The Mu Sigma Lambda Chapter hosted its second annual Surf Day in June 2019 at Dockweiler Beach in Los Angeles, CA for youth participants in the Chapter’s Alpha Junior Gents Program. Alpha Junior Gents is a community service highlighting two of the Fraternity’s national programs: Project Al-pha and Go-to-High-School-Go-to-College.
Alpha Junior Gents shares a group mentoring format targeting underserved youth of color between ages 12-18 years (grades 5 through 12). The primary emphasis is to build character as well as confi-dence among our future leaders and professionals. Specifically, the aim of the program provides meaningful life skills to the Alpha Junior Gents in addition to tools required to achieve academic, so-cial and economic success into adulthood.
During Surf Day, Brothers escorted the youth to the beach where they received surfing lessons in wetsuits and water gear provided at no cost. As the youth arrived, the surf instructors greeted them with open arms and with the expression “Sawbona.” The term is an African Zulu word which means “I see you.”
Youth from these neighborhoods are often surveilled for much of their lives. Mothers watch as the youth walk by and hold their purses tighter. Some police watch instead of seeing them. Sharing the word Sawbona with the youth means that they are being seen instead of just being watched.
On the beach they are seen for their gifts that they can nourish and one day share with the world. The youth learn from a gift-centered approach. They are asked to be open to vulnerability while on the sand as they learn that their gifts may sit next to their wounds. I see you.
Alpha Junior Gents committee member Brother Giovanni Douresseau, a competitive surfer in high school and member of the Black Surfers Collective, felt it was important to bring the youth from the inner city to the beach because surfing saved his life. He learned the gift-centered approach as an underserved youth through a Youth Mentoring Connection community-based program. On Surf Days with the Gents they start out by enjoying a donated breakfast on the beach followed by a discussion about the meaning of surfing beyond the waves. The participants are then paired up with surf instruc-tors who remain beach mentors for the day.
Instructional surf lessons take place then the youth hit the water shortly after that. After a free donat-ed lunch for the youth, the day wraps up with everyone sharing their experience and gratitude to-wards the new community. The instructors lead the youth into a beach clean-up briefly before they head home. The youth and surfing instructors clean up their new shared community space to leave the beach better than they found it upon arrival. – Mu Sigma Lambda
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