#0013 - Felix Linden

Discover the inspiring journey of Felix Linden, a trailblazing educator who made history as the first African-American male named Teacher of the Year for Oklahoma City Public Schools in 2022-23. This episode of the Rotary Spark Podcast reveals how Felix's passion for education and community service has flourished through his involvement with the Rotary, where he has found a platform to enact change and connect with others who share his commitment. From his early teaching days at Roosevelt Middle School to his impactful role at FD Moon Middle School, Felix's story is one of resilience, courage, and dedication. Join us as we discuss how his efforts have not only shaped young minds but also energized the Rotary community in Oklahoma City.

We'll explore the ongoing challenges and triumphs in promoting inclusivity and diversity within Rotary clubs, key to ensuring they reflect the vibrant demographics of our communities. Felix shares his innovative strategies for engaging diverse populations, spotlighting progressive leadership within the Midtown Rotary Club and the importance of youth outreach through collaborations with organizations like Boys and Girls Clubs. Learn how such initiatives are pivotal for the sustainability and relevance of Rotary's mission, and hear a touching story about Rotary's role in connecting students to cultural experiences. As we look to the future, the Midtown Rotary Club stands as a beacon of innovation and inclusivity, continually working to make a significant impact on society.

Chapters

• 0:15 Service and Education in Rotary
• 12:01 Engaging Diverse Populations in Rotary
• 20:01 Future Engagement and Inclusivity in Rotary

Transcript

Brian Triger: 0:15

This. This is Brian Traeger with the Rotary Spark Podcast. With me today is Felix Linden from the Midtown Rotary Club. How are you doing today, felix? Doing wonderful Brian. How are you doing sir?

Felix Linden: 0:37

Doing great Thanks for inviting me into your home. You're welcome Anytime, man, anytime.

Brian Triger: 0:43

I will take you up on that. Well, don't be too literal now.

Felix Linden: 0:47

Anytime that it's fine for me preferably I will I will show up frequently. Ok, that's fine. I may I may not be here, or may I may not let you in. Just so you know you've been warned.

Brian Triger: 0:59

So let's see, you're in the Midtown Rotary Club and you are also teaching at FD Moon Middle School, is that correct? Yes, sir, and how long have you been teaching?

Felix Linden: 1:12

So I've been teaching 15 years, all in Oklahoma City public schools. I started my career teaching seventh grade English at Roosevelt Middle School in 2010. And I stayed there for 11 years and I left Roosevelt in 2021 after I bought this house that we're sitting in right now, and I went on a short walk and I saw that there was a school walking distance, so I walked in, introduced myself to the admin. My friend from high school worked there as his teachers just the principal secretary and was just like hey, y'all looking for anybody, you know, just playing around. They said no. I said okay, that's fine, and then about an hour later, after I got home, they said actually we need somebody that would like to come work here and in the language arts capacity. I said yeah, I would love to interview. I interviewed in 21 and started teaching at F&D Middle School and I've been there now four years. I love it.

Brian Triger: 2:10

Wow, and actually I caught wind that you're a teacher when I first met you, I think, through the media, because or at least I got exposed to the idea of your existence by hearing about the award that you won. You were Teacher of the Year last year, weren't you?

Felix Linden: 2:28

Yeah, yeah. So in 2022, 23, I won Teacher of the Year for Oklahoma City Public Schools, was the first African-American male to receive that award, and I've always loved making history and I consider that one of my biggest accomplishments that I've ever achieved in my life, both personally and professionally, and it has opened a lot of doors for me and gave me a lot of exposure during my time, and I look forward to continuing on as a former Teacher of the Year in our district and also in our community, because I just believe that my platform was to be bold, and bold with my acronym for being brave, original, life changing and destined for greatness, and so I think in everything I do, I try to be bold, in every action I take, and I think that's what's going to benefit society most about me being me in a bold way.

