Starting the New School Year

I love my job.

That's not always something that you hear often enough. All too often, its the complaining about the job you end up hearing about. Now, I have plenty that I could complain about (and probably will at some point), and I know that Kath has reason to complain about my job a bit (way too many nights and weekends, and sometimes out of town conferences), but overall I love my job.

I work with low-to-middle income students who will be in the first generation of their families to go on to college. I work with these students, giving them the tools, tricks, support, and skills they need to get through high school and into some form of further education.

Over the course of two weeks, I go to ten different schools and visit with my students during their study halls or over lunch. Three of the schools I go to are alternative schools, so their schedule is a lot more flexible, and I see them when I can. Over the school year, I'll go out and see each school 13 times.

These contact times are among my favorite parts of the year. I love it when the students come in, sit down, and talk with me. The subjects range from academics to movies to extracurriculars to (and I still cringe when these start up) the cute boy my student is interested in.

For the academics, we'll go over the various notetaking methods, talk about organization and time management (which, for any of those who remember me from high school and college, is terribly ironic), and learning styles. We'll do career research and college search. Scholarship searches are also very big.

I do enjoy the personal development part of the program. We go over the Seven Habits with our students, and they work on goalsetting and a personal Mission Statement to help them focus in on their dreams and goals.

In some very real ways, that is what we do at Upward Bound. We are the Dreamweavers. We help our students see that the world does not center around Northeastern Iowa. There is a much larger world out there. Dream big; go for it.

Spread your wings and go someplace.

Many of our students go out and come back, and I think that's great. I personally am living in a town very much like my hometown, and I've discovered over the last number of years that this area really is part of the ancestral homeland. My grandfathers were born less than an hour (in opposite directions, from here, and my parents were both born less than an hour from here as well. I may have been brought up a Cheesehead, but the roots are Iowan. (As a Cheesehead, I still find that a little embarrassing, but I'm getting over it).

Okay, enough babbling. I'll post again soon.