You have your project. You have your team. Now, it is time to get them ready for the Arena. You have 16 weeks. You need to do 3 things:

I prepare them for the arena by embedding them in a community of change-makers, co-creating a group culture that is demon-proof, and animating their demons.

• Build a Community
• Build a Culture
• Animate their Demons.

1. Build a Community:

We build community through shared experiences:

• Two Dollar Challenge
• Summer Retreat
• Ropes Course
• Bonfires

2. Build a Culture:

We make 11 Promises to each other. It is our value system. It is our ethos. It is specific to us and our work together. This is your way of walking, talking, and being in the world. It is a “people like us do things this way in our community” kind of statement. It is our culture. Two thoughts about our culture. First, creating our culture was an iterative collectivist process over the years. And, we transmit our culture to new members 3 ways:

• It is inculcate through readings and discussions in class
• It is modeled for new members by returning students
• It is internalized by actively connecting new members to our alumni through: Stories, Letters to Future LC Member, Vulnerability Book, Assign them Mentors (who are alumni), and our Program Director in Honduras is an Alumnus.

3. Animate their Demons:

You need to give your students practice fighting their demons before they get to the arena.

4. Critical Consciousness

Now, it’s time to head to the arena. But, first, a few words about how you lead in the classroom.

Raise their awareness of enslavement…exercises…readings…

• “Don’t look up, Dr. Humphrey.”
• Five Species of Students