Bruno Ferreira - Project Proposal

Everyone in this class has had the opportunity to go to a good university and gain a great education. However, I’m sure it is no secret to you all that there are people, our age and younger, that don’t have this opportunity. Whether it be lack of money, poor education, or any of the millions of things that stop people from going to college, some people just can’t go. 

Dan De Nose could have been one of those people. He grew up in a poor neighborhood with friends just like him. However he was given the opportunity to go to a military style school and, soon after, he was taken in by a more privileged family. This led to him being able to go to college and then graduate school here at Rutgers. As Dan puts it, this had more to do with luck than it did with how well he performed in school compared to others. This troubled Dan because it meant that his friends were not given that same opportunity for no real reason other than chance. It wasn’t fare.

In order to change this, Dan is now attempting to create a non profit organization as his final project for graduate school. Leaders of the 21st Century is his creation. With it, he hopes to “create a strong network of leaders to cultivate professional opportunities with one another, provide professional and leadership development to youth participants, and to increase our leadership involvement within our respected communities.” Basically, he wants to create a place where underprivileged kids in the community can go and learn important leadership skills and be mentored by current community leaders.

Dan believes that this process should be documented and that is where I come in. My job is to follow Dan in his attempt to create this organization. From formal meetings with potential mentors and investors to informal moments that show just who Dan De Nose is, not only do I plan to show the audience what LOT21C is about, but I want to show the story of the man who is creating it. If you were to talk to Dan, it would be hard not to get inspired. He is very charismatic and determined, and it rubs off on the people around him. What I plan to do is create a story about a man who truly cares for his community, so much so that he actually wants to make a change. My hope is to inspire others to either help the LOT21C cause or to create their own organization in order to help out their community.