be occurring during King week. Also, I've talked about a couple of times, our domestic warriors. In 2019, I'm told that a law was passed that will add additional types of cancers. If firefighters happened to fall to one of the cancers, their family will get some kind of statement from the federal government. However, what they didn't do was go retroactive. It's only those after 2019. It really bothers me because Leonard led Bernie rose, Mike Patterson, at the salon, these are firefighters that I know that recently passed from some form of cancer. And I'm appealing to you as a public that we need to do something about this. We can send money all over the world to other countries. And we can't take up who I again call our domestic warriors, our firefighters who take care of local folks, we need to address that. So I will continue to harp on this until because laws change all the time. You know, and it's a matter of people taking effective and forceful command of situations to encourage our elected officials to do things that are that are good for the folks who are up again, put their lives on the line for our local folks. You know, our, again, the domestic warriors. Any of you guys haven't particular issues, I encourage you to contact Tony Marshall. He's our Service Officer at 30153794653015379465. That's Tony Marshall. He's our service officer. Good morning, ladies.
Unknown Speaker 3:27
Good morning. All
Unknown Speaker 3:28
right. All right. All right. I'm so happy you're here. So of course I have a few questions. And we're going to have just a general conversation. First of all, starting with the college graduate here. Please tell us what did you graduate? What school and and what did you graduate? What was your degree? Okay,
Unknown Speaker 3:52
so, my name is Amari Washington. I just graduated from the Alabama State University. In Montgomery, Alabama, my degree is in psychology. So I have a BS in psychology. And yes, okay.
Unknown Speaker 4:08
Great, great. Little Sister. Tell us about where are you going to school? And have you decided on a major yet?
Unknown Speaker 4:21
Yes, I am. mkhaya, Washington, and I go to Bowie State University in Maryland. And my major is biology. Okay,
Unknown Speaker 4:28
cool. So how's the weather back? They're
Unknown Speaker 4:31
very cold. Very cold, very cold.
Unknown Speaker 4:34
Tell us. How did you select that particular school and why? Well,
Unknown Speaker 4:39
one, it's an HBCU and two is close to Washington. Why Washington? Because when I had visited Washington with my family, I loved it out there. And I decided to apply to a school in Washington, but I didn't particularly like that school. So I decided to Go to Maryland and go to Bowie State University. Okay, great.
Unknown Speaker 5:04
Miss Kasara.
Unknown Speaker 5:06
Hello.
Unknown Speaker 5:08
What are you doing these days? And where are you at school it?
Unknown Speaker 5:10
Well, the biggest thing is student council and I go to school at Faith Lutheran High School.
Unknown Speaker 5:18
So tell us about our listening audience about the student council.
Unknown Speaker 5:22
We try our best to cater to the student body, but it's hard to please everyone.
Unknown Speaker 5:30
Almost like an elected official out here in real life.
Unknown Speaker 5:33
Yes. Have to make sure we can cater to the different groups with as little problems that we can.
Unknown Speaker 5:43
Okay. Alicia, how you doing? I'm doing good. Good. Good. So where are you going to school at and have you selected a major yet?
Unknown Speaker 5:54
Yeah, so I'm currently attending the University of Nevada, Reno. And my edgert My major is music education with an emphasis on Food Studies.
Unknown Speaker 6:04
Emphasis on what?
Unknown Speaker 6:06
Food Studies?
Unknown Speaker 6:07
Foods? Yes, Food Studies. And sleep studies. Okay. Cool. Flute. Yeah, I'm hearing food, I guess cuz I'm hungry right now. Excellent. So where are you in terms of freshman, sophomore, etc.
Unknown Speaker 6:27
I'm currently a freshman.
Unknown Speaker 6:28
Okay. All right. So what do you think about the campus up there compared to say a UNLV.
Unknown Speaker 6:36
It's really, it's really big up here. It's basically like in a valley. So there's a lot of stairs around. But it's a big campus. It's beautiful. There's many trees, and it's just really cool.
Unknown Speaker 6:46
So have any idea of percentage of Las Vegas up there? Can you repeat that? Any idea of percentage of Las Vegas who may be up there any students that you may have gone to high school with or new down here in Las Vegas that's attending up there?
