S.m.i.l.e.
students making an impact on lives everyday
This week was another week of working on our activity packet, trying to find quality and fun activities for the groups of students. Just today, we got some of our applications back from the students so next week, we will be getting actual matches together. We ran into some complications, however, like the times that younger students and high school students will both be open to meeting. This, though, is going to take some time and will be somewhat challenging. We want the program to be up and running as soon as possible, so next week, we will really need to try and accommodate to all of the differing schedules. We know this program has great potential and are really excited to begin the process despite the adversity we have faced.
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This week, we decided to make an activity packet for the mentors and mentees to participate in to help build their relationship. The various activities are optional because we want to make sure that the groups feel free to do things that they're both passionate about. This way, our matching of students will really be utilized. Currently, we are working to find more quality activities to include in our packet as well as waiting to find get the applications back from the mentees. We have been receiving applications from our high school volunteers, and we can't wait to match up our pairs!
This week, we made some progress with our volunteers and our participation in the program. First, we met with our assistant principal and got the list of mentors already involved with the other programs in the other elementary schools. We didn't include them in our list to avoid overlap in schedules. Then, we were finally able to draw up a list of students who would qualify and be good candidates for our program. We looked for high schoolers who are responsible and kind who would make a good impact on younger students. After we created the list, we sent out our application forms to all of the students, explaining a little bit about our program and what we expect from the volunteers. Now, we are waiting on a confirmation on numbers from the elementary school as well as the finished applications from the high school volunteers. The example of a mentor sheet is shown below. With these applications, we should be able to match students with similar interests - making the building of their relationship easier and stronger. Next week, we hope to be matching students and creating activities along with getting the first meeting in order!
Over the course of last week, we made some strides toward our goals of getting our project in place. We talked to our assistant principal about some of our plans, but he told us that some of them were unrealistic - like having our program be an after school event. After this news, we decided to implement our ideas for a mentoring program into the programs already in place. This means that we would take our ideas (like pairing people together and volunteering) and adjust them to fit during a day program. We planned to meet during labs and the small window of time after school (2:20 - 3:30) to do our activities with the students. After we finished ironing out some details with him, we scheduled a meeting with the counselor at the elementary, that way we could figure some specifics for that school.
During the meeting, we learned which students would be available during what times and also talked to her about our application process and volunteering goals. She really helped us learn more about the prospective program for her school and how we could improve it. Now, we are waiting for students to volunteer to help us out with mentoring over at the elementary, and she is working to find students who would be a good fit for our program. By this time, we had decided on a name for our project - The S.M.I.L.E. Program. It stands for "Students Making an Impact on Lives Everyday". In our new program, students would to be tailored for each other, having common interests, passions, and activities. We had the idea of making applications for both the high school volunteers and students coming from the elementary schools. This way, we would be able to pair up specific groups of students. We wanted to aim for an easier way for students to build a relationship with each other. To get ready for our presentation, we had to decide on some specifics, like transportation, our objectives, and activities. We wanted to get the groups of students together 2 times a month - once for fun activities that allow for bonding, and the other meeting for volunteering (in the community, at the school, etc.). We hoped to get adults involved - teachers and community volunteers - to supervise our after school meetings. Then, over the course of the year, the bonding between the students would allow for growth and development on both sides, while promoting volunteering and helping others to younger students. We knew that we would run into some issues, especially with liability and transportation. In preparation for our pitch, we made a presentation and practiced the points we wanted to go over. We also created a flyer to hand out Mr. Large and the administrators that were going to be attending our presentation. On pitch day, we dressed nice and were ready to share our ideas to everyone. We invited some representatives from the elementary schools to come and share their thoughts on our ideas. After we finished our presentation, we got a lot of questions and ideas given to us on our topic, and overall, it was very successful. We learned a lot about some of our issues and how to address them, but we also got a lot of constructive criticism on the basics of our project. Pitch day was an extremely good accomplishment because we learned a lot about some topics we needed to address, but also we learned a lot to make our project way better than it originally was. At the beginning of our class, we discussed our personal interests and passions with everyone. Afterwards, we were able to group up with people who are interested in the same activities along the lines of our own. My group and I were connected by a common goal - the desire to positively help children who are in need. We got together the three of us - Austin, Ellie, and I - to find out a way to do just that. After brainstorming a multitude of ideas, we decided on mentoring, a way to personally connect with a student and impact them for the better. Our project was going to be based on relationships between high school-aged students and elementary school students with similar interests and passions. Together, we wanted to reach children who needed help and teach them how to become better people overall. Our goals are important because some children in our schools need help to get on a positive path, and relationships with a good role model is something that those kids can cherish and learn from. Then, after the children make that connection, they can understand the importance of learning and being a good person, that way they have a more successful schooling experience and can be positive, productive citizens in the future.
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November 2017
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