From the onset of our Palomares Empowerment program, we knew that real education will not be possible without inviting the support and collaboration of the school, the community, and our student’s families. indeed; “Every child is potentially the light of the world—and at the same time its darkness; wherefore must the question of education be accounted as of primary importance.”
School is one of the pillars of a child’s education. A whole village must come together to help our children grow and develop in utmost beauty and bring into fruition their capacities and capabilities. All children need a loving, diverse, and unified village that represents all the beauty and diversity of our global family today. We are created to know and love each other as one family.
Our every other Sunday afternoon visit with Sianna’s family is proven a delight. We share food together, we share stories together, we laugh together and attend to the social and emotional needs of our new growing community life making sure everyone feels loved. We also share food for thought, food for the soul, music, and songs where everyone can come together to create harmony, prayers that express our hopes and wishes for our children and youth, art, stories, and all that makes us feel enriched and illumined as an extended family and celebrate the real sense of community.
Together, we are building a village unlike the traditional village where people are primarily homogeneous, they all look alike, speak the same language, have similar culture, eat familiar food and represent only a small piece of the whole. Ours is a new kind of village. A global village distinguished by its unity in diversity of all kinds. What a joy to be part of this organic celebration of unity in diversity. What brings us closer and closer every time we come together, is not our blood relations, our colors, our religious traditions, ethnicities, economic status, or even neighborhood, we come together to celebrate our love for each other and discovery of our shared humanity, which is our highest identity.
I feel like we are planting a beautiful and fruitful garden together so we learn together, grow together and sprout a deep sense of hope for all who dream of a world that can celebrate diversity instead of being threatened by it.
The picture above is a glimpse of the flower garden of our humanity. It is a community garden. We water it with time, love, care, and a deep sense of appreciating our unity in diversity.
Thank you Delgadillo family and all of the PEP team for making it possible. Thank you, Camille, Superintendent Martinez, and Fernando Mesa for nurturing the vision of unity in diversity for our school community.
Keyvan Geula is a licensed Marriage, Family, and Child Therapist; LMFT. She received her Master of Science in Marriage, family, and Child Therapy from the University of La Verne, in La Verne, California. She employs the latest research in behavioral sciences, neuroscience, and the Baha’i principle of the oneness of all humanity to serve the well-being of her clients.
She offers her services as a clinician, lecturer, trainer, and supervisor to a global set of clients in person and online. In her clinical work, she incorporates the wisdom of the Baha’i Writings, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy research, Mindfulness meditation, and consultation skills, as well as knowledge of the spiritual self.
She is an adjunct professor of Behavioral Sciences at Citrus Community College, faculty of continued education at Claremont Graduate University. She teaches psychology online to students at Baha’i Institute of Higher Education.
She is the Founder and Executive Director of Center for Global Integrated Education (CGIE), a non-profit Baha’i-inspired educational organization, which explores oneness of all humanity, and teaches the integrated mind-body-spirit approach in education.
She has served for two years as the producer and host of a two-hour weekly live radio show for the Persian community in Sothern, California focusing on the role of the psychology of spirituality in personal and social transformation, creativity, emotional and social intelligence, and a greater sense of harmony in a global society. She also has been the host and producer of TV series called Transforming Human Consciousness for eight years. She regularly writes and blogs on www.cgie.org/blog on topics related to integrated education, the oneness of humanity, the powers of the human spirit in the betterment of global society, elimination of all prejudice, equality of women and men, and education reform. Some of her shows are posted on her; Keyvan Geula YouTube Channel.
Mrs. Geula has served in several Baha’i institutions since her youth in Iran and USA.
