Summer possibility

Today M and I met with Yves to tell him about our idea for SRINQ to receive a summer component. I will outline in further details once we get them but we left the meeting thinking:

• Students could meet for 2 weeks in the summer (close to the beginning of their school year) for a sort of condensed term where they earn 5 credits of their year. This is great because they can get a load of time with the mentor(s) working on skills where students are currently lacking.
• Business as usual for fall and winter terms, except the mentor hired for these is a regular wage mentor (since there won’t be very many visits anyway and because now we know to what extent the mentor is utilized by the schools).
• No spring term because ANYWAY the seniors finish school in mid-May so why use a model that requires a month more than what they have?

After the meeting, M and I discussed some other neat options to look into, like for the last night or last few nights of the summer program, students can choose to stay on campus- M called the Housing Department and the Broadway Building has almost 50 available rooms at that time, with each room housing two students. Since we are a department on campus, we wouldn’t need to put down a deposit or anything- they just hold the rooms for us and only pay for the people who check in.

If we plan this out well enough now (and work into the first week of April), maybe this is the kind of thing we can be implemented this year. Fingers crossed. This is all still hypothetical, but I think if we make the case for how this can save the department money (LOADS) and time (and headache too) while also offering the students better quality, we may have a chance at change.

4/6

I have been a bit behind in blogging since our last visit, which was to MP two weeks ago. Don’t think I haven’t been busy though, I actually saw two of our schools last week (MRA and Roos) and we are getting two more this coming week (Jeff and MP). I must admit, things are feeling a little bit overwhelming. It is getting to that point in the year when I have seen and talked with some of these students multiple times and I don’t even know their names. Granted, I think it will be easier for me to remember names once I begin looking at e-portfolios, but still it is kind of embarrassing.

Last week I met MRA at the Art Museum for a tour, and I got the impression that they were wanting more mentor time. This got me thinking about how things could work in the future, because as it is, I have no contact with Liberty and barely any with MRA and Westview so how could we improve this?

Let’s say we still have six schools next year, schools A,B,C,D,E and F.
If we have two mentors, M1 and M2
M1 could be designated to A,B and C
M2 could be designated to D,E and F
In visiting their designated schools, each mentor could have a specific and consistent day/date each month they would visit each school on their list, so for example:
In November, M1 visits school A on the 12th, B on the 19th and C on the 26th, plus depending on how feasible it is, A,B and C could all visit PSU on different dates, either once per month or once per term (except for those schools, WV and Liberty that really cannot do more than 1 or 2 visits to PSU per year).

What would be even better is if there were three mentors for SRINQ, because then each mentor would be designated two schools:
M1- A and B
M2- C and D
M3 E and F
and then they can visit the schools remotely more than once per month, maybe twice per month plus however often the schools can visit PSU. They could be appointed as a regular mentor would in the case of only juggling two schools.

Now that the flood gates have been opened, M and I realize that we must set some strict boundaries so as to not drown. We are adhering strictly to the guidelines we have set forth: teachers must fill out a visit request form for both when they visit us and for when we visit them and it is filling up fast! We have been using it for like two or three weeks and we already have had to turn people away until January.

More mentors please!

—-

Now focusing on next week, we’ve got:

MP 12/14:
9:30-2, lunch at noonish
(Activities with mentor, this I believe and other engagement and community building ideas, learning stages activities and/or stages of community building, a visit from a transgendered colleague if it works)

Jeff 12/15:
9:45-12:30
(work on google sites, activities with mentor, guest speaker)
11:30-12:10 Deb Arthur/M11
9:45-11:30 (in progress)

It’s all happening

Things are catching up to me. That 20 page paper in my Intellectual Property and Copyright class, that manuscript I am editing, that book I have to turn into an e-book, it has all been creeping up on me, and now I realize it is week 8 and I am running out of time. Last week I was mentally exhausted and was not feeling well, so took a break from SRINQ since we didn’t have any school visits, but unfortunately for my studies we have four school visits lined up in these next 3 weeks. Fortunately it won’t be too difficult to plan on my end and I will be able to use some real creativity.

This week we are hosting Jefferson (5th/6th visit) and MP (2nd visit), on December 1st we are going to Westview for the first time this year and December 8th Roosevelt will be visiting us for the first time this year too.

I have learned an important lesson this term: just because I am physically capable of taking 12 credits per term, it does not mean that I should, nor that I am able to do them well. Next term I will go down to 9 credits, 4 of them will be completely independent study and 1 will be partially independent study so I will have plenty of time to do everything to my best ability.