Unknown Speaker 7:04
Yeah, there's a lot of Las Vegas like transfers. And there's also a lot of California because it's a lot cheaper than a school that would be in California. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 7:13
All right. Cool. So any job prospects for the graduate? Yes,
Unknown Speaker 7:21
actually, I just got a job offer and accepted it as a registered behavior technician in Montgomery,
Unknown Speaker 7:28
which he is so what is that going to entail? Do you know?
Unknown Speaker 7:31
So I'll be working one on one with children that have behavioral and developmental issues? Yes. So just helping them work on that everyday skills, educational skills and all that.
Unknown Speaker 7:44
So what was your inspiration to doing it? Because I can tell you that's a very specialized area. Yes. And you got to have a lot of patience, I would think, to deal with people who have issues if you will, yes.
Unknown Speaker 7:55
Um, so I love kids. And I've always loved kids. And I knew that my field psychology you can do really anything. So I wanted to make sure I did something with kids because I wanted to like what I did. So.
Unknown Speaker 8:12
All right. Back to you. This buckeye? Yes. What did you select the field that you did? Because
Unknown Speaker 8:22
I want to become a veterinarian. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 8:25
Do you mind you know my friend, Gene Campbell. You have been around the house much to meet him but his son has gone to school? I think he was What school did he go to down in Texas? Prairie View. And he has he's an IT field. I think he's outside of that field right now. But the bottom line, I'll make sure you get a chance to talk to him and give you some advice on some of the things that you may be embarking upon and maybe don't have to crawl so many obstacles you can go around. You know what I'm saying? Cool. Cool. All right. Miska saw the young one other group. So you got what two more years of high school.
Unknown Speaker 9:12
This I'm gonna go into my last semester of junior year and then so you BSD as senior this year in August.
Unknown Speaker 9:23
Alright, so any thoughts on when you complete? Do you have a favorite subject or subjects while in high school?
Unknown Speaker 9:31
I like my business class that I'm taking. And then my favorite like core subject is English.
Unknown Speaker 9:40
English. Okay, so now how about foreign language any of you guys any lady doing any foreign language I'm taking
Unknown Speaker 9:47
French and Simon French honors right now and then next year, I'm gonna take AP French.
Unknown Speaker 9:56
Those are you know, I used to serve on a military Academy selection committee for the United States Senator Richard Bryan. And those AP classes are no joke.
Unknown Speaker 10:10
Yeah, my French teacher was telling us how it's not gonna be easy. And he's French himself. And he was saying sometimes he has had trouble with like that AP test. So I'll have to study a lot, which French isn't too much this study for just because our class is so small, so it's easier to get help if I need it, because a lot of students chose to take Spanish.
Unknown Speaker 10:40
So why did you decide to take French instead of Spanish?
Unknown Speaker 10:44
Because I take in Spanish from the towards the end of elementary school up to eighth grade. And so I've been in French since freshman year.
Unknown Speaker 10:55
So Spanish, so did you use it at all? Because I know it to me, and I'm just coming off the cuff here, because I don't have a clue. But I would think that anytime you're studying a language, you have to use it in order to maintain it.
Unknown Speaker 11:11
Well, there's still some basic stuff I remember, but I've never really had to use it unless I practice with my dad. But now there's no, there hasn't been a purpose for me to use it.
Unknown Speaker 11:26
Interesting. So thoughts on AI?
Unknown Speaker 11:34
Um, I don't really dive into that type of stuff. So I don't really look into it as much. But I do think there's a lot of it.
Unknown Speaker 11:42
So do you think is going to help or hurt mankind?
Unknown Speaker 11:50
I think it should help in a way that it can help us. But then I also think that it shouldn't help mankind in a way. But there's a if and if it does can help us or if it can't help us,
Unknown Speaker 12:05
Alicia, what are your thoughts on AI?
