Creating Opportunities for Advancement
My wife & I worked for 3-yrs in South Africa to address the HIV/AIDS situation by working with the KwaZulu Natal Department of Education to train 100s of teachers in the public school system. We developed a program to equip local community groups to weekly partner with teachers in their classrooms to implement the initiative. That assignment opened doors for us to develop many community empowering projects.
After arriving in NC at the end of 2006, we started a 501(c)3 organization to perform similar initiatives. I support public-private partnerships toward creating opportunities for communities to advance.
Education: Instill classical roots, good character, and modern tech training
I helped start a private school in NC and it has successfully become an independent non-profit with it's own board. I currently serve on the board of a township private school in Ntuzuma, South Africa.
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An engaging education transforms a person's destiny. I'm convinced the role of schools is to partner with parents to equip children with a heart for truth, a love for learning, for artistic beauty, for diligence, and the courage to live rightly.
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Previous generations experienced real things, and the wisdom gained through their experiences must be imparted to our children. Of course we should concurrently equip students with training in modern tech. Schools are not a lab for social experimentations. MLK said: "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education."
Economic development that fits the influx of new people to the region, without cost impacting restrictions.
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The RDU region is one of the top 10 geographic destinations to which people across the country are relocating. I have started 4 companies and two non-profit organizations. My current company is a construction and development company constructing interior office renovations and custom houses. I observe the influx of people moving into the Orange County region is significant and not slowing down.
Restrictive development approaches are historic and unfairly preferential. These create tax burdens for residential owners, and access discrepancies between ordinary people and large corporations who aren't held back because they have access to capital to fight through restrictions. I support healthy and fair economic development that minimizes hurdles to allow entrance for wider prosperity.