Felix Linden: 3:34

That's a great message for the kids. That's a great message for the kids. And tell us a little bit more about your discovery of Rotary and are a Rotarian before you even become a Rotarian. I think you have to have the traits and exhibit some of the characteristics of a Rotarian before you even get involved with Rotary, and so Rotary was just the soft landing spot that I found that was able to connect me with people in our community who are likeminded as myself, and gave me an opportunity and a platform to pursue service and while staying connected to other people in our community who wasn't aware of, maybe, teachers and the plight that we face. And so I thought it was the perfect intersection of my passion, which is service and just, also my passion for people. And so it was.

Felix Linden: 4:23

In 2016, I ran into Lance Singleton and Marty Postick and Osamu Cookies. They had on these shirts that had a little rotary wheel on it. I said what's that? And the last thing you need to do, ever want to do, is ask a Rotarian what is that? And they're like okay, let me tell you. And so they ended up inviting me out to Sunrise Rotary that met on the south side. They ended up inviting me out to Sunrise Rotary that met on the south side. We met, I taught at like I said Roosevelt and I was able to start going there as a member, and I joined up shortly in 2017 and just loved my entire time with that club.

Felix Linden: 4:58

It was a small but mighty club, but they're very supportive of everything I try to do in the education arena and so. But since it was small and mighty, we had a hard time recruiting and maintaining members, and so after 2022, our club dissolved and a lot of us transitioned over to Midtown, which, unbeknownst to me, a lot of those members in Sunrise created and started Midtown, so they just transitioned everything over there and I followed them as well. I did visit a few different clubs here and there, but I think that was the one that suited me well Really innovative club, forward, progressive thinking and the way they approach things. I love how they focus on arts and education in the community and the way they approach things. I love how they focus on arts and education in the community and just the fact that they have women as leaders in their elected positions. I think that's always cool.

Felix Linden: 5:52

Hope to see more minorities ascend to those different positions as well, and so I'm currently on the board of Midtown Rotary and I'm service. I serve as a service projects chair. So again, you know I've set these goals up. One of my goals this year was to expand my civic footprint and being involved with Rotary and even more involved as on the board. Now I think I was just part of that maturation for myself. That's a mouthful, no, it's a. It's good stuff.

Brian Triger: 6:24

No, I'm thinking about your club and thinking about some of the events that are that are coming up. I know that you guys have a spelling beer that comes up next year. Uh, uh, aside from that, or I guess, would you like to talk about that and any other events that we should you know, spotlight not only for the podcast but maybe throw up on the district website.

Felix Linden: 6:43

Oh man, yeah. So let me. First of all, let me put a plug in for Spelling Beer. It's Friday, february 28th, and we're going to hold it at the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center.

Felix Linden: 6:54

It's there on Broadway and 10th. We had it there last year Really great turnout. I participated as a speller and I think I came in third place. This time around they get some pretty advanced words. We're not talking like paragraph and amoeba, we're getting like lapsophobia and a lot of different things I've never heard of. But it's always fun to participate and compete. It's always a good time. So that's going to be Friday the 28th, but one thing I'm looking really forward to is, while I was at Sunrise, there was a program I created at my old school, roosevelt, called One Day, and One Day is essentially just a day of service.

Felix Linden: 7:31

We take one day out of 180 days in the school year and we give kids an opportunity to give back to their community, and so in past events we had the entire student body all 800 or so kids involved.

Felix Linden: 7:40

Past events we had the entire student body all 800 or so kids involved.

Felix Linden: 7:45

And so at my new school last year, when I was teacher of the year, the district allowed me to have one big idea come to fruition, and so what I decided to do was use my little teacher of the year capital and expand that program to include every single middle school in Oklahoma City public schools Wow.

Felix Linden: 8:06

So we had 12 middle schools involved, had over 1,200 students involved, all over the city doing various projects, and so the goal for this year is to maintain the same schools that were involved last year all 12 middle schools and then expand up to the high schools and expand down to the elementary schools, and the goal is to try to get every single Rotary club in our district or in the city to participate with another school that's going to do service projects on that day, and so the day that we've set up is Friday, may 2nd, and so we're going to do that and looking forward to just seeing what that can become, cause I think we want to build our club for future. We've got to start investing in the kids in our community and make them aware of the opportunity that they can have through service, through Rotary.