Unknown Speaker 12:08
I think it could help us do a lot of stuff. But I also know that there's a downside because it's giving people like a chance to stop being creative or think for themselves. Because, you know, like, get to PT before like using it to write their own papers. Like using their actual brains of thinking if
Unknown Speaker 12:27
I continue to use this example, I had the president, Dr. Whitfield. He's the president of UNLV. I had him on the show a couple of months ago. And he when he came here, he told me that his staff was all
Unknown Speaker 12:39
Oh, yeah. Oh, oh, what
Unknown Speaker 12:42
are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? The students gonna be cheating. He said, and I have to keep today, it's not an actual quote, but certainly paraphrasing. The cheating come along, as a result of AI was cheating already here. Definitely. Yes. And to your point, Alicia, he basically said that what instructors, professors, teachers, etc, should consider doing, say, for example, you have an assignment. And you try to let ai do your total assignment, bring everybody into a room? Because our, I want you to explain why did you write such and such? Notice it, you say I guarantee won't be no more cheating. I mean, there's nothing wrong as I see it. And I'm, I'm certainly on a very peripheral of AI in terms of thought, but I'd say this, if you can't explain what AI does for you, you're gonna be in trouble. So you can let eight I think you can let ai do some of the work. But when you get down to it, you better be able to explain in detail why your thought process would process when a certain way? Right. Yeah. Other thoughts on AI? Um,
Unknown Speaker 13:56
I was gonna say, I think it helped me a lot. Um, I've asked AI to write me resume construct recipes, and grocery lists and all that. So I think it's does more good than harm. Okay. Yeah. I think it doesn't look good. And
Unknown Speaker 14:18
I saw an interview. I don't know if he's one of them, tick tock things. But this guy, he was formerly military. And he basically said, for the common citizen for us out in civilian life. We are AI has just came around, but AI has been around for a long, long time. So they know what it can do. And they they've done a lot of research on it. But I still to believe that we have to be careful. And we have to make sure that we don't allow our creativity even example. I got I got my second book. I know I've written a book. My second book been in the hopper for about five years. I keep thinking about when I let it finish I'm giving this some thought but also know that say, for example, you know, editor's when you when you write, because I remember writing an article for the city's little newspaper. And I was writing as a former president of the Black Firefighters Association. And the person who did the editorial work on the newsletter said, I said, Wait a minute. Now, I will listen. But the gist of what I was saying, Don't let nobody take away the just because editors, they have a way of doing things. But to me, I don't think you should let anybody take away from your true thought, You know what I'm saying? And people will do that. And like, what's the point in writing, if somebody's gonna take away your right to say what you got to say, and move away from the point that you were trying to make? Does that make sense? All right. All right. So please tell me, Alicia, what is your favorite subject while in school? And in college, I should say.
Unknown Speaker 16:05
In college, it would have to be like my lessons was my teacher because I get to build on my skills. Player. But when I did do high school, my favorite
Unknown Speaker 16:15
math, you know, I've heard and this is only theory to me, because I don't know for sure. But they say those folks who take music. They are better at math. And vice versa. Have you guys ever heard? Yes, I
Unknown Speaker 16:30
can vouch for that. I can see that. Okay. Now
Unknown Speaker 16:33
you were what in school in terms of what do you call it? Extracurricular activities.
Unknown Speaker 16:40
In well, all through school, I was a cheerleader. Okay. And then I ran track since the age of five, and I stopped in high school. But in college, I was on the cheer team for four years. And my last year I was co captain.
Unknown Speaker 16:54
Mm cool. Once again, Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on any 1.5, jazz and more. And I'm sitting here with my three granddaughters. And we also got a cousin on the line Miss Alicia and just kind of to get some information out of these young ladies about their track on life and what's going on so because are you what are your future goals?
Unknown Speaker 17:17
Well, I wanna study business and probably in marketing or management.
Unknown Speaker 17:25
Okay, this I'm looking at, um, see, I gotta call your name and spell it.
Unknown Speaker 17:31
Well, right now I'm in biology. And I take some classes and precalculus and all that. So that's been? Well, the precalculus class has been pretty hard for me. But I do definitely like my science classes that I have been taking, like, I took geology. And that was one of my favorite classes. Geology. Why was it favorite? Because we did things that I have never done before. We dissected animals I've never done, we went through muddy areas and look at different animals inside the water. And we did. Our watching. We also did bird watching as well. So that was definitely fun. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 18:20
Now tell us a little bit more about this. I keep wanting to say City Council. I don't know if you guys realize a mirror. A mirror talking about a sister, because sorrow would be with you in bizarre when you did your campaign to run when she was running for office. She put this bad bad piece together. It was a video. It was really, and she won the election as a result.
