{"id":5092,"date":"2011-07-28T16:21:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-28T16:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/this-kid-gets-it\/"},"modified":"2011-07-28T16:21:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-28T16:21:00","slug":"this-kid-gets-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/this-kid-gets-it","title":{"rendered":"This Kid Gets it"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/span>
Deshe’ Gully, a recent graduate of Renaissance High School for the Arts in Long Beach, “gets it,” according to local nonprofit We Love Long Beach. He is shown in this undated photo fresh off the bus from Grad Night with the bags of clothes and books he, his classmates and his teachers collected to donate to local charities. Photo courtesy of We Love Long Beach.<\/em>
 <\/span>
2:01pm | <\/strong>Editor’s note: The following was written by We Love Long Beach’s development director, Adam Ferry.<\/em><\/p>\n

During this past school year, We Love Long Beach enjoyed the opportunity to share our mission and efforts in the city at a number of local high schools. We met with a class at Renaissance High School for the Arts in the fall and had no idea that one student would help us realize our vision and hope for every high school in the district.<\/span>
<\/span>
Meet Deshe\u2019 Gully. He\u2019s a 2011 graduate of RHSA and an incoming freshman at Cal State Long Beach. We first met Deshe\u2019 in a class where his teacher, Ms. Lopez, had assigned a yearlong project focused on \u201cgiving.\u201d <\/span>
<\/span>
The goal was to identify a need and create a fictional nonprofit organization that would help the cause. WLLB was one of a few organizations asked to share about how we do what we do and why. Deshe\u2019 asked a lot of questions, and it was refreshing when he admitted that it was hard to come up with the right idea. Fictitious or not, he wasn\u2019t willing to settle or remain uninspired. After three years of working on WLLB, we knew exactly how he felt. <\/span>
<\/span>
An unexpected call soon came. \u201cHi, um, my name is Deshe\u2019 Gully, and I was wondering if you guys would be willing to meet with me to talk about starting a We Love Long Beach club at Renaissance High School?\u201d <\/span>
<\/span>
We met for coffee and quickly realized that this kid gets it<\/em>. <\/span>
<\/span>
He explained, \u201cI want to make a difference in the world, and I want my legacy at RHSA to be a club where students learn how to serve others.\u201d <\/span>
<\/span>
It was beautiful. But how did this young man, who grew up estranged from his father in a gang- and drug-ridden area south of Los Angeles, develop a perspective that included serving others, much less his high school \u201clegacy?\u201d <\/span>
<\/span>
Before transferring to RHSA, Deshe\u2019 saw other students build status within a culture of violence and quick money. He recognized the hopelessness of that life and transcended his environment by choosing otherwise. He took his curiosity for politics and developed a transformative friendship with his history teacher. During break times they would talk about history, politics and society. He chose to listen, to learn, and by doing so he began to see the other possibilities that were out there for him. Deshe\u2019 enrolled at RHSA to develop his abilities in the performing arts. Fortunately for all of us, he also accepted the challenge to lead and encourage others in service to their community. <\/span>
<\/span>
We were humbled when Deshe\u2019 asked to start a WLLB club at his school, and the answer was simply, \u201cYes!\u201d<\/span> <\/span>

We did not ask him for a resume or a list of his leadership qualifications. We only asked him to partner with us in the effort to know and serve his fellow students, faculty and the surrounding community. We encouraged him to partner with others and recognize the inherent value of their gifts and abilities. We suggested, \u201cDo a small thing well. Consider how it can done better and repeat.\u201d<\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
The morning after Grad Night, Deshe\u2019 and I delivered nine large bags of clothes and books donated by the students and faculty of Renaissance High School. This fall he plans to start a We Love Long Beach club at CSULB and find new ways to change our city for the better. <\/span>
<\/span>
How about you? If you are a student, teacher or parent at Poly, Cabrillo, Jordan, Lakewood, Millikan, or one of the academies, we believe you are already capable and equipped to have a major impact in the city. You have gifts, abilities and interests, and each of them can be used to improve the life of someone around you. This article is your invitation to start a We Love Long Beach club at your school and discover the difference we can make together. <\/span>

<\/span>Send an e-mail to info@welovelb.org and let us know if you\u2019re interested. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During this past school year, We Love Long Beach enjoyed the opportunity to share our mission and efforts in the city at a number of local high schools. We met with a class at Renaissance High School for the Arts in the fall and had no idea that one student would help us realize our vision and hope for every high school in the district.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":69969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5092"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5092"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}