Funny Stories
One day, as I was sitting in the sign-in room waiting to check people in, one of our 6th graders, who struggles with his sight and has learning disabilities on top of that, came in incredibly proud of himself. The following conversation ensued...
Him: Liz, guess what?! My teacher said in front of the entire class how much my handwriting had improved!
Me: Good job! I'm proud of you!
Him: Yeah, it's because I started putting spaces in between my words like you told me to!
Me: Awwww, maybe next time you'll listen to me in less than 6th months.
Fun Stories
I actually started typing this blog entry on the last day of the After School Program, while I was sitting drenched in my office chair, after having been one of the main targets in the end of the year water fight for all the kids in the program! That was a fun day, filled with snacks, games, and prizes.
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Batgirl came to visit! Seriously! She came as a reward for all our students turning in their reports cards, back in March. It was a surprise for the kids, and it took some of the older students to warm up to her, but once they saw how excited some of our youngest kids were to see her, they all got on board. One of our 6th graders was a little upset with me for not telling him ahead of time that she was coming so that he could wear his hat with the Batman symbol on it. That symbol popped up around our program randomly for a week or so after her visit. She told me later that she really loved coming out here and had a lot of fun.I also had an argument with a 1st grader a few weeks later as to whether she was "Batgirl" or "Batwoman," so I had to text Batgirl just to prove it. Props to the 1st grader, she was a woman... that just wasn't her title.
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I went to my first Quinceanera! I ate cactus and learned how to say "horchata" and "jamaica." It was a lot of fun! (I also learned that horchata and jamaica are called "agua fresca", so when Jelitza asked me, in English, if I wanted water, she didn't mean actual water.)
Patience-Testing Stories
I don't know if you know this, but there seems to be some kind of trend in bullying going around in our schools (our meaning "American" and maybe even "global") today, and Pomona Hope, it seems, is not immune. We've had to step into situations between some of our kids in the past few months, before they really got to that level (after it became no longer just "all in good fun", but turned to flat out mean, before it got really bad).
Along the same lines, I had the distinguished honor of being the Coordinator the day that we had our first physical altercation ever. Yay for me. -_- Everyone was okay, only one student actually did anything. He felt provoked, but his reaction was over the top and made other students feel unsafe, so he was sent home immediately. No other warnings necessary. I had a long talk with him telling him that we still loved him, but that he was being punished for what HE had done, not for what they had done or said to him (which he was still trying to use as an excuse to justify his actions). All the kids involved spoke to Emily the next day.
Sad Stories
Our student whom we've been concerned about because he was getting himself to and from our program moved a few months ago. He is still in the Pomona Unified School District, and even going to the same school, but it is now too far for him to walk to us, and it is too far out of the way for the other family who was graciously bringing him along to the program with them. We miss him and continue to pray for him.
One of our long-time families has moved away. They told it us it was happening, so it wasn't a huge shock, but it is still sad to see them go. Their four kids were all an integral part of the program and we will definitely miss them.
Exciting Stories
Jelitza graduated from high school! Thank goodness she was wearing her Miss Pomona sash, or we would never have found her in the sea of red. She also got a personal shout out from her Principal at the very beginning of the ceremony. She was the last one off the field.
What are her future plans, you ask? She starts at UC Berkeley in the Fall.
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What are they doing?! Well, if you're a muggle, you won't understand, but they're looking for a geocache (still to be found). One of our students earned a day of geocaching as a reward for improving his behavior and having more respect for us as well as for himself. He chose one friend to go with him. It was a hot day, but we all had a blast. At the end of it, he asked when we were doing it again. I told him he'd have to talk to Jeff, so he answered, "Ok, so after the Summer Program, then."Summer Program
We've spent the last month or so preparing for a summer program filled with activities geared toward kids 1st-8th grades. We have workshops for Reading, Science, Math, History, Gym games, Gardening, Computers, and Drama. Our biggest concern was that we would not have enough volunteers, but we've had more people than ever sign up to help us this summer, and most of them have never volunteered with us before! They are all such a blessing!
We were also concerned that we would not have many junior high school students, since we usually have 3, maybe 4, on a daily basis during the school year. But at least count, we had 21 signed up.
We were going to cap the program at 40 students, but we had 50 or so sign up and take the entrance tests. And we're suckers, so we just let them all in.
We currently have two full-time interns, two interns who are here to teach just one workshop (math and garden), two apprentices who have been part of our program for years and have earned a chance at a scholarship from us, and five interns from LAUP (I believe it's the Los Angeles Urban Project), and they're all a HUGE help to us this summer! Most of our other volunteers are coming from LifeSong Community Church, who I just found out a week or so ago has a whole group of people dedicated to praying for us! How exciting! We always need all the prayer we can get! :-)
Actual events in the summer program warrant their own blog entries. Just wanted to catch you up on what you missed with this one.
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