The Gentlemen's Retreat 

The Gentlemen’s Retreat is a series of Powerful First Experiences aimed at teaching young men from the inner city the art of being gentlemen through the use of emotional, conversational, and story intelligence.

Multi-Year PRogram

The Gentlemen's Retreat

The Gentlemen’s Retreat is a multi-year program that has three parts per year.  

Part One begins with a 2-day retreat where the Gentlemen are exposed to new environments and experience guided cognitive dissonance. There is a supportive team of professionals and academics who are from the inner city who have experienced their own dissonance and share their lessons through narratives and dialogue. Cognitive dissonance is bridged by exposing the Gentlemen to novel experiences such as: staying at a mansion, interning at a 5 Star hotel in Manhattan; attending a plated, multi-course meal; and meeting world-class thinkers who teach them in the retreat environment. There’s an emphasis on novel thinking, so the Gs learn to evaluate situations based on their multiple intelligences.

Part Two is the Gentlemen’s curriculum. Students attend workshops on Emotional, Conversational and Storytelling Intelligence, taught in three-month modules. They learn the power of telling their own narrative in order to be able to shape their lives. These sessions are led by founder Kenneth Chabert, who developed the curriculum for these sessions based on his empirical research and work as a storytelling consultant.  

Part Three takes place during the summer through our partnership with the Brown University Pre-Baccalaureate Summer Program or with summer internship placement in New York, Rhode Island, and Boston. The Gs can take courses starting the summer of Junior year, which allows them to earn college credits even before applying to college. Over the 7 weeks they earn 8 college credits. This is a game-changing addition to the Gentlemen’s Retreat because it exponentially increases students’ likelihood of being accepted to top-tier Universities and compete for scholarships.

The Gentlemen step out of the core program into their college experience with a newly expanded vision of the world, and a version of success on new terms, the Gentlemen’s terms.

monthly

Continued Support

The Gentlemen attend workshops once a month to develop the gentlemen’s competencies utilizing a curriculum of emotional and conversational intelligence coupled with a storytelling approach, and the power of telling their own narrative in order to be able to shape
their lives. During the second week of the month, the Gs have a private group meeting where they get together and discuss things that are going on in their lives. During the third week of every month, the Gentlemen each have a 1:1 meeting with their Choice Architect.

building blocks

Using Past Experiences

The Gentlemen’s Retreat is about honoring young men and their past-lived experiences and abilities gained from the inner city, while also preparing them to successfully merge them with their new and more long term environment: the real world. It’s about teaching them emotional intelligence (the ability to be aware of emotions), conversational intelligence (the ability to use language to create relationships and get people to understand your point of view), and storytelling intelligence (the ability to use your life narrative to evoke emotions and create your own opportunities by influencing others to believe in your ideas).

Outcomes

1. Exposure to Powerful First Experiences that will cause cognitive dissonance and cultural distance.

2. Increased emotional, conversational, storytelling intelligence.

3. A network and community that guarantees the gentlemen’s success outside of the inner city

4. A group identity and peer mentorship model based on being Gentlemen, which will support them through high school, college, and beyond.

5. Defining what “G”is for themselves because they now have their own voice.