Read more: General Growth files reorganization plan – Philadelphia Business Journal

GGP plans to do this in hopes that it will bring them out of bankruptcy protection as early as October of this year. GGP is projecting that this endeavored should bring them just enough profit so that they may repay their debts in full. Both Spinco and GGP would then become publically traded companies. Some of the companies slated to invest are Brookfield Asset Management Inc., Fairholme Capital Management LLC and Pershing Square Capital Management LLC. According to the article, “Brookfield would hold 10 million shares of Spinco, at $5 per share. Fairholme and Pershing Square could also own 5 million shares apiece, also at $5 per share.”

Top executives at GGP seem to be enthusiastic about this deal. General Growth CEO Adam Metz said in a statement that, “We are extremely pleased with our success in the restructuring to date, and we look forward to continuing to work productively with all of our stakeholders to finish building the strong capital structure that will sustain GGP in the future.”

Ultimately, the future seems bright as far as GGP in concerned. Despite the financial woes it may have suffered in it’s recent past, the company seems to have developed a plan to narrowly escape debt that they are both proud of and confident in.

WPFSI was founded in 1997 and since then dedicated it’s self to improving the lives of West Philadelphia’s residents. It’s most notable and recent accomplishment is Park West Town Center located at 52nd and Jefferson. Park West Town Center began in its early stages of development shortly after WPFSI was founded. According to GoldenbergGroup.com, “Working with the assistance of the PIDC, WPFSI issued a Request for Proposal for a private developer to assist in the center’s development, which ultimately led to the selection of Goldenberg Group, to co-develop the site” (goldenberggroup.com, 1). After many years of negotiations, Park West Town Center had finally become a reality in 2006. This open air shopping center now generates considerable profits; a portion of which is put back into the community via workshops and programs such as WesGold Fellows.

WesGold Fellows is the creation of WPFSI and the Goldberg Group (thus the name WesGold) and is considered an arm of Park West Town Center. The program is purposed with teaching small groups of inner city high school students about the various aspects of financial management in addition to a number of other skills and subjects.

The program consists of 12 students a program coordinator and an instructor. During the run of the program students are taught lessons on topics such as personal development, financial literacy, and college planning. Each of these themes are taught one-by-one for a set period of time and are broken down into various sub topics, for example: during the time while students are being taught about college planning, they are also taught about the application process, financial aid and day-to-day college life.

During a typical week, interns at WesGold have many tasks at hand. Mondays are days of class room instruction. It is during these days when students are taught about topics, such as the ones mentioned previously, in a setting similar to that of a class room. Tuesdays are days that are similar to Mondays in it that there is some initial class room instruction. The difference is that during that instruction, students get the chance to hear the testimony of a professional whose career or field relate to the theme of that week. Wednesdays are devoted to field trips. These trips also vary depending on what theme is being taught and can be any thing from visiting a construction site to taking a tour of a local university. Thursdays are the days when students must turn in assignments as well as conduct formal presentations. During the week students are issued topics for papers as well as topics for presentations. Though the papers are written individually, the presentations are conducted and created by the collaborative effort of two WesGold interns. These presentations help sharpen the students’ public speaking, creativity and team work as they must employ all of these skills in order to successfully complete and perform the presentation.

Last but not least, Friday is pay day. As a reward, WesGold Fellows interns are paid weekly (or sometimes bi-weekly) stipends and are only required to deposit a small percentage of their checks into an IDA savings account which has been preset for them. The purpose of these accounts is to allow the students who are budding college students or business professionals to have a true head start on the road toward their aspirations. Once the student has deposited at least 500 dollars into the IDA savings account, should they need money for either start up funding for a business or college expenses, they need only to show proof, such as a receipt or invoice, and WesGold fellows will match the money that the students have already deposited in the account and write a check for the amount the students already have in the account to the university effectively, doubling the student’s money.

Near the end of the program, students have to complete two final tasks, the first of which is a community service project. The program’s instructor and coordinator sit down with the interns and plan a community service event within their community in order to raise money for a specific cause that the students and faculty can agree upon. The second task is a detailed portfolio in which students must include a number of documents such as essays written during the run of the program, resumes, print versions of their presentations, a detailed “college plan”, a business card, and the students personal mission statement.

After these tasks are completed, a graduation ceremony is conducted to commemorate the accomplishments of the students who successfully completed the program. Once each student receives their certificate of completion, a final reward called “the Stellar Student Award” is given. The Stellar Student award is given to the one student who has shown the most improvement and promise over the course of the program. Along with an additional certificate, recipients of the Stellar Student award receive an offer to work for WPFSI for an additional year after the programs completion.

Ultimately, WesGold accomplishes what few individuals or organizations have. Rather than blindly pumping funds into a community, WesGold takes it a step further and actually invests in the community’s future by giving its youth a platform for success. WesGold and its creators have truly devoted themselves to improving the place where they live and thus are always looking for ways to improve and expand themselves. It’s hard to predict what the future may hold, but as WesGold moves into teaching what is it’s fourth batch of enthusiastic youths; this program will certainly have an impact on the lives of the teens they’ve reached out to.

Work Cited:

THE GOLDENBERG GROUP – Building a Brighter Future. Web. 12 July 2010. .

The article also directs those who may be interested in the position to go to view the requirements and application at www.phila.gov.

Work cited:

Kostelni, Natalie. “New Phila. Agency Not Overwhelmed by Applicants.” Philadelphia News | Philadelphia Business Journal. Web. 09 July 2010. .

