Week 7

Monday and Tuesday of this week were fun and exciting.  I got to pick out twelve pumpkins for kids to carve this weekend, have posters laminated, cut fabric for a banner project, and help facilitate the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) Conference.  Every one of the activities went well for at least 3 of the 4 groups.  There were about 60 freshmen in 4 groups of 15.  The 30 seniors were spread amongst the freshmen leading in pairs or threes.  There was rumor of a "riot" in the Peace Center during the Labeling activity, but the seniors were able to recover.  The labeling activity required the group of 15 freshmen to "label" their foreheads with a sign saying "Braniac-agree with me" "Popular-pay attention to me" "Clown-laugh at me" but the kids in the riotous group were looking at their labels, so the activity was somewhat of a flop for them.  

I noticed a lot of the seniors were a little less than confident about leading groups, and some did much better than others as they were more prepared.  Discussion sessions could have been a little better.  The seniors didn't plan things to ask during debriefing time in a group I observed.  Some of the groups were unorganized and a little unenthusiastic at first, but the progression of the day brought more confidence.  Once the first activity was done, the seniors seemed to move on with the day without hesitation.  Everyone left knowing something they didn't know before whether it be about themselves, the camp, the 40 developmental assets, or the interactions between people.  

Since the leaders were only about 4 years older than the group members, the leaders were able to connect with a lot of the freshman.  Some of them ate lunch with freshmen they felt connected to, and the seniors paired up with freshmen that they plan to contact sometime between now and next year.  Overall, the program went really well.  

I had a lot of fun, plus I felt very useful to the seniors leading.  When one of the groups seemed to have a slow start, I began giving examples of questions they could ask to reflect on the purpose of the activity.  Some seniors in the staff lodge seemed to be getting frustrated because the whole group was spread out in a long building.  I had to ask them to come together a couple times as they were looking pretty segregated.  The leaders asked me a lot of great questions, and they felt good about what they were doing.  I had a lot of chances to ask them questions about how they got involved with the program and how they felt about leading freshmen.   The seniors also had some suggestions for next year.  Tim and I will follow up with the teachers, the seniors and Sh'nea who heads the AVID program sometime next week.  We also have evaluation forms that the students will fill out and return to us.