Brian Triger: 8:48

Yeah, definitely. I mean planting those seeds so that they can kind of recall those experiences, because, at the end of the day, those are the generations that will take the lead. If and when they decide to, it's a choice from both sides. Yeah, if and when they decide to, it's a choice from both sides. I hear a lot and often like how do we reach younger people? And questioning whether or not it's going to be as strong or weaker, et cetera.

Felix Linden: 9:21

But I think that there's really a lot of element of choice to whether or not the baton gets passed and how well it gets passed. Well, I think it kind of speaks to this saying I have is that people aren't opposed to things, they just aren't exposed to things. And I think that we can expose kids at an early age to just the idea and concept of service. And the reason why I believe service is such a big thing is because it's the one thing that we all can do, no matter what our background is, whether we're white, black, male, female, gay, straight, male, female, gay, straight, rich, poor, jock athlete, the nerd athlete I mean nerd, whoever you are.

Felix Linden: 9:48

You can get up with a paintbrush and paint over graffiti. You can get out there with a trash bag and gloves and pick up trash. You can get out there and raise cans and donate cans to a local non-profit those things that everybody can participate in. Because even sports, only five people can play at a time on a basketball team and only Romeo and Juliet can act in a play. But everybody starts when you serve, and I believe that we have to give kids opportunities to serve and be great in real time, and I think that's one thing that Rotary if it were up to me, I think that's one thing I would lean into is like make sure every school in Oklahoma City Public Schools since we are the largest district in the state we should all have a Rotary chapter adopting schools. We should have a Rotary club participating with PTA and making sure that our presence is felt in the school, but then also making sure that we engage those students and those parents and teachers at those schools as well.

Brian Triger: 10:41

I think those are fantastic ideas and I know that there are times for engagement tied to more of like a forum structure.

Brian Triger: 10:49

But I'd really like to see more of a collaborative collection throughout our district to not only contain but well, no, contain these ideas so that they can be brought up on a regular basis, whether it's a feedback distribution center or if it's a, you know, a district satisfaction survey to some extent. But I think that this conversation kind of opens up the potential doors of basically making sure that any and all ideas are not only listened to but collected and and nourished to some extent. I mean, not all ideas, you know we're not. We can spend lifetimes and not go over all ideas and some ideas really aren't going to work out depending on the landscape. But I think some of our ideas could benefit from more, as you said, exposure. So I like that a lot and I think that you know planting the seed for myself to kind of listen to this episode again, just to, and other episodes, just to kind of see where people are at and maybe nourish some of these ideas that we're all talking about.

Felix Linden: 12:01

Exactly. I think some people make it hard. They think that you know the kids. Oh, the kids like. No, they're people, yeah, just like you're a person, of course.

Felix Linden: 12:11

And I think one thing we forget is that we forget what it was like to be a kid, and when I was a kid, all I wanted was something to do to get me out the house.

Felix Linden: 12:26

And I think if we want to have that be the same, kids haven't changed. They want to get out the house too. But I think what we've got to do now is we have to compete with phones, we got to compete with gangs, we got to compete with activities that may or may not be beneficial to them. So I think it's important for us to like intercept. Intercept them from those negative habits and instill positive traits and qualities and values in their lives, or kids that may or may not already have access to those things. So I think Rotary can do a really great service to that. But one thing that we've got to do is be more willing to engage populations that we may not be comfortable with or just like unsure of. But if you already have a Rotarian in an environment that is already willing to do those things, just get on board with what I'm doing and I can show other people how to do it and we can have everybody on board and making it a better place in real time for these kids.

Brian Triger: 13:19

What is the future of Rotary look like to you?

