From Lawyer to Award-Winning Philanthropist: Christina Bert’s Impactful Journey as a Donor and Youth Mentor.
Christina Bert's revolutionary vision as a mentor in our academy’s college preparation program inspires students to pursue their passions professionally and urges youth to multi-task, stating that "you don't have to be pigeonholed into one type of job or experience."
“When we think about what to do with our lives, we are generally spiteful of our artistic interests and expressions,” Christina Bert, a valuable donor to our community at Words Beats & Life (WBL) noted. Before even finishing high school Bert knew her dream of wanting to become a chef, but she also knew that this dream would not be seen as lucrative by others. Instead, Christina decided to pursue her other goal of finishing law school. Now a lawyer, philanthropist, chef, and DJ, Christina is a multi-hyphenate and multi-passionate woman who has made it a goal of hers to help inspire children and get them to pursue what they are passionate about instead of putting these interests on the back burner.
As a former college material coach at our academy, Christina saw that college material served a role in fostering connections between the artistry of hip-hop and its relation to the world of higher education. In her time as a coach, Christina held relationships with several of the students in the academy, seeing them gradually flourish as someone who would succeed in an academic and professional environment. When reflecting on this experience, Christina describes her role as a mentor as “a highlight of her time at WBL” and something beautiful to her.
College material and the academy have provided its students with enriching breakthrough opportunities that not only support students and teach them an appreciation and history of culture. Christina mentions, “a lot of aspects of the culture- unless there is somebody there to push it forward, that culture is lost,” but with philanthropy, this is not the case. With the help of her support and WBL, Christina got to watch her students grow into adults, continuously learning about the rich culture surrounding them and seeing them grow to pursue their passions professionally.
Seeing many individuals pigeonholing themselves into one type of job or experience, Christina wants to help young students know that they can also be multi-passionate and multi-hyphenated. Rather than simply pursuing what seems to be lucrative. Christina wants to see works of philanthropy continue, in addition to contributing toward pushing important programs out as they help these young students discover what is authentic to their interests and learn how to pursue their interests.
When thinking about what to do with our lives, we should not be spiteful of our artistic interests and expressions but rather, we should consider how we can implement these interests and expressions into what we do with our lives. This expression helps children and young adults grow into unique and creative individuals and keeps culture alive while preserving and pushing it forward.
