We were lucky to catch up with Nicole Minor recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Nicole thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?
There are so many things I would want to change about our educational system. To start with, I would focus on instilling a love of learning in children, not a list of things that need to be taught and regurgitated on a test. Building curiosity is so important and letting the classroom be a place of questioning and discovery vs a place that focuses on having the right answer would be a great step in the right direction. It is also important to keep political views and biases out of the classroom. A high school teacher that I admire, and respect greatly would have students say to her at the end of the school year, we can’t tell, are you a Republican or Democrat? And she would reply that she has done her job then! The classroom isn’t her personal podium to espouse her personal politics. It is a place of learning and for students to figure it out for themselves. And most importantly, to think for themselves.
The organization that I founded, The Pangea Network, has a leadership program for high school aged girls, which focuses on building confident, globally minded, financially literate, service minded and self-aware leaders. As the program reiterates repeatedly, through successful speakers and varied topics, it all starts with you. Understanding yourself, your emotions and how to regulate them, who you are, what your value set is, what unique gifts you have to offer the world, combined with paying attention to your interests, is a huge step in living a fulfilling life.
Nicole, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Over 16 years ago, I was fortunate enough to have encouragement and support in starting a non-profit organization called The Pangea Network. The organization’s mission is to empower women and youth through education. What began as an idea has now provided life and business skills training to over 1,300 women living in extreme poverty in Kenya, including savings programs, and resources to grow small businesses, ensured education for over 40 students in Kenya to achieve a minimum of a high school diploma and empowered over 400 high school girls in Texas to become confident service-minded leaders. It has been a continuous learning curve as we evolve, grow, and adapt to current realities and situations. I have had to become comfortable with being uncomfortable, which isn’t always easy but is necessary for growth.
My path to this career was in no way a straight line. I graduated college with a B.A. in French. After dancing in Los Angeles for a company for 3 years, and working several jobs to support myself, including cleaning toilets, I went back to school to get a Master’s in International Management and worked in strategic planning and business intelligence consulting. It was about following my passion that brought me to where I am today. I wanted to do something that was meaningful and served others and after volunteering in the field, I knew I had found it!
I am proud of our team here in the U.S. and our local Kenyan team and all we have accomplished and know there is so much more to learn and ways to expand what we are doing to reach more women and youth.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
The lesson that I am having to unlearn is that I don’t have to be perfect. Perfection is never achievable but for some reason I was holding myself to these completely unrealistic standards. The Pangea Board of Directors and I were lucky to have time with a great leadership development guru, Larry Mills and we did the DiSC assessment, which helps you understand your leadership style and build self-awareness and increased personal effectiveness. My profile came out as the Perfectionist Pattern. It was the first time that I recognized this in my overall style and how it plays out in my day to day, not just at work but in life. I felt like I needed to know everything, have all of the answers, and it was keeping me from asking for help and seeking perspectives and input. In my attempt to be a person of excellence in all I do, I was confusing perfection with excellence. I have now learned and am trying to remember every day that being a person of excellence, does not mean being perfect. In fact, it gives me room to ask, try new things, take more risks and that will only help the organization grow over the long run. There is so much more freedom when you let go of perfection.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
For me, resilience means there is a toughness, grit or even grace that appears when difficulties or challenges arise that gets one through to the other side. I could point to a lot of people and easily highlight their resilience, but I haven’t really thought about how resilience shows up in my own life until reflecting on this question. My grit and resilience showed up in Kenya on one of my earlier trips to the country. Another woman and I were heading to the airport in Nairobi from the rural retreat center we had been staying at. As we made our way down the dirt road, we were ambushed by men with guns. As I was being pulled out of the car by one of them, I honestly thought that he was going to kill me. There was a moment after he asked for my cell phone and I told him it was in the car that I realized no one was paying attention to me, so I stood up and started running back towards the retreat center. It was pitch black and I figured it was more difficult for him to shoot me while I was running. I started screaming when I couldn’t see the headlights anymore, and thankfully people heard me and came down. As they approached, the men ran off and all of us were unharmed.
It took some time for me to process the experience. I know that bad things happen everywhere, and I wasn’t going to allow a few desperate people to keep me from working in a country that was full of goodness and beauty. For the next several trips back, I felt like I was holding my breath at night, just praying for safety and for the sun to come up. Over time, this has dissipated, and I am grateful for that resilience that allowed me to keep showing up.
Read the Canvas Rebel article here