Felix Linden: 13:24

What does the future of Rotary look like to you? Uh, I look at it like this it looks like whoever you know. If you know people that look like you, rotary is going to look like you. If you know people who don't look like you, then it's not going to look like you. I think that's probably one of my biggest I don't want to say issues, but biggest like missed opportunities, that we don't engage other groups, we don't engage other populations. I think that we can do a lot better job of being intentional of how we go out and support other groups, support other parts of our city and and we can't sit around in our, in our clubs and I'm not talking about any particular club, I'm just talking about in general but we can't say, well, what's the future rotary if we don't practice that in real time. The future is the present. You know what are we doing in real time to make sure that the future looks different from what it is. And so you know I've made a, I made a commitment this year as a board member that every week I would try to get somebody new to come to, a guest, to come to my meeting, and I invite people I interact with. So I've had African-Americans come to my club as a guest, I've had Hispanic come to our club as a guest, I've had females white, black, either one come to my club this year because those are who I interact with. And so if I'm going to be, if that's going to be where my stance is that we have to make Rotary look like the people we interact with, then we have to talk about it and interact and invite people out to our clubs and to our meetings so that way they can see what it's about. And if we aren't doing that or we're just staying isolated or in own little bubbles or never venturing outside of this little area of comfort, then Rotary is just going to turn around and it's just going to be what I've heard told to me before about Marty Postick male, pale and stale. Because if we want it to be what it's supposed to be, then we have to get out there and be intentional about who we tell about it, seeing the same characteristics and traits and values again in other people and saying, hey, you would make a good Rotarian and I want you to come to be a member of my club and not even a member, just be a guest and then let them see what it is that we do, and that's the future of Rotary. If we don't engage the youth in a more intentional way, if we don't get out there and hit these colleges, if we don't get out there, hit these young adult service groups that have like, like the Boys and Girls Club has a young professionals group. Once those classes are over, they're going to need a place to land. We need to get out there and start hitting those groups and inviting them to our clubs or trying to find a way to collaborate so that way we can get those people Once again. They finished their tenure. They've got to find a place to go.

Felix Linden: 16:27

For example, I was in Loyal Lincoln, oklahoma's Young Adult Leaders through Leadership Oklahoma City. It was a 10-month process. Once I was done, I needed something to do. I was in Leadership Oklahoma City, class 36. Once that was over, I needed something to do.

Felix Linden: 16:41

And so what is the something I did? I took all my civic education, all my civic knowledge and understanding, and brought it to the Rotary education, all my civic knowledge and understanding, and brought it to the Rotary. So the Rotary needs people like me, but I also need people like me, need Rotary, because I can't go out and start organizations and clubs by myself. I don't have a problem going into an existing club and bringing what I know and bringing the skills and resources I have to help make things better for them, and resources I have to help make things better for them and I could benefit as well. And so I don't think anything meets the four-way test better than being intentional about people we don't know, inviting them and going out there and being a bridge to, to giving people access to opportunities to thrive and be successful in their society, in their, in their communities.

Brian Triger: 17:38

Essentially through rotary. Well, that's great. I, I think that I I'm definitely one that gets a little bit too comfortable at times and shy away from any differences, and I think that's, yeah, I I'm, I'm right there with you. Uh, I'd like to see a variety of cultures and perspectives and not just in any one way, not just age, not just ethnicity, not just religion. Uh, I would say that it it's difficult and it's difficult. It's easy to use the excuse of you know, we live in Oklahoma, and it's difficult and it's difficult. It's easy to use the excuse of you know, we live in Oklahoma and it's conservative, and it's the way that it's always been and nothing's ever going to change. I think that's only part of the truth and you know, I also I'd like to.

Brian Triger: 18:22

What I was thinking about when you were talking is that this is really a mutually beneficial situation between Rotary and Rotarian, because, at the end of the day, rotary needs a member just as much as the member needs Rotary and at times, just like any other relationship, I think there's a kind of an ego stance, or basically an ego presence, where a person thinks that Rotary needs them more than they need Rotary, which may be the case, at least for a small period of time, and the other way around of like oh you don't meet the specific standard or you're causing too much XYZ, so we don't need you, we'll find better quality people.

