About Punk Rock Academy, Inc.

“I Had a Dream When I was in High School…”

For those in the know, yes Punk Rock Academy’s namesake comes from the Atom and His Package song of the same name. However when I was in high school I had no idea what the future held. In fact in my first band just out of high school (25+ years ago) called Dishevel, I even wrote a song called “What I Want to Be” with lyrics like…”When I was growing up I didn’t know if I wanted to be a doctor or a cop. I didn’t know if I was going to be a waste or I was was going to have a nice place.” With the chorus of “I don’t know what I want to be, ’cause you don’t know what’s good for me. I don’t know what I want to be, but you can’t tell me what to be.”

And since that time I have worked jobs in food service, attended classes at a community college studying marketing and PR, worked at a law firm, freelanced as a web developer then turned that into a business. Started a clothing line that blossomed into 5 different brands. Learned how to screen print and turned that into a business. Married…had kids…Divorced. Expanded my web development business. Started another band and even founded my first non-profit organization called Punks Giving during the pandemic. All of which I have accomplished with very little formal education and training in true DIY fashion by learning and using free and low cost resources as I went along.

So some may ask “Why should I care about Punk Rock Academy?” Because I have seen its mission and goal work in my own life. The paradigm has shifted, you don’t need that formal college degree hanging on the wall collecting dust (though it may be nice) to accomplish the goals you have in life or to even change the world. You just need a definite purpose with PMA (a nod to Napoleon Hill) and resources available to assist in making it happen for you.

Origins – A Punks Giving chord [Better Yourself]

As mentioned above, my first venture into the non-profit realm was by founding an organization called Punks Giving. It’s mission was to identify and unite positive resources in the punk and hardcore community with populations in need. We had a “3 chord” approach in which the first chord was “Better Yourself”. The idea of “bettering yourself” was to allow the person to be on solid ground and a better position for themselves and their family first in order to make the outward ripple affect. That ripple affect is if we each “better ourselves” that ripples out to bettering our neighborhoods, bettering our communities, our cities, our states/regions, our country and then the world. With this approach we started identifying and curating positive free and low cost educational and professional resources and provided them on our website and printed literature.

Established 2022

After the foundations of Punks Giving were set, we became close with another organization, Punk Rock Saves Lives. Over the years the decision was made to merge Punks Giving into Punk Rock Saves Lives. In this merger, the “Better Yourself” resources didn’t necessarily fit properly with the focus of the merger. As a result, I looked to find a way to continue providing these resources and even expanding it. Thus in November of 2022, Punk Rock Academy Inc. was born. This time, I took all my knowledge of business and non-profit creation that I learned over the years and DIY’d the F*** out of it. With only $350 and PMA, Punk Rock Academy Inc. was not only created but approved as a nationally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

I share all that with you knowing that having the right resources available and a desire to learn and grow to become who you want to be and do what you want to do not only is power, but is truly punk rock.