“I work with at-risk teens and young adults to improve educational and equity outcomes,” Gladden said. “I teach composition, creative writing and literature at Cincinnati State University.”Īnd all his life experiences, including that most pivotal loss of his older sister, prepared him for everything he does today, including motivational speaking, acting, teaching and now writing his first book. “I’ve been teaching now for more than 10 years,” Gladden said. He received his doctorate in education from Northern Kentucky University. His education readied him for acting in movies and on stage but eventually he decided he wanted to teach. He was accepted into the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music’s Dramatic Performance Program and a conference and performance program at the Julliard School in New York City. Gladden’s training in acting, creative writing, dance and vocal music prepared him for a future in the arts world. Though Gladden said they were not close, Sharon's life and subsequent death had an extreme effect on him and his life going forward. Sharon was killed in downtown Dayton by a stray bullet that hit her in the back of her head.

Ronnie Gladden lost his older half sister Sharon when he was 13 years old. “I started to really confront elements of my identity and what that would mean to my life going forward.” “I guess this incident grounded me in ways my art school education didn’t,” Gladden said. Gladden said that moment of her death was like his own initiation into adulthood at the age of 13. And of the increased gun violence happening across the country today. Today, all these decades later, Gladden thinks about his big sister and the short but impactful life she lived.

“There she was downtown interacting with some of her friends, just as she normally would, and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” “Sharon had her own complexity of thought,” Gladden said. Gladden’s father was originally from Alabama and even at the age of 13, he viewed most of that side of his family as “simple, country people.” “I guess I get that from people who are dying or older, but she was putting it out there at a young age. “It was all about maximizing what you have now,” Gladden said. That poem, called “Don’t Miss Me,” was written by a young woman who would, at the time, have no idea what would happen to her, but expressed some deep feelings about life and living. “At her funeral, someone read a poem she had written and since I had done a lot of creative writing, I really paid attention to it.” “Sharon’s legacy started to really come out and it was surprising,” Gladden said. Explore COCOA Music promotes collaboration over competition

After that, everything changed for Gladden and his family. Motivational background music hip hop, motivational background video, cool motivational backgrounds, motivational backgrounds women, motivational backgrounds iphone, zoom motivational backgrounds, blue motivational backgrounds, motivational backgroun….Just a few years later, Sharon was hit by the bullet in the back of her head and killed immediately. Motivational Backgrounds – Other Wallpapers.