What are your goals?

Second group in a row that I have left feeling good. Today we discussed planning and organizing through using a planner, and I was really happy that the students participated. I had thought that it wouldn't go well, but it did so it was a pleasant experience.

So last night, we also had a DC meeting on how to create a college-going culture in our school sites. I thought it was very inspiring (although I wish it wasn't an hour and a half) because I now want to coordinate a meeting with my students' teachers to discuss how we (they) can use their classrooms and their positions as teachers to really foster the sense that our students are meant for college. And today in group I talked a bit about what I am studying at Berkeley and also fielded some questions the kids had, which I see to be a good sign because it shows they think about college to some degree.

With my work in Y-Scholars, it's been making me re-evaluate my view on outreach. I do believe that it is very important and is needed like crazy, but I think it also needs to be complementing efforts in policy changes. And personally, I thought that outreach wasn't really for me partly because I haven't always liked working with youth (from my experience in elementary school tutoring). Having my position is a good learning experience though. I think I am definitely developing patience and understanding for my freshmen and seniors, and my teaching skills are getting practice and opportunity to improve. Most importantly though, it is allowing me to see what more I would like to do in this area of work, like how to get schools to create a college-going atmosphere for instance. Maybe that fits more in studies of education rather than college outreach, but it's something that I have been thinking about because of being in Y-Scholars. Okay. This is it, perhaps more later I will expand on this thought.