Brick By Brick - With Antonio T. Smith Jr. And Tempestt Smith

Lee College, Baytown, TX www.lee.edu The average person has 24,869 days on Earth. At the inaugural Empower Me Conference held Aug. 28 on campus, keynote speaker Rev. Antonio Smith, Jr., posed a challenge to the more than 100 students in attendance: use those days to be anything but average. “Time is counting down; if you want to be forgotten, be average,” said Smith, known as Rev. Tony, who pastors the Church for the Unchurched and Without an Umbrella Ministries in La Marque. “If you’re going to empower yourself, you have to know that you are worthy of every one of your dreams. Every minute, you’re either going toward your dreams or moving away from them. Your job is to die empty — don’t die with dreams.” Sponsored by the Black Education Access Completion Committee and the office of Dr. Cathy Kemper-Pelle, the free Empower Me Conference was an opportunity for students and others to gain knowledge and insights about how to better navigate and order their lives. Conference topics covered everything from cred