By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer
Growing up in Rancho Cordova, Tammé Shinshuri was a fast runner and delighted in beating other area children in footraces. One day she was challenged to a rematch by a neighborhood boy who couldn’t stand being bested by a girl.
A 7-year-old Shinshuri knew she shouldn’t race him again. Her mother had warned her not to go outside when she wasn’t home. An inner voice told her not to do it, but she ignored it. Doing so nearly cost her her life.
“I went outside because of my ego. I almost died,” she recalled.
During the race, Shinshuri attempted to leap over a cinder block, but came up short, landing on the medal rebar sticking out of it. Her mother, addicted to drugs at the time, didn’t initially take her to the hospital. Shinshuri lost a kidney, but gained something else: a resolve to listen to her inner wisdom.
Today, Dr. Shinshuri applies knowledge and awareness to her work with her Oracles of Truth Academy. Through the academy, she took area youth on a retreat to Mount Shasta earlier this month and introduced them to her “RITMO Experience.” It’s a program that encourages participants to center themselves and find a positive rhythm for their lives.
“It’s getting back to trusting us, trusting what we already have,” said Dr. Shinshuri, a former engineer and corporate consultant. “It’s already there, it just needs to be activated. You’re already great. Just reactivate the divine essence that you already have in you and let it emanate through you.”
Tamike D. Wright, a Michigan-based author and catalyst coach, focused on self-love during the recent retreat. Wright stressed the importance of taking time to focus on oneself and gaining a deeper understanding before attempting to connect with others.
“This is a deep dive for your life,” she told participants. “Self-love is about being open – open to learning, open to giving yourself a chance and standing up for yourself.”
Sydney Mathis, founder of Sacramento’s Eternal Generations Emerging, led a number of activities that urged youth to be eco-friendly and gave them a sense of belonging on a global scale. Mathis’ “Give a Dam” session saw participants building their own structures near a creek. A clear nature lover, she relates the life cycle of redwood trees to how young people can work together back home.
“When a redwood tree is dead and dying, the pine needles fall off and create saplings … those same trees that are regenerated then create an entirely new forest system. That concept also applies to how we work together as a community, the things that we create and the connections we make,” Mathis said.
Dr. Shinshuri said she created the RITMO program as part of her “personal transformation” in healing from adverse childhood experiences.
“Even as an adult, if you haven’t resolved those things, they carry into your adult life,” she said.
The retreats are one part of Dr. Shinshuri’s wider curriculum. There’s also college readiness programs, GED help, peer mentorship, life coach training, and an accelerated leadership program that prepares youth for jobs. She envisions her academy becoming a full-on college.
“Oracles of Truth is focused on arming this population, the vulnerable population, to be able to go to college without having to take out a student loan at all, ever,” she said. “You can go to school and be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, whatever you want and get your bachelor’s, your master’s or your doctorate and never have to take out a student loan. Imagine that.
“There are people who are graduating right now in this country, around the world, they graduate from school and there is no job.”
Many, she says, end up simply taking jobs just to “make ends meet.”
“Our theory of change is going to be to transform the whole community and the system. We’re going to work with the system, but we’re going to transform it from within.”