Service and Learning Together

A BIG part of being a summer scholar was participating in the service learning project. This was at times the most fun and at times the most difficult part. We had to pick an organization and find a child between 5th and 8th grade and help them figure out what they want to be when they grow up. My partner, Keven Chavez and I went to the South Omaha Boys and Girls Club. Our kid's name was Alejandra Ordonez. She is an eighth grader at Beverage Middle School. She said she wanted to be either a veterinarian or a tattoo artist. We met with her 4 times throughout the program and were assigned a project each time. The four projects we did were the Dream Careers Collage, Exploring your Dream Careers Powerpoint, Career Essay, and Action Plan.



The "Dream Career Collage" was the first project we did. Keven and I brought magazines and a poster board and Alejandra did a collage of her two careers. We helped her find pictures to put on her collage and gave suggestions of how to design it. When she was all done, it looked pretty cool. We did a kind of 3D spiral thing with pictures of animals on it because she wanted to be a veterinarian. She also had other pictures of animals and tattoos and people with tattoos because her other career was a tattoo artist. This was definitely the most fun of all the projects.

Our second project was the "Exploring the Dream Career Powerpoint". For this project, us mentors had to research her careers and make a powerpoint about them and present it to her in order to help her figure out which one she liked the most. In the powerpoint we had to include information such as how much money someone in these professions make on average, what kind of education they need, what a typical day is for them, etc. Our powerpoint looked really good and after we presented it to her she figured out that she wanted to be a tattoo artist because she loves art and likes tattoos.

Next time we met, we did the "Career Essay". This was the most time consuming project of the bunch. Alejandra had to write an essay about being a tattoo artist. In her essay she talked about why she wanted to be a tattoo artist, what it takes to be one, and what influenced her to be a tattoo artist. The essay had to be at least a page long. Hers was a little over a page and that was good.

The last project we did with her was the "Action Plan Assignment". This was the most difficult of the four. Keven and I had to help Alejandra create an action plan to achieving her goal. We first used teh worksheets given to us to write down steps and then had to type it up on a computer. This was the most time consuming because it took a while to figure out exactly what she needed to do, tarting now, to be what she wants to be.

The service learning component was the most rewarding part of the program. We got to help out a younger student and help them figure out what they want to do for the rest of their life. Even though the projects were not always fun or easy, we got help out someone else which gave me that warm, fuzzy feeling inside. This helped me realize that I want to go into a career that involves helping people. Before this program, I wanted to major in journalism and psycology. Journalism was first though. Now, I am putting more thought into psycology because as a psycologist because your job os to help people with their personal problems and help them to change their lives for the better by giving them advice or just by being someone there to listen to thme when no one else will. Service learning was qn enjoyable, sometimes difficult, but rewarding part of the program.

Week # 3

This week was pretty much a straight forward week. On Monday, for college counseling my group went to the Education Quest Center and learned about choosing colleges. This was very helpful information. We learned what to look for when applying and how to apply. On Tuesday, we had study group. On Wednesday, we went to the library where we learned about applying for scholarships. This was good because it gave us time to look for scholarships that we may apply for in the future and it also gave us a head start on our college search assignment. On Friday, we had a guest speaker come and speak to us about, again, scholarships. We learned what different types of scholarships there are and what we can be doing now in preparation to applying for scholarships. After her presentation,she asked us questions about what she had just showed us and those who answered correctly got candy. I had a recees peanut butter cup. This week was mostly informative and not many outside activities. But it was good.

Living the College Life

This week was the UNO Week in Residence. It was BOMB!!!!!!!!! I loved living on campus. We stayed at the Scott Residence Hall. In the morning we woke up to a FREE delicious breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, bagels, and these weird croissant things with egg and cheese on them (they were also bomb). We rode the shuttle bus to the UNO Student Center. I liked the free transportation, plus you always get there in time for class. After class, we went back to the dorms. Right when we went back to the dorms it was lunchtime. After lunch we normally got free time to hang out, study, or sleep :) Then there was some kind of activity scheduled for us to do such as outdoor games, ice cream social, a mojo hunt, or a movie. At night it wa party/study time. Almost every night someone would pull out the boombox or ipod and docking station dn we would dance. But this week for many of us, was midterm week. Those who had midterms went and formed study groups with the other students in their class, after a little bit of dancing though.

This week was a good week for me. It gave me a good idea of what college life is like, living away from your family and getting to know new people. This week I got to know some of the other students better than I even thought I would. Coming into this program knowing nobody is a little intimidating, but this week I got to know almost everyone and am comfortable around them and know that I'm able to be myself and do something stupid, and instead of looking down on me they'll just say "Well thats Brazier for ya" or " Brazier you crazy" lol. And I like that.

The First Week

My first week at UNO was fun. It really showed me a glimpse of college life. I got to walk around the campus and kind of be a college student. No one but me and the other summer scholars knew that i was in high school so I was treated just like I went there.

Native American Studies Class- Native American Studies class is the course I'm taking. I like the class even though it was not my first choice. Our teacher, Cathi is Native American so it's cool to see what some one of that nation (because I learned that Native Americans are a nation) thinks about her history and what has come to be of her people. Plus it's better to learn this stuff from someone who actually knows what they're talking about and has lived with some of this stuff instead of just teaching us out of a text book. Cathi is hilarious and you can tell that she's really interested in what she teaches.

College 101- We only have this class three times a week but I can already tell that iut will teach me things that will help me get into college and get scholarships.