Since freshman year, I have been dreaming about starting an AZA chapter in Aventura and North Miami Beach, Florida. 3 years of waiting for the right moment, trial and error, it finally has happened: Shield AZA is now the newest temporary chapter for Miami Region.

I joined BBYO at the beginning of Aventura BBYO. It was 4 of us guys and more than 10 girls. As you could imagine, the programs were more female oriented and didn’t attract me and my new friends. We were longing for boys to join the movement, yet it was extremely hard in the area that I live in.

Throughout that first year, my friends and I went to dinner every week, sometimes on random days or after meetings. I didn’t realize the importance of BBYO then and didn’t really think about creating a new chapter from scratch. But now that I look back on it, I realize how much love and brotherhood was there that I began to want to expand.

At the end of that term, I lost in chapter elections. My friends and I leave, and I go “We should start our own chapter. This sucks!” Yes, I may have been a bit salty. But that losing feeling sparked a grand idea that led me to today.

Fast forward to the next term, Miami’s (now) Regional S’gan, Cash Kantor, and I pushed hard to bring in as many boys as possible. We had a meeting with about 10 kids, but it failed. The program wasn’t the best, and it didn’t leave any profound mark on them. We got no member registrations after multiple check-ups, and frankly, it hurt. We did, however, get a few members by the end of the year to increase membership for our BBYO chapter.

By this Fall Term, we wanted to go all in. The prior Spring led us to regional elections, with me and Cash two of the four Alephs on board. Our main goal? Finish what we (barely) started and create that chapter.

First came 4 friends. Then 7 people showed up. Two months later we had one of our highest turnouts with 12 individual people. 80 percent of them became members within a few meetings, and we were finally making progress. We submitted the charter application and waited. A few weeks later, we got the email.

“Dear Shield AZA…” Wow. It actually became a reality. Those two words made my whole body get the chills. All the programming and hard work paid off.

Cash, Shield, and I are not done yet. We are hoping to submit our permanent charter application soon. Consistency is definitely key moving forward.

"Success is a result of consistent practice of winning skills and actions. There is nothing miraculous about the process. There is no luck involved." - Michael Jordan.