CARP CSN Grand Opening report

[Ken Doo]

CARP CSN Grand Opening report

Reported by Jinil Fleischman

On April 13th, CARP Las Vegas held its grand opening for the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) chapter. The event drew together CSN students, CARP members, local Unificationists, and eight CSN professors and faculty. CARP members were touched by True Mother's recent message, where she told all CARP members to restore their entire campus. To respond to True Mother's direction, they have been reaching out to professors at CSN and UNLV for several weeks, and were proud to be able to share True Parents' vision for CARP and for America at the opening ceremony.

Jinil Fleischman, the president for the UNLV chapter of CARP, was the MC for the program. The program opened with a musical offering by CARP members Angelica Moraes and Kailey Teo, which moved the hearts of the audience by reminding them of the idealism of America's past. Angelica is a member of Apple Heaven USA, and performed in Korea at True Parents' Birthday celebration. Then a video highlighting CARP's past activities was shown.

Chungbom Katayama, the new president for the CSN CARP chapter, gave a presentation on the vision for CARP and the new chapter at CSN. He testified that True Parents are the ones who understand the root of the problems facing society, and have determined to resolve them. Testimonies were given by two CARP members: Ryota Naito shared about how studying the Principle in CARP empowered him to practice true love and make a change in his own family; and Angelica Moraes testified to True Parents' vision to create a culture of heart in America. She shared how she struggled in her life with the self-centered culture that she experienced, but conveyed her hope to build a heavenly culture, and shared True Father's words about how America was prepared by God for that purpose. Mr. Akira Watanabe and Mrs. Makiko Watanabe, the directors of CARP Las Vegas, gave concluding remarks and encouraged all the CSN faculty to be involved in teaching the youth to fight against self-centered culture in order to create a culture of heart.

The CSN faculty were very moved by the program and by the vision of the CARP students. One professor had to hold in her tears because she was so moved by the values that CARP stands for. Another faculty member expressed that he is very inspired by the CARP students and believes they can accomplish great things. He said, "The testimonies given can bring hope to other students. Because you guys were able to go through the experience, you guys can give hope to others who may be going through the same thing." He was so inspired by the spirit of the CARP members that he has volunteered to serve as a mentor on a weekly basis. A third professor, who teaches public speaking at CSN, said that he was very moved by the speeches given by the students. He commented that they have a very amazing quality in their speeches, which he called "the CARP factor." One professor who has a CARP student in his class encouraged all of his students to skip part of his class in order to attend the opening ceremony. Many professors expressed that they are eager for the next CARP event at CSN, and to see how we can collaborate even more.

CARP Las Vegas has been active on the UNLV campus since August 2014, but since the beginning of 2017, CARP students have been witnessing on the CSN campus. With sincere devotion, they were successful in their campaign to recruit enough students and find faculty advisors in order to establish CARP as an official club at CSN. We are excited for how we can continue to share True Parents' vision for the youth at CSN and all of Las Vegas!

I was happy to attend the grand opening of CARP CSN North Campus yesterday evening, great to see 6 professors present, our 2nd gen did a fine job of expanding TP work on a public platform (as well as all that members do individually) to 1 more campus! Nice intro message by Chungbom, much thanks to all staff and supporters  - Steve Pierce -