Brian Triger: 19:04

And I'm not knocking Rotary or any other civic organization. I think it's just a nature of tribal thinking of being either included or rejected by said system, and it's you know, our district runs into its own unique challenges that are probably present in different ways, and every other district throughout the world. So it's one of the cool things when I reach out to whether it's LA, or whether I reach out to Mississippi, or actually, I got contacted by someone to assist them with a small integration on an online community out of Peru. Okay, and regardless of what part of the world is, it's interesting to see that we all face very similar challenges and we can all work together as long as we're willing to kind of put our baggage aside for a minute and make the changes that we need to strengthen our bonds.

Felix Linden: 20:01

Well, the human experience is very universal. We all need to be, we all are looking for acceptance. We all need to be, we all are looking for acceptance and I think that's what Rotary offers people acceptance. And that's what I get from Rotary. I get accepted as I am, who I am, and I don't feel forced to be there, I don't feel uncomfortable while I'm there.

Felix Linden: 20:33

I love the fact that our club, again the last three or four presidents, I believe, have all been women. I think that's something. I think it speaks to the fact that they want to give people opportunities that may not historically look like the male, pale and stale role, but young, progressive, forward-moving women, thinking and leaders in their community, and I just think that's really cool. I don't have a problem following anybody. I think it's really cool and that's one thing that draws me to Midtown Alyssa, and before her, emily, I think next year our president-elect is Lisa, I mean. So we've got a good, solid slate and not just you know, maybe one day I don't know if there's ever been a black president of Rotary, but slate and not just you know, maybe one day I don't know if there's ever been a black president of Rotary, but maybe one day.

Felix Linden: 21:15

If I stay long enough, they might let me do it. But either way, it's not necessarily about who, but what, and what we all believe, whether we're male, female, black, white or whatever is that we all believe in the power of Rotary, and I think the power of Rotary is what's going to help us. Like you talked about, what is the future? The future is the power of Rotary, but we have to realize the power of Rotary is us, and if we don't use that power to again encourage other people to get involved and try to make collaborative connections with other groups, whether it be the same other Rotary clubs or chapters or other civic organizations, whatever it is that we're trying to do, we have to be fearless and bold in how we approach these types of things.

Brian Triger: 21:58

That's great encouragement. So before we wrap up, tell us when Midtown Rotary Club meets and where.

Felix Linden: 22:05

Oh man, we meet in 40 minutes. Ok, 40 minutes, okay. Next, we meet every Tuesday night at 6 o'clock and we meet at McNally's in Midtown on the second floor. Your first water is on me, after that you're on your own. But it's a joke, brian, I got your first water. If you want tea, I'll buy you tea, but it's fine Either way, just show up and we'll take care of you.

Felix Linden: 22:29

But now we meet there every Tuesday we have a different guest speaker, and how the Rotary has benefited me personally. I mean, a few weeks ago we had a guest speaker from OKC Ballet and they were on hand talking about their Nutcracker performance that's getting ready to start next week and they were telling us that there's student performances that they're going to host, and so I was able to connect with them and I'm taking 25 students from my middle school for free next Thursday morning to go see the Nutcracker. And I will guarantee you, none of those 25 kids has probably never been to the Civic Center, have never been to a ballet and they've never seen Nutcracker. But through Rotary I was connected to them and now those people are going to connect me to these students and those students are going to be connected to that and that's how we plant seeds, and so, again, I go every Tuesday night.

Felix Linden: 23:23

I mean we're always going to have something that we're learning about the community, about our city, about our role in the civic partnership, the civic contract that we have, and I think we have to be out there and engaged because if we aren't, we're going to miss the boat so bad. And I'm excited to see where we are in five years. I'm excited to see where we are next week, because you know, whether it's five years or a week, it's in the future. We can control it, and I believe that we just got to control it by being involved and engaged with this, with the future and the kids. It's all about the kids for me well, thanks for meeting with us, felix.

Brian Triger: 24:02

This has been fantastic. We definitely have to do this again and uh, let's see. I'd like to thank our district Rotary 5750, our subscribers and to all of our listeners. Thanks to ITSpark as well. Have a good night, everyone, thank you.