Lots of people don’t think everyone is valuable and that only smart people that have gone to college for years and have gotten a degree can actually provide value. I used to think the same way and thought I could only start putting my ideas out once I’ve gone to college for years. This mind set has been implanted in me and many others, not only me from the school system and other things like social media. But REDI Lab has reshaped my way of thinking and made me believe in their beliefs.
REDi Lab not only helped me rechape the way I think about value but also creativity and leadership. REDI Lab believes that every student has valuable ideas and the potential to create meaningful change no matter their origins and how much they have experienced. I not only heard that message, I got to live through it.
In my group some come in with an idea or sometimes no idea and create something as it goes on. It was like watching a snowball roll down the hill and like starting off small and then growing into something real.That was how it went for me. At first all my thoughts were scrambled and I didn’t know exactly what and WHY I wanted to do something. It took some time and some switching of ideas like. It went through a lot of places from cars to art to finally snowboarding. But once I got my idea, REDI Lab helped me bring it to life. They helped me find a solution to the lack of diversity in the skiing and snowboarding community. Additionally they helped me Transform my way of thought to think more creatively in order to find real world solutions.
Snowboarding became my focus because i love it but i also see a real problem with it lack diversity especially racial diversity. Once I realized that issue, the REDI lab helped me dig deeper and find out why and they also helped me think of solutions. Through that process I not only built my project I also built my confidence in my voice and my ability to make change in the world.
I took inspiration from one of my friends. He runs a program that gets old gear and lets young people borrow them and I was lucky enough to be one of the people he lets borrow the gear to. He also drives everyone up to the mountains and back down to their own homes. I always loved the opportunity to try something new and now I am trying to give everyone this equal opportunity with my project SnowBInds. I would scale up his program to always more people than just 15 people every weekend to hopefully more.
REDI lab helped me develop a new way of thinking and to be more curious, more creative and more focused around me. I also started seeing problems not as dead end but as room for innovations. Addingly now I believe that anyone no matter their background has the power to create something meaningful.