Today we had a meeting with Yves, which was really nice to kind of succinctly highlight what we have been doing since the last time we met with him in October, and the reality sunk in of just how much we have accomplished. I still feel like none of the work I do would be possible without M’s hard background work and relationships she has fostered with different departments on campus. M is really the shining star, the North Star of our team.

So tomorrow is Jefferson. We  are meeting in Smith 327, which will be nice to get the students to see different rooms in other buildings on campus (so far they have spent a ton of time in Cramer and in the Library). Jeff instructor Michael has planned the day, so here is my best guess of how it will look:

9:45-10:15 Financial Aid presentation from Matthew (from Financial Aid)
10:15-10:30/45 Q&A with Financial Aid
10:30/45-noon meeting with the Capstone Juvenile Justice
noon-12:30 Optional for students to stay and have their questions answered by M & I, one-on-one, we could even take some students to a certain department (that wasn’t already in their campus tour from before)

MP comes on Thursday and we JUST NOW confirmed a room (scary!!) NH450. This is the agenda:

9:45-10:15 Matthew about Financial Aid
10:15-10:30 Financial Aid Q&A
10:30-11/11:15 Time with M & I to talk about e-portfolios, show them a couple of examples, and hopefully answer a couple of the questions they wrote us before. One of the questions was about what SAT score PSU admissions requires- we can talk about admissions and show them on the website where to find that information.
11-ish to noon Lunchtime
noon-2 Bob in the Library

Westview Reflection

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So here it is, the long awaited Westview visit reflection. To assist me, I am going to post those questions I sent out to the mentors who helped as well as the answers I received. Some of the responses might contradict each other, but let me tell you I had two teams of mentors, one for each large groups of students who came, and each team had such different experiences, and much different time. Group 1 had close to an hour and a half and Group 2 had like 30-40 minutes. I’ll indicate who was in either group.

1. What was your opinion of our Powerpoint presentation- how do you think we could make it more engaging or interesting?

• (Group 1) I thought that the Powerpoint was great, especially the OAM-ED portion! That was relatable to high school students and I saw that it made a few of them laugh pretty hard. For the most part it seemed that all of the students were very attentive to the powerpoint as well, but I honestly think that the presenters were what made the presentation the most interesting and easy to follow. Without Safa and Michelle(?) I think that the powerpoint would have been less affecting at grabbing the attention of the high-schoolers.
• (Group 1) I thought the power point presentation was good, but I honestly only remember a few slides. This isn’t necessarily a bad though. Overall, I remember you giving a thorough explanation of the program and what it can do for the students. The students seemed very engage and I thought you held their attention well. They seemed starved for information regarding their cross-enrollment status so they might be confused still? ((Note: I believe that to be considered a Transfer student, a year long course will not meet the minimum course requirement. Most schools have it set at around 40 (for instance at Oregon state the minimum is 36 credit hours). This might be something good to give a definitive answer on. Their future colleges WILL accept the credit as college credit but they should apply as Freshmen.))
• (Group 2) I know you there were some technical difficulties which made the powerpoint hard to read, but that was unavoidable. I would say it was fairly informative and the only thing I felt would have been a little more interesting is if the page detailing how SRINQ classes transfer within the Oregon University System also included some Washington schools. I feel like a lot of students would appreciate the information even more if they had more of a visual idea as to how their credits might possibly transfer should they choose a school outside of Oregon.
• (Group 2) I thought the strength of the powerpoint presentation was that it emphasized how as senior inquiry students, the Westview students were actually already college students at PSU already. I thought it was pretty thorough in its summary of what students could expect to gain by taking a Senior Inquiry course, both in their immediate high school experiences and in their future college careers. In order to make the presentation more engaging for students, perhaps we could have asked some students to share what their future ambitions were, where they were applying to college, why they were interested in senior inquiry etc. Or throw candy at them…

2. From your perspective, how enthusiastic/unenthusiastic were the students you were working with? Did you find that they slowly got comfortable, or not? Can you think of a better approach to engage them?