Unknown Speaker 18:43
I was in fifth grade.
Unknown Speaker 18:47
So what brought you to putting that together? Because you had to do it on your own right? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 18:52
And then I use my resources of like my dad's office and from where he worked. I was able to use that as a background. Yeah, I guess I planned the video myself. My God, I don't really remember of the process. I just remember the biggest thing was that I wanted to film it at where my dad worked.
Unknown Speaker 19:22
Okay. Well, it really caught on and folks really enjoyed it. What have you done extracurricular wise?
Unknown Speaker 19:33
And high school? I did track and just like my sister, I did track my whole life. I also did gymnastics and dance. And in college I'm hoping to do tennis.
Unknown Speaker 19:51
Tennis. Really? Yes. Oh, cool. Tennis is a it's a good game. You got to be quick, fast and move and I can tell you there was this other sport is really come on now it's not God I can't remember the name of it but it's it's kind of like tennis not as fast pickleball pickleball Have you played?
Unknown Speaker 20:11
No, but I want to so I do. It looks fine. Leisha
Unknown Speaker 20:19
I'm I've heard of pickleball. I've played it before, but only in NP. Yeah, in like high school.
Unknown Speaker 20:26
So did you do anything outside of ban as far as extracurricular activities?
Unknown Speaker 20:33
I only really did swimming for all throughout middle school and high school. And that was like the biggest sport that I did during school. But I did all four years of marching band and this year marching band for college.
Unknown Speaker 20:46
So was you competitive in a swimming?
Unknown Speaker 20:51
Yeah, I did competitive swimming all throughout middle school with a club. But in high school, I only competed for my high school. So
Unknown Speaker 20:59
with the club, how did you do on how did you club overall doing? What was how was your individual participation in terms of, you know, I know to give all them little ribbons and trophies and all that kind of stuff.
Unknown Speaker 21:10
I did a lot of competitions. I did pretty good when I started out but towards to not do as good because people are just getting better and faster. But I did go to state in seventh grade, I believe and I got like 13 in the state.
Unknown Speaker 21:24
Okay. Let me some thoughts on just life in general. And where we are in the world, and in terms of your thought,
Unknown Speaker 21:34
right now, it's crazy, difficult and hard. It's a lot to take in. And it's just right now Life last year wasn't so good. For really anybody, I'm pretty sure. But this year, I'm hoping Liferay now is better. And I hope we have a better year this year.
Unknown Speaker 21:56
I can tell you that each year I try to write some kind of not an article but make a statement to people that I know to include the members in the staff of the car homes executive development institute, which I'm the president and CEO. I talked about grace, I talked about mercy. And I've been struggling trying to write something about hate. Why is there so much hate, hate is all over the place. And I know, there's a particular verse in the Bible where it talks about there's a time for hate. But I think we're we're on overtime in terms of hate, but all with the destructive activities that are going on all over the world, from Africa to the Middle East. You name it, people are fighting. And I know man has fought since the start of time. But I think one of the things that I always try to do, I remember when we had this was called the new Vika foods, Nubian cofense A cultural community. They had business as a West Side Art Gallery and bookstore, our leader and spiritual advisor bedika sale, he said, Look, you don't spend your time hating nobody. Because generally, if you hate somebody, they probably don't even know that you hate him. Right? And yes, it was it's eaten you up for the hate. So I try to be very careful. There are some people I do not like, I want to be around. I want to hear no conversation. But I always try to be cordial I speak. But I don't want to be around certain people. Because, you know, they are trash to me in terms of the way I think about them because of things that they've done, not only to me, but to others, you know, and we have to be very selective of our friends because it's just an evil, unnecessary world when it comes down to hate. Yes. Thoughts?
