So we have settled pretty securely into training. It’s a little slow, but it is interesting to get to know all the different projects and filling out our preference sheets so that the staff knows where to place us. There are basically four choices of projects here in Seattle.
The WSWC (pronounced Wiss-Wick, standing for Whole School Whole Child) program works with elementary school students who are struggling in school and showing off-track indicators like poor attendance and course failure in core subjects. A lot of the children involved in the program don’t read at their grade level and sometimes that’s because they’re recent immigrants. I was surprised to find out just how many immigrants students Seattle has; there’s a large population of Somalia refugees here especially.
The Heroes teams work both in high schools and middle schools and are a service learning program that takes students out on Saturdays to do service in the community and learn about issues facing their city. They have to recruit their students but have a lot of fun with them, acting as more of a club than any of the other programs. They even take their students out for movie nights and the like and apparently build really strong relationships with their students.
The GYBBIS (Getting Youth Beyond Barriers in School) program works with suspended middle school students to work with them to get at the “why” of how they got in trouble, trying to help them figure out just what it is that is causing them to act out in the first place. They also act as a tutoring and mentoring program, and have a lot of freedom in the workshops and curriculum they develop.
The Civic Engagement team doesn’t work with students as much as the other teams do, instead they organize the large scale projects that City Year does with the community and the service projects that we do on Fridays. They are kind of like the City Year public relations face and do a lot of the same stuff I’ve been doing with Angel Charity for the last two years.
Tomorrow we leave on a retreat at a camp not too far from here, which I’m sure will be filled with tons of team building experiences and cheesy activities. But I kind of like the cheesy goofball type stuff they make us do… it’s a chance to be energetic and silly and get to know everyone in a different way than you’re used to. The scary thing is on Friday, where we find out what team we are actually assigned to. I actually like all of the projects, so I should be happy with whatever they give me, but I hope I have a good group of people on it. I also hope my assignment isn’t too far away, there’s one school which I would have to leave at 6:30 to get to on time!
It does look like this year is going to be super intense though… tons of work and lots of responsibilities. But that’s what I’m here for!