I am a secondary Education major and even though I prefer to work with high school students, I love interacting with younger children. My part-time job is being a nanny for two wonderful little youngsters. I spend twenty hours a week with the best, most well-behaved kids I have ever met. Even though the hours are long, I never feel as if I am working. Some Fridays I volunteer with the special education department at Streetsboro Elementary School. A few of their students venture over to the KSU Rec Center to go swimming in the pool. There are three girls (including myself) that help out with the swimming lessons. Each of us are assigned a student and during their time at the pool we work on different tasks, such as kicking their feet in the water and/or floating on their backs. There are only five times during the semester they come to Kent but the teachers encourage us to participate in other activities with the class and come visit them in the classroom. This is one of the most rewarding activities I am apart of; these students are truly special individuals with a whole lot of personality and excitement for life.
Friday, March 14, 2008
We just finished kicking butt in the Dive’s talent show. My roommate (Jill), our friend Gibby, and myself performed to a mix of different songs. All three of us are involved in Campus Crusade for Christ, a.k.a the Dive. There are over 200 members who come to our weekly meetings on Thursday nights at 9:00 p.m. in Bowman. This week we changed our meeting place to the KIVA. The meeting kicked off at 9 p.m. and a little after 10 p.m. the talent show kicked off. There were around twelve acts including ours. There were singers, comedians, dancers, and an awesome band who showed their talent. My family traveled up to Kent to watch this incredible show. Even though it lasted till midnight, it sure ended with a big bang. Jill, Gibby, and myself were the show closers. We started out with the lights off with strobe and black lights illuminating the stage. We were dressed in all black with white shoes, gloves, and masks; we danced to a song by Wade Robson “It Was All In Your Mind.” Then unfortunately we blew a fuse and our music went off, but luckily our wonderful staff managed to start it back up. The next song was by OneRepublic, “Apologize.” Gibby and Jill knocked the socks off of the audience; they did a lyrical piece, which is definitely not my forte. We ended our dance with Pitbull’s “Fuego.” This was a hip-hop dance that included flips and stunts; the song ended with an explosion. When we got up to walk off stage, the audience was in a standing ovation. Even with the technical difficulty we manage to still “woo” the audience. It was great!
(This is Jill and I setting up our special effects.)
Monday, March 17, 2008
I found out today that I will be moving to Houston for the summer. The beginning of this semester I applied for an internship with the organization Teach for America. The application process was simple. I attached a cover letter, resume, and an activity provided by the organization. A week later, I received and e-mail asking me for an interview. It was a phone interview, which was a bit awkward but the interviewee was very professional and made me feel comfortable. And today I found out I am one out of ten people in the country who will be working for the Houston Institute this summer. Teach for America is an organization who accepts teachers and trains them to teach in urban-school districts around the country. For six weeks in the summer they go through training at institutes around the country; there are six institutes around the United States. I am excited to set off on this adventure but I am extremely nervous because this is my first time away from home for a long period of time. I’m sure everything will work out fine but I am still in shock that they chose me!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
I just got back from an amazing spring break in Panama City Beach, Florida. I went with the Dive (Campus Crusade for Christ) and met with other college campuses around the country involved in the same activity. There were 850 of us, reaching out to others on the beach. The road trip down was fun yet tiring; we spent around 18 hours in the car. We have no room to talk though because other students we talked to spent 30 hours traveling to Florida. Campus Crusade provides college students with a spring break option called Big Break. Sunday we had a free day to hang out at the beach all day and relax. It sure was a different environment, laying on the beach with shorts and a swimsuit was quite a bit different then layering up to walk five minutes to class. Then Monday through Thursday we attended morning worship and meetings, went out sharing all day, had amazing dinners, and ended the night with another meeting and worship. Thursday night we had a dance party that was extremely fun. The week was relaxing but a bit tiring at the same time. There were 40 of us from the Dive who went down. These people became my family during the week, we had a blast together. My car decided to head home on Friday morning; five of us girls crammed all of our bags into the trunk and began our adventure. We were out to prove that girls can follow a map without help from boys. We hit a few curbs along the way and one turtle- to be exact. Then at 3:00 a.m. right outside of Columbus we got a flat tire. Out of nowhere two angels, dressed like old men, stopped, whipped out some power tools and changed our flat within twenty minutes. It was incredible. Even though it took us awhile to get home, we managed to end the adventure on a high note. This week is one of the great memories that will stick out in my mind when I reflect back on my college years.
(The host of Big Break with Jill and I.)
(The "Love Seat of Loooove" with our friend Shannon.)
(Our poor flat tire!)