• (Group 1) For Seniors in High School, these kids were really nice. It may just be because I went to high school in southern California, but the seniors at my high school were really mean and hard to grab the attention of. However, I need to keep in mind that this group of students were exceptional ones who are in this program for a reason, and are likely more attentive because of this. (wordy response sorry) I think a better game would have been more successful in getting the students to feel like a small community, rather than individuals participating in a group activity. At the same time, the activity was appropriate for the size group we were facilitating.
• (Group 1) The students seemed enthusiastic and engaged with the “icebreakers”. It was surprising how well they kept with them. I don’t think that “And then suddenly” worked well in this atmosphere. It seemed random and wasn’t original. The association word game is good because it gets students talking and people who have voiced something are more likely to say something again or ask a question.
  The first big group icebreaker was great. However, after a handful of the general questions I think it would have been more relevant to do “perceptions of college” or “college stereotypes” icebreaker.
  In terms of engagement, the students were responsive all the way to the end, but I felt like it might have been a loss of opportunity to do something more constructive with them. For instance, let them ask questions to the volunteer mentors in a small setting, do some critical thinking activities (i.e. incorporate some UNST goals), or give them more information about the types of classes they can take at Portland State.
• (Group 2) I got a really great group! From my perspective, it seemed like most were really eager to know as much as they could about college financing and college academics. The college Q&A was something that was really quite a success in my opinion. Most of my group, during the word association ice breakers, were really responsive and active within the activity. They might of taken a little while to warm up, but most didn’t take more than a few tries before they were actively engaged. Of course I got a few who were weirded out by the idea of saying the first thing that popped into their head, but for high school seniors, I honestly expected more difficulties and was so pleased I didn’t run into very many at all. They are a group of really motivated individuals, which usually helps!
• (Group 2) The students I worked with seemed comfortable enough. The icebreaker games set a more laid back tone–perhaps a group wide icebreaker type activity at the beginning (before the power point) would be helpful at both engaging and setting students at ease. I like the idea of maybe soliciting any “roses and thorns” students may have about SRINQ and/or entering college. A “rose” would be something they were excited about; a “thorn” would be something they had reservations or were anxious about.

3. Did anything surprise you with the SRINQ students? What kinds of similarities did you find between the SRINQ and the FRINQ/SINQ students? Was there anything particularly difficult with this group compared to your regular students?

• (Group 1) The students were fine, very similar to the FRINQ students that I mentor for currently. There is nothing that was easier or more difficult about them.
• (Group 1) This group of students did seem very middle class (ALL of them had a cell phone to turn off) but there was a lot of diversity among them. It appeared more diverse than the African studies course I mentor, which has a lot international students. As a cross-section for SRINQ students, I can see how SRINQ can increase diversity at PSU. However, taking a SRINQ course must be optional at a high school, and since it costs money there might be a lot of disadvantaged seniors that it doesn’t reach?
• (Group 2) Again, I was surprised by how active my group was. I actually noticed a difference between my FRINQ and these students. Mostly, I noticed that these were extremely motivated students who were actively thinking about college even in the beginning of their senior year. This might match the description of a few of my students, but for the most part I felt like these students were a little more motivated than my FRINQ students are. That might honestly just be my experience though, which may differ greatly from other mentors. As for similarities, I suppose most of my FRINQ students are still trying to fully comprehend the concept of college, which I noticed was really noticeable in the SRINQ students.
• (Group 2) I was surprised…and not surprised…to notice the “trendiness” of how the students dressed and behaved. Almost every student in the front row was wearing the same kind of lace up vans. My normal students are very diverse in how they present themselves. Being college students from a wide range of backgrounds, I imagine they feel less pressure to “blend in” in non-academic areas.  As a mentor, I felt a little more self-conscious talking to the high schoolers because of how they value “coolness.” My normal students are much more laid back in that respect.

4. Would you have liked to see their instructors take on a different, more active role (or not)? Why?

• (Group 1) Yes, I would have. There were a couple times when their instructor jumped in to answer questions, but other than that they were behind the scenes facilitators. It would have been nice to have them there during the group games, because I believe they would have been more interactive knowing that their instructor was watching over them. This sort of method seems to work well in all areas of life (having a witness to your successes or procrastinations/involvement.)
• (Group 1) The role of the instructors seemed good. There wasn’t too much lecturing and the students paid attention. The balance worked out well. I would not recommend a more active role but maybe more constructive activities. (Wait, do you mean there highschool instructors? Or Melissa and Safa?)
• (Group 2) No, I appreciated the boundaries that were established between the instructors and the mentors. Well, if we are talking about the instructors of the high school students, then yes, I would have liked to see them more engaged. Mainly I felt like it would have been interesting to hear their college story so the students could be exposed to as many college outlooks as possible.
• (Group 2) It’s hard to say–I feel like I only saw a small part of the day. The instructors went with students to get OAMed, which seemed appropriate. I don’t think we needed them to play the icebreaker games.