During this orientation, speakers will outline specifics on the activities the fellows will take part in as well as explain what will be expected of students, the stellar student award, “CASH FLOW”, and IDA account matching.

Parents are of course welcome to attend and refreshments will be provided as well.

This year’s batch of interns may also want to make Note that The WesGold Fellows Program will commence on the 28th of June.

Cash Flow

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

11:00 AM to 2:00 PM

WPFSI

5200 Warren St Philadelphia, PA 19131

215-452-0100

Student Speeches

Alexis Jenkins and Kevin Cole were selected to compose and deliver special selections at the ceremony.

…When I go to college, I will not be swooned by all of the pretty colors on the credit cards….If I want to be the next Oprah, I can; but I will need to be willing to do what Oprah did and then do it better…              -Alexis Jenkins

Kevin was an unscheduled insert of inspiration. He did not have the same preparation time and practice as Alexis did. He was excited to finish his final deliverable for the program and asked if he could read his speech moments before the graduation ceremony kicked off.

WesGold Fellows Staff

Distribution of Awards

The students were honored with a certificate of accomplishment and a video presentation solidifying their dreams into the atmosphere.

Stellar Student Award

Friends & Family

As always, friends and family members were there to show their support.

Congratulations WesGold Fellows 2009!

(From the left: kevin Cole, Alexis Jenkins, mark Walker, Sameera Sydnor, Rovell Vialva, Malcolm Lewis, Ishanteria McBride; Missing: DaShawn Starling, Andre Jones and Nancy Rai)

Taken From RichDad Industries

We have concluded another successful year of the WesGold Fellows Summer Internship! Before the start of the new school year, join us in celebrating the accomplishments of some of our community’s brightest stars. In addition, one lucky Fellow will be selected to continue their employment at WPFSI.

The Third Annual WesGold Fellows Awards Ceremony

Thursday, September 3rd

6:00 – 8:00 PM

at

The Enterprise Center

4548 Market Street

Philadelphia, Pa 19139

***Your $5 Donation entitles you to Free Food, Free Parking, & an inspirational evening you won’t soon forget.

The average person is tricked into believing a false dichotomy. They think that one side has to be right and the other has to wrong. They see the world as black and white, in or out, one or the other. Unfortunately, things don’t always work that way. What most people fail to recognize is that each person’s underlying paradigm is causing the issue. Look at the picture below. How old is this person? What job might she have? What might she do for fun?

If someone were to see her as a young woman would you call them crazy? If someone said they thought she was older than their grandmother, would you call them stupid? That is what we do all the time with people who have different views from our own.

A paradigm (pair-a-dime) is the way we see the world. It determines how you interpret, perceive, and understand everything you come in contact with. Essentially, the mental maps we use to live our lives.

Imagine you are in Baltimore for the first time ever and are looking through a map. What if through a printing error you actually have a map of Washington D.C instead of Baltimore. How frustrating would it be to try and find your destination with the wrong map? You could try to increase your effectiveness by working on your behavior: trying harder and doubling your speed but that would just get you even more lost even faster. Or, you could try to increase effectiveness by working on your attitude: think more positively, but you will still end up in the wrong place just with a positive attitude. Your behavior and attitude only become important when you get the right map.

Everyone has two maps: the way things are, our reality, and the way things should be, our values. We interpret everything we experience through those two maps. And it is influenced by our conditioning, which is what has happened to us in the past, what is currently happening to us, and what we expect to happen in the future.

Think about your own paradigms and how they may not fit the rest of the world. Think of your taste in music or clothing; jokes that you find funny that no one else gets; things that make you really mad that don’t bother other people. You can see that we are all extremely unique and can’t be expected to have the same viewpoint, given our varied conditioning.

So before your next argument, think about whether this is an issue with that person or simply their paradigm. You may find yourself arguing over whether its a duck or a rabbit:

I am always honored to watch our interns evolve into competent, motivated students with a goal for future success. By providing structure, direction, and opportunity the students’ true potential shined through and they reached new heights in terms of comprehension and application of the material we covered.

Our students dream big. From the nurse with a law degree, to the CEO, to the biomedical engineer, to the millionaire real estate investor; they have created a vision for their futures and are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to bring it to fruition. Ask any WesGold Fellow what we do (WIN) and what “they” do (LOSE) and it should become clear. Each intern knows that in order to succeed they must do what others are not willing or able to do.

There is a Japanese philosophy that illustrates the growth of our students, and in the larger sense, this program. The word “kaizen” means continuous improvement and was created to describe business practices, but it has implications in all aspects of our lives. It is an activity that is performed everyday. We should always be working to become better family members, friends, employees, employers, religious stewards, etc. We must challenge our habits and actions to ensure that they are aligned with the goals we have for ourselves. The WesGold Fellows have internalized that message.

From the initial interview process, our students have been receiving feedback on how to improve their skills and become more effective. Over the course of eight weeks, we have challenged preconceived notions regarding money, personal responsibility, planning for college, public speaking and much more. With diligence and creativity the students have gained a deeper understanding of many important principles that can have a dramatic impact on their lives moving forward.

The current students represent our strongest group academically and they excelled within the classroom and beyond. I am anxious to see what lies ahead for our students, but I’m certain that they will meet the challenge and fulfill their dreams. Tiffany Bentham and I are both very proud to have helped develop the next generation of millionaires from Philadelphia. Please join me in congratulating our future business leaders who will tell you:

We’ll see you at the top, or from the top!