Meet Dante Plush | Youth Engagement Specialist & Youth Advocate

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dante Plush and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dante, what’s something about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of?
I don’t even think it’s my industry that this is exclusive to, but I think that people are probably unaware of the fact that the majority of mid-level managers and up and in most employment sectors have actually no idea what they are doing, like at all. I also gather that most of these people are aware that they don’t know what they’re doing but really embrace the “fake it till you make it” mindset and invest more energy and resources into making it look like they know what they’re doing instead of just getting proficient at the work that they’re supposed to be experts in. Of course, only fools deal in absolutes and there definitely are many passionate experts sharing knowledge and skills in their workplaces, but I’ve personally come across more of the former than the latter, and through conversation after conversation, I’ve heard people come to strikingly similar conclusions.

What should our readers know about your business?
I spend my spare time planning and implementing different types of youth-led workshops for students in schools! I travel around to different schools and work with students in ways that they can get to learn about community need or even about how they can create their own projects that they could use to give back to their communities or make the changes in the world that they’d like to see. And these workshops are done in often in unconventional ways because I’m the one who created them and I love injecting my creativity into all of my work. For example, in one recent school visit, I facilitated this “Mad Libs” -esque type of storytelling activity that used a present student as the main character in a story that almost gets hurt by traffic on a side street in their town because that busy side street has no sidewalks! With some scaffolding from my part, the class kept up the story and kept adding on parts like where the student tells his mom about the potential harm he could’ve faced when he gets home, the mom gets upset and rallies other protective moms on social media through Facebook mom groups, they send a mass of emails to a local politician and so on and so forth. In the end, the students had created a simulation type story where a classmate almost got hurt and wanted to advocate for sidewalks in their town, and that ended in those sidewalks getting installed overtime and taught the students a multitude of things including how change is usually slow and takes time, but also that normal everyday activities that they do can be used to make change if utilized the right way, at the right time(s) with the right people. I’ve also taken classes on community walkthrough events when they got to understand the cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds of local underserved neighborhoods that they wanted to help. To me, doing the community walkthrough with them first was essential because how can we effectively help people without being cultural responsive and not even knowing what the need is in the first place? I like this work because I get to pour all of my skills into it: my pedagogy and classroom management from being a teacher, my movement building and nonprofit knowledge from directing the global youth program at GivingTuesday, my silliness and creativity from my stand-up comedy — it all just comes together in a way that is palatable, fun, empowering, and memorable for youth, but still makes them the experts who are inspiring their own a-ha moments through facilitated collaboration and project based learning. I personally think that’s far more engaging and memorable than your run of the mill school assembly and past clients have certainly agreed!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is a trick question because the overwhelming majority of my friends are introverts and find it exhausting just keeping up with me and my chaotic life, when they’re hanging out with me in general. So taking them out to places is like almost out of the question — we can just have a fun gathering at my home. I have however taken some friends out to do different types of small giveback projects throughout my city. I think those usually are a hit with my friends because they don’t cost money, they don’t have to be loud affairs, and people leave with rewarding feelings and memories of having given back. Most people actually want to give back and do community service, but they just don’t know where to start, so they don’t.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’m gonna shout out a group of people who I haven’t gotten to publicly acknowledge for their contributions to my success and life, but definitely the Student Development and Campus Activities office staff from my alma mater. Robert Thomas, Niki, Rachel, Shawn, Caity, Christine, Jeff and everyone else there essentially raised me during my time at Pace University and helped me identify what it means to be a professional and what being a professional looked like. I first entered that office as an angry, homeless college freshman and ended up working with them every summer as new student orientation staff, which was fantastic for me, because these jobs gave me free housing for the summer, which early on in my college career was invaluable to me. And it was in those jobs where I got experience working with young people and parents, but in an administrative type role that wasn’t the same as being a teacher. I learned office etiquette and that I was terrible with deadlines. And even though I was super immature, annoying, and downright negative at times, they never ever gave up on me. I ended up over time becoming more confident in myself and exploring different roles in their office, eventually becoming their Social Media Intern, and then one of their Greek Life Graduate Assistants during my one year of grad school. Their office was that one place on campus where I could just walk in and talk about how my day was going and they were that team of people who created that comfortable environment where they could sit down and tell you the difficult things that you needed to hear at times. They watched me grow up and I’m so grateful to them for sticking behind me as I went on my difficult journey to become a more positive and professional leader. So shout out to all of you! Its one of my goals to continue to pay it forward as a thank you for everything that you did for me.

Instagram: @danteflush (https://www.instagram.com/danteflush?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==)

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dante-plush-a50617198/