5. Between us mentors, can you think of how the morning could have been scheduled differently/better? What kinds of activities would you have liked to see, and can you think of a different way we could have split the groups up?

• (Group 1) As I mentioned above, I think that a different game would have been more affective. I enjoyed the game where students picked a side of the room to stand on based on preference, but I had wished that the questions went deeper. I would have like to see more difficult questions in order to challenge the students. In such a small amount of time, I think the day was structured well according to the number of students there were. Maybe with more volunteer mentors, we could have done the same activities but in smaller groups, which would have been more effective. With the few volunteers we did have, things went well but I feel that the activities could have been more fun and interactive if split up more. It was a little hard to hear what each student was saying in the group activities because we were all in one room….Maybe in the future if the groups were split up into different rooms, hearing would improve and distractions would be few.
• (Group 1) Look at the response in question (3). I think there could be more activities besides icebreakers. Even teamwork activities would have kept them more engaged. As a mentor I can say that I would feel comfortable in leading small group activities. For instance, in the groups of 8-12, we could have “college stereotypes” written down on notecards such as “If I fail a big test, I have to drop the class” or “The only thing to do for fun at college is drink” or “There is no one to help me find a place to live” etc. Not that these are the best examples, but you can have students read them to prompt discussion. Maybe even more relevant would be to have students try to do a game involving campus resources or something to get them thinking about classes they want to take at a university.
• (Group 2) I felt like although time did get away from the second group of students, the logical order of the morning was scheduled adequately. I personally would have dedicated more time to the college Q&A board, since I noticed that that was what seemed to motivate and interest the students most. The first ice breaker was nice to warm them up, but the others I could have done without and canceling them out would have allowed more time for more Q&A session.
• (Group 2) Maybe split up into smaller groups with 1 or 2 mentors for the Q&A? Students might be more frank/mentors could share their experiences more in depth.

6. Any additional comments, opinions or expressions- any at all!

• (Group 1) I can’t think of anything more to say, except that I would be more than willing to volunteer again in the future, so keep me posted!
• (Group 1) I had fun helping out and learning more about the SRINQ program! If you need any help in the future let me know!
• (Group 2) Thanks for all the MDT opportunities with this project and thanks for letting me participate! :]
• (Group 2) Great job, Safa! I think this is a very valuable program–it seems like it will give students a real foundation to build their college careers.

And today we met Liberty

This morning we met Liberty. There were about 60 students, which I find just insane (such a large class size). I didn’t get to speak with the students much except for helping them with the OAMing process. It was interesting, maybe I felt distant from the students because we didn’t visit them at school before they came. I not only recommend but REQUIRE for next year that the mentor visit each of the schools very early on- maybe even in the weeks before the PSU term begins- so that when the students visit PSU there will be more of a connection, and more of a feeling of investment (for lack of better words).

It seems like whatever work we do this year will help to make next year much easier… but that really does mean that this year in its entirety will be a process. I miss FRINQ and I say this for two reasons:

1. The relationship with students: the fact that in FRINQ, I walk into the classroom on day one and there is a manageable sized group of students who I can really get to know- their names, interests, quirks, strengths and weaknesses. For a mentor, it feels like a personal failure when I do not know the names of my mentees… because then it is not really a mentor-mentee relationship. It is more like I am the adult/authority looking over them. I know I am over reacting now, but as of now all of these 300 students are really just numbers to me. I don’t want that to remain and I really want to learn names at the least. A basic human connection is what I aim for as of now.

2. The relationship with faculty. I come from a sheltered mentoring environment. I had worked with three faculty previously, two who I only worked with for a summer, and the one who I was partnered with for two years. Now I guess you could say that I have like 18 faculty partners (6 schools, about 3 in each school), but I only know the names of a few of them. I know I have a cheat sheet (their faculty photos online) but it seems like part of the success of the mentor is the relationship they have with their faculty partner. I really need to learn names. Marshall Pauling and Jefferson (again) come tomorrow, so I need to go on the faculty site and memorize their names!

The thing is that I do not intend to complain, my intention is to identify my feelings and reactions to all of the interactions I have with the programs, verbalize what I am thinking and then either I (or you) can think of ways to fix it later this year and next year.

Do you know what I want to do? Ideally what I really want to do? I want to play icebreaker games with students, get to know their names and have them ask me questions about college. I need to organize for this to happen… but not in crowds of 60… groups of up to 30 are feasible, but not more. People don’t open up in larger groups at all.

Okay, rant=over for now.

(today, 9-10:30)