Teen Leader Honors Lisa in a Written Portrait

Below are Steven B's interview transcripts and other notes he prepared for his written portrait. 

Why did you choose Lisa?

Lisa inspires others through the way she lives her life.  Lisa’s love of educating teens has motivated her ministry.  Teaching teenagers with hope – importantly, without the guarantee that something will come of the time that she has invested -- gives her passion for her career.  One portion of her career is the teen leadership program called Tomorrow’s Present.

Do you admire, cherish, respect or love this person?

Lisa possesses selfless love of the world and God's creations.  Through her recent diagnosis, she approaches her impending passing with grace and calmness.  Lisa’s choice to work with teens is a testament to her giving character – with consideration to her extensive education.

Why do you want to learn more about Lisa?

Lisa is a unique person with a unique message.  Life experiences have graced her with wisdom that needs to be repeated before time expires.  Hopefully after interviewing Lisa, her life and legacy will not be forgotten.

Memories with Lisa

During the summer of 2007, an out-reach center in Milwaukee called the House of Peace underwent renovations.  One of the many programs at the House of Peace promises to teach high school students the leadership skills needed to train middle school youth peacemaking skills.  This program is the Teen Leader program, which is one part of Tomorrow’s Present, offers partial scholarship for participating high school students.  Over the summer, Lisa, Ralph, and Brother Mark sat down to interview and decide who would become members of the team.  Every year only four incoming freshman are honored with a spot on the team. 

During that summer, Lisa took applicants through a maze of tarps and scaffolding, which lead to a staircase.  While walking upstairs she avoided awkwardness by asking typical small talk questions – What have you done this summer? Are you excited for high school?  The large, dimly lit interview space had a round table, and behind the table Ralph and Brother Mark were seated.  All three of them had experience interviewing new teens and their warm characters allowed for smooth interviews.  Steven Berg sat down with the three adults for fifteen long minutes of questions.  After interviewing many qualified applicants, four were selected.  Steven B. received an invitation to join the Teen Leaders.   

  Every year seniors graduate from the program and four new freshmen enter, usually freshmen have trouble understanding the purpose and the expectations of the program.  During monthly meetings the team rehearses skits and teaching points to prepare for two day-long workshops.  On occasion a teen leader – typically a freshman – forgets a line or forgets to say their part exactly the way that Lisa intended.  Instead of talking down to the teen leaders, Lisa forgives the person, finds ways to fix the problem, while preserving the pride of the teens.

On a Saturday earlier in this school year the teen leaders gathered in the basement of the House of Peace.  They planned to create – what Lisa called – "A Christmas Tree in a Jar".  The idea was simple; stuff greenery, ornaments, and other festive decorations into small jars.  Then festive cloths and bows completed them.  The novel idea can symbolized Christmas without a Christmas tree or several other applications.  Donations from the jars would go to the program in the unstable economy. The enthusiastic group worked fast, the project only took a couple of hours.  The day was a success.  After finishing, they circle around the Lazy Boy where Lisa sat and waited patiently for her to speak. 

Typically Lisa started with complements and that day was no exception, so she complemented the group for their wonderful job.  Lisa could never stop complementing people for their efforts.  After she celebrated the hard work, she started to tear up.  When she composed herself she told the team that she has cancer and she is unsure how much longer she will live.

  Her courage in a time of grief amazed the group.  Lisa was calm and at peace, but comprehending how she could be calm in a time of death astounded the team.  In that moment and still to this day, her friends are in awe of her courage and peacefulness.

Interview Transcript

Lisa could you explain your cancer story?

"I noticed a lump late April, visited a surgeon in May, and was diagnosed in early June with Stage IV lymphoma. Then after two more biopsies, cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer – in the liver) was discovered in August. This second cancer is very aggressive and doesn’t respond well to traditional cancer treatments. Chemo-embolization was attempted, but it was not successful, so I was told in October that I have a life expectancy of about six months."

Could you explain your job?

“That should be an easy question…director of Tomorrow’s Present.  I am responsible for everything that goes on with Tomorrows Present, which includes: raising money, planning programs and executing programs, and finding young people to run the programs and youth to participate in the programs.”

What types of music or films do you like?

“Ha-ha, that is random. Well let’s see… Films I like? Comedies! I hate shoot em’up, violent, scary, chases!  So I like funny stuff. The world is serious enough so I think that we need to laugh more.  I like Wall-E, Happy Feet, and The Proposal with Sandra Bullock (well that’s not really a comedy).  I just I like any movie that has a message.  I like movies that are insightful; being a teacher I like movies with messages.  Music! I like smooth jazz, a cappella, and gospel.  I don’t listen to music all the time; I am one of the weird ones that did not have an iPod until my brother gave me one ha-ha.”

