Tag: International Cultural Consortium

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Mentorship Journal

#4 May 25: News release, logo prototype – 1 hour

Logo of the ICC at present. (International Cultural Consortium)

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, my bedroom has doubled as my office. I use my gold Macbook here not just for checking Facebook or YouTube videos but also for my work projects. And Zoom meetings. Lots of Zoom meetings. The walls have but paint on them, so that makes for a nice backdrop. Finally, all my business calls are conducted on my personal cell phone. I kind of like being able to work from home, though I do miss getting out there and making a difference with my colleagues and the community.

Quarantine would not make that big of a difference with the International Cultural Consortium (ICC), since the partners of the organization are scattered across the country. Liston Bochette, who I mentioned the other day, is in Florida; we also have Dr. Bonnie Tiell, the professor of Sport Management at Tiffin University in Ohio, then there is Josh Henson, an attorney based in the Washington, D.C. area. Meanwhile, Iowa is where my office/bedroom is located, but I do not hold a financial stake in the ICC and thus am not a partner.

Even so, I have an important role in this venture, working to get the partners’ message across through such initiatives as a news release and looking at the ICC’s present logo, both of which I have done on this Memorial Day. In a short amount of time, I am learning a great deal more about what Liston, Josh, and Dr. Tiell hope to accomplish with their work, and I take those objectives just as seriously as they do.

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Mentorship Journal

#2 May 22: Follow-up meeting – 45 minutes

Liston Bochette ran bobsled for Puerto Rico at the Olympics. Here, an image of the American team at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. (Photo by Pixabay from Pexels)

Among one of the great Disney movies that you can find on the studio’s streaming service is Cool Runnings, which chronicles the journey of four Jamaicans to compete in the Winter Olympics as bobsledders. I remember seeing the film–notable for being one of John Candy’s last before his untimely death–when it was released in theaters.

The person I am working with on the initiatives of the International Cultural Consortium (ICC) has a similar story. He competed in the bobsled at the Olympics, but not for Jamaica. Instead, he represented Puerto Rico, which is on the opposite side of the Caribbean from Jamaica.

Liston Bochette ran track at the University of Florida, where he later was named to its athletic program’s Hall of Fame; and made three Olympic Games with the Puerto Rican team. Outside of competition, Liston has made a name for himself as an artist as well as a political figure, running for office in his hometown of Fort Myers, Fla. The ICC, which Liston started and serves as its chairman, closely reflects his passions of art and sporting competition so again, it is a real thrill to be able to work with him as he looks to advance the goals of his organization.

We had another conversation today in addition to the one yesterday about my role in those efforts. Still cannot share all the details with you to preserve the integrity of this project but I like what Liston is doing and I think this is going to be a great project.

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Mentorship Journal

#1 May 21: Introductory Meeting – 45 minutes

People shaking hands in latex gloves. (Photo by Branimir Balogović from Pexels)

So close, yet so far away.

I anticipate graduating with my Master’s in Business Administration from Tiffin University at the end of this year. To accomplish that, however, I must complete a couple more courses. One of those is a mentorship with a sports organization in which I work closely with someone on a project. This could have been taken care of with a trip to Tokyo this summer for the Olympics but as most of us know, it was tabled to next year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fortunately, I was able to make alternative plans and latch on to an organization that is closely related to the Olympic movement instead. It’s called the International Cultural Consortium (ICC), a not-for-profit group incorporated in Puerto Rico but operates out of Florida. There is a lot that I am not at liberty to share with you at the moment because it involves a product that has yet to be released to the public. And as I am just starting to work on it, I do not know a whole lot about it myself.

What I will say is that I am quite excited about the work because it fits nicely with my experience in the communications field, which I intend to continue long-term in some fashion. Today I held my first meeting with the individual who heads up the ICC, and we will be talking again tomorrow. He has a very interesting background himself, and I will tell you more about it in the next post.