Unknown Speaker 23:44
Well, I was gonna say it's really scary how it really is the people closest to you. You said friends, and I really pick my friends wisely. Because you can be the greatest friend in the world to some person and turn around and they're talking behind your back and doing this and doing that. So I really keep a tight circle. Because people aren't as genuine as they perceive. Yeah, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 24:17
I guess like just being careful with what you tell people just because you don't know where their highest loyalties are.
Unknown Speaker 24:31
Good. Alicia. Yeah, I just think there's a lot of hate in the world. There's just so much going on. It's it is hard to you know, live the riddle. But yeah, like I said, you just got to choose who you surround yourself with and hope that that they're good people too.
Unknown Speaker 24:49
Absolutely. So as we have five minutes left, according to Wes, any closing thoughts and I'll start with you Alicia.
Unknown Speaker 25:00
Um, let's just hope I can keep continuing enjoying college hopefully make the world a better place. And yeah.
Unknown Speaker 25:07
Excellent. So,
Unknown Speaker 25:11
yeah, I hope to finish high school successfully, and I hope to see the world become a more peaceful environment.
Unknown Speaker 25:23
Now your thoughts Why Why do you keep talking about New York and where to New York?
Unknown Speaker 25:28
And why you are, I guess New York City.
Unknown Speaker 25:32
So NYU is known for what? Why
Unknown Speaker 25:35
don't like I haven't really looked at what it's known for i It's mostly like the location because I've also, like looked up the other schools that are in New York like Fordham and Syracuse. I just want like, I'd like the East Coast. I think better because I the West Coast, I think it's too hot, and I enjoy more cold weather,
Unknown Speaker 26:00
resting. You know, there's two people that I'm gonna get you in contact with. That's Blair, and was bird son's name. slips my mind. But anyway, both have him. His son went to Colgate, not Colgate. What's the other one out there, but it's just below the IV Li. But anyway, and his daughter is back east somewhere. I think she goes to school in Boston somewhere. But you need to talk with him to get just to get some perspective. And of course, your cousin right back down at Cold East Coast. So final thoughts.
Unknown Speaker 26:36
I'm hoping this year is better for everyone and me as well. And I'm also hoping to get back out there and Marilyn and stay out there.
Unknown Speaker 26:47
All right. Cool.
Unknown Speaker 26:49
Okay, my final thoughts. Um, I just want to put the message out there for everybody. Take one day at a time. If you think about the future in a big picture, it can be overwhelming. So I'd say try to take it one day at a time. One hour at a time. Whatever you need to do. I think this year is gonna be a good one. Excellent. Excellent.
Unknown Speaker 27:14
Well, I'm proud of all four of you guys. You carried yourself very well. Even though I had a rough ER up you're coming in with all this. Giggling here and I'm just Hang Seng Oh go we're gonna carry on like that. But now I'm very proud of you guys. Y'all just giggle I guess because of these microphones and and West coming in and telling y'all what to do. And y'all know what I do. Am I gonna do this right? Oh, you guys all did very well. Your voice is carried Well, I was afraid that your voice is maybe too soft particularly you in you. But y'all came through very well because Wes West will say somebody will say Look Get your voice. So I want to thank Wes for his leadership because he always keeps me on point. So any any thoughts you want to share with your families? Because they will hear this? I will send this to everybody I know
Unknown Speaker 28:10
not really hey all what Alicia
Unknown Speaker 28:14
was just gonna say Love y'all right?
Unknown Speaker 28:21
What you're gonna say yeah, I'll say send some love out to your family. Hey, here's
Unknown Speaker 28:25
a Hello. I'll
Unknown Speaker 28:27
send love to my HBCU number one in the country. Oh, okay.
Unknown Speaker 28:34
All right. Yeah, once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on any 1.5 chairs and more. I had one cousin and three granddaughters here to share some perspective on their their achievements as well as what they plan to achieve as relates to their college education. So thank you young ladies and I'm proud of each one of you guys and Godspeed and 2024 as we keep things moving, and maybe we can all help to reduce some of the hatred that goes on in our All right,
Unknown Speaker 29:07
yes plus
Unknown Speaker 29:08
on 91.5 jazz or more. We'll see you guys next week at the same time 7am.
Outro Song 29:49
Have a small smoke in the cylinder head on the pavement.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
