“If we can learn to respect each other’s differences and move past them to collaborate for the greater good, I believe we, as a human race, can reach heights only dreamed of.” -Matthew Thompson
Every month Global Peace Youth-USA features outstanding young leaders from across the nation. For the first month of 2016, we caught up with Matthew Thompson, a graduate of the 2015 International Young Leaders Assembly who carries moral and innovative leadership into his workplace, home, and community.
January 2016 GPYouth Featured Leader: Matthew Thompson
After earning his Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting, Matthew took on a bookkeeping position at Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative. His effort to exemplify the words of Ghandi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” is seen in his passion to carry his talents beyond the workplace and into the community. Matthew noticed a need to address “financial illiteracy”, especially among young people in his community so he discussed with us how he chooses to spend his free time teaching others more about budgeting and credit.
“I have run personal branding workshops to better equip and prepare them for professional careers, but also so they can become confident in their own respect. I involve my friends when I host these events so that they too can be involved in making a positive impact in the community, but also so that the youth have more role models to look up to. It helps them to envision their goals as achievable with the right guidance and amount of effort.”
Matthew shared why he knows moral and innovative role models are essential in our society, saying, “The tone we set today will become the blueprint for the world tomorrow. Do we want a future that lacks values and where division and corruption rule society? Or do we want a future that is built on values such as character and integrity and the achievement of solutions through collaboration? I believe we can all agree on the latter. To achieve such a society we must see these values practiced by our current leadership. We all have our differences but the beautiful thing is that our differences make us unique. If we can learn to respect each other’s differences and move past them to collaborate for the greater good, I believe we, as a human race, can reach heights only dreamed of.”
No matter what your passions, everyone can use their talents as moral and innovative leaders in their own community.
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