Why teens?

“That is an interesting question; I was a kindergarten teacher and a swim coach in Alabama.  My swim team asked me to become their youth minister.  I loved it so much that I wanted to make it my full time job.  I heard that “up north,” a person could make a living being a youth minister.  I thought about it and I decided to go with teenagers because there was no shortage of kindergarten teachers.  There always seemed to be a shortage of people that wanted to work with teenagers, so I figured that I would go where there was a greater need.”

Have different elements of your culture influenced your life and/or view on life?

“Well…well um…lets see, both of my parents, their parents were not educated.  So um… my two parents… to them education was very important.  As a child we lived in New Jersey.  My dad started to work at the New York Eye and Ear hospital.  He would take me to work and I would make announcements from the switchboard, ‘so and so report to room…’  I know that this is a weird answer to your question but New York is a diverse place and so the first Chinese, African American, Jewish, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Spanish… person that I ever met was a doctor. As a child, I thought that every person who was not white was a doctor! Ha-ha. I thought that being a doctor was so hard that they had to go all around the world to find doctors.  I thought that my dad was this super smart person.  This experience must have done something to my perception of diversity and culture and openness.”

What rewards come with your job?

“Oh people like you, that is by far the best part of my job. Teenagers are full of energy! Gosh! I wish I had the energy that you guys have.  There is nothing that I would rather do; I love the House of Peace.  I mean that is one of the best places I have ever worked.  To work at a place that is willing to help every person that walk through the doors in anyway possible is just amazing and I am so proud to be apart of its ministry. I just love it there.”  

What do you value?

“Oh, what do I value? let’s see… People are most important, more important then objects.  People’s emotions, people’s feelings.  Building relationships. Virtues like forgiveness, it is so important to forgive.  You give someone enough support and enough knowledge and they will do the right thing.  If they don’t, then they will the next time.  If they don’t then maybe the next time after that.  You might not trust someone but you can still forgive them.  Peace is important.  The world is so fill of misunderstanding and unnecessary violence; I just think we need to do a better job.  Honesty.  Integrity, integrity! Doing what you say and meaning what you say.  Celebration, I think people don’t celebrate enough; they don’t take enough time to appreciate and enjoy what they do, even if they mess up.  Celebrating the mistakes.  People need to search for the goodness in life.”

Have your plans in life been accomplished?

“I would say, ah… I wanted to a writer, children’s book writer but I am very happy with what I am doing.  I really wanted to see Tomorrow’s Present and the House of Peace on more solid financial footing.  In fact, the House of Peace is doing really badly with the economy.  However because of my dying, a large amount of money is going to Tomorrow’s Present. So that is good.  I am glad that I accomplished that.”

What would you like to leave the world with?

“Um, I would say… ah until you asked this question I did not know that the answers would be hope and Joy.  I would like the world to have more hope and more… Joy.”

Any more words of wisdom you would like to share?

“You don’t have to do all of it all on your own.  If you surround yourself with people that can continue your message like the Teen Leaders in the House of Peace you don’t have to finish your goal all on our own.”

Through what do you find Joy?

“I find joy in reconciliation, forgiveness, and second chances.  I find joy in people that recognize what they have done wrong and then they commit themselves to do better the next time. I also find joy when people forgive each other.”

What do you love about life?

“People, I love how people are…. The uniqueness of people, amazingly different”

What gives you hope?

“Well… I guess the way people are, we celebrate the way all people, everybody, has a gift.  I think everybody has something to discover about themselves.  God did not create one person that is not amazing. “

Are you at peace?

“I am totally at peace.  The way that I am dying is so wonderful.  I am so lucky that I have enough time to do what I am doing.  Every other week I am getting friends from all over the country that come to see me; and Tomorrow’s Present is getting noticed by more people then ever before. So far it has actually been fun, I know that sounds stupid, ha-ha.  It’s just the most peaceful way to ease into the next life.”

Do you pray a lot?

“Um… I sure do, I think people might think I have weird sense of prayer.  I find all kinds of ways to prayer.  Prayer can be so different, like for instance I swim and for every lap, I devote each lap to a different person and I think of their dilemmas.  I might not be praying with words, but I think about the person.  That kind of prayer helps me think of others, and sometimes solve problems.  At the end of the day, I do an Ignatius style of prayer to examine my day.  I pray a lot but not in traditional ways.  I spend a lot of time in communication with God.”