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DENNIS MOROLDA

Join Wes Tankersley on this episode of Shaping Success as he speaks to Dennis Morolda about his story of success of teaching young men how to be men.

Dennis grew up playing sports in South New Jersey and asked himself what is a man and how should men act since he had a troubled relationship with his father. He went to College in South Jersey and majored in Education and Sociology.\\xa0 His path to success started when he did an internship helping At Risk boys as an Assistant Group Counselor. He interacted with kids who had trouble with the law and came from single family homes with absent or non-competent fathers. His job at the time was to observe how the counselors interacted with the kids. Eventually he was hired as a van driver. He went to school at his college then pick up the kids from their homes in the bad areas, take them to where they would have their sessions, then drive them home. He found that these drives home were therapy sessions for the kids.\\xa0 The kids would open up to him and tell him things they weren\\u2019t telling the licensed therapists. He realized that this was his calling and became his living passion.\\xa0

His third day of teaching was September 11, 2001. The World Trade Center could be seen from the school. This event made him realize the kids need the following things: A need to be heard, competence, fun, relationships, a feeling of community, and safety which is the most important.\\xa0 Dennis set himself up for success by realizing he loved leadership, so he got his Masters in Educational Leadership to become a principal. He taught for 4 \\xbd years\\xa0 before becoming an assistant principal in 2005. The kids getting into trouble were 90% boys, and he knew something had to be done. No one was doing anything, so he decided to start a boys social group called Building Men. There would be 20 to 25 boys would meet an hour before school. There he did team building where the boys would talk about what is happening in their lives.\\xa0 Dennis asked them what does it mean to be a man? Success meaning for these boys was to be bigger, faster, stronger, six-pack abs, beards and tattoos, and many sexual conquests. They also said it was accumulation of material things such as cars, money, and houses. Dennis pointed out that these things can be easily taken away.\\xa0 He set up the road to success for these boys by teaching them that to be a man is based on character, integrity, accountability, and serving others.\\xa0

Dennis established steps to building success by first setting the ground rules: the kids set up the room by forming a circle. There is no front or back. Everyone is equal. The sessions would begin and end with a handshake, looking one another in the eye, and showing respect.\\xa0 What is said here stays here unless there is a danger to self or others. Also, they cannot talk about other people in the school as they are not there to defend themselves. They talked about responsibility and accountability by reviewing videos, books, and poems.\\xa0

Wes brought up how when he was teaching he toured a farm camp where he saw how some of the kids were living. The kids lived in poor areas, so the school would provide food, conversation/counseling, and a safe place for them to be. When Christmas time would come for example, the kids would act up because they would be home for 2 weeks without the food and

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