Well it's official and I'm excited - Next Tuesday I start working with a group of teens at a high school in a "disadvantaged" section of Rotterdam. They're going to design & create a fantastic exterior mural, and I'm already so proud of them(!) - even though I haven't yet met them. And I "get" to be the coach and mentor! And after about 8-10 Tuesday afternoons together, we'll celebrate with a small party in my studio/gallery. I'll update this blog with the progress.

A number of weeks ago I heard about this school and their cry for help to transform it into a cool school to go to. In the Netherlands kids can choose which secondary school to go to, within their course of study. This particular school has been losing students because of street fights on the grounds, etc. It also feels a bit like a prison upon entering and could use some improvement in the "happy" factor. And about 75% of the students are, like me, "foreigners".

So a number of companies have volunteered to be a part of the "Building Dreams" campaign to transform it into a school that all kids want to attend - by empowering the kids to make their school a cool place to BE.

Each company has come up with a program that will allow the kids to learn something by doing - we give them the tools; they are the leaders. I'm so excited because this ties so well into the DreamQuest interview "Give Kids the Skills to be the Leaders" a while ago.

Puma is  creating a football (that's "soccer" in the US) tournament. Another will work on creating a beautiful atmosphere both in the interior and courtyard. I suggested to a business friend who's also a bit of a kid still himself (in the name of confidence-building) to help some of the teens write their CV's - so that they can teach others and maybe also their parents. (I did this with one of my team in my "previous" life in the fashion world and found it works wonders. If you're a manager, please try it with your team). And my friend is going even further and will get into the interview process - I'm curious to hear how it goes.

And of course I couldn't not ask Philip from the Notice Expedition to come and present his life story with the message - "create your own future - because no one's gonna do it for you". At age 15 he went to Antarctica and age 18 to the North Pole with the Poletrack expedition (my husband & I were the base camp). Now at just age 22 he will have crossed Greenland's ice cap in both directions (600 km east-west and 2500 km south-north).