Summer School is Here!

Summer school has officially started, and the atmosphere in the office is much more lively, fun, and noisy. I have yet to begin working with "my" group of students, as I am still needed in the office while we get things running. However, I still get a good glimpse of what having so many students from a wide age range entails. For example, a kindergarten student was sent in the office because he was crying and did not want to do work. This may sound uneventful, but if you consider that I have never interacted with children for more than a few minutes, it was quite an event. The child was crying non-stop and refused to do his work, claiming that he missed his mother and that he wanted to go home. One of the volunteers sat with the boy and tried for about 10 minutes to calm him down, but it was near useless. I couldn't believe the task of relaxing the child could be so difficult, so I tried to help and soon realized that it wasn't as easy as it looks. Although I will not be working directly with that young of an age group, I will help them on occasion, and I am excited to see what I learn. I also had to fix my first mistake today, unfortunately. I put some excel sheets together earlier this week (Excel is a new program for me), and when I changed the order to be alphabetical, I didn't notice that some other data was rearranged as well. As a result, teachers got attendance sheets that were not accurate, and when I realized what had happened, I had to re-do all of the sheets. I couldn't believe I had made such a big mistake and worse, that I had to fix it. The good news is that I learned from that error and now I know how to rearrange the Excel sheet without having the same problem. Whether it be from personal interactions or with technology, I am learning new things and I'm very excited. 

Today I spent my entire shift calling parents to remind them about our summer school program, which starts this Wednesday. Our target number of participants is 150, but as of today we only had 88. A main reason for this is that the center has increased its fee to $100 per student in order to meet the high costs of salaries and food (the program provides breakfast and lunch). In my point of view, I think that $100 is definitely reasonable considering that students receive two meals and are taught by certified teachers in a classroom setting that is much more personal than their regular classes throughout the school year. However, this is another example of where my privilege shines through; most of the kids that participate come from low-income families where $100 can really throw off the household rhythm. To respond to this our director decided to minimize the fee by 50%, so $50 per student. Even at this price some families are still unable to participate, but it did draw in a few more students. After I called the parents who had filled out applications, but who had not yet made a payment, I had to call the parents of children that had participated last year. I was initially uncomfortable with the assignment because I figured that if a parent had not signed their child up for the program this summer, it was because they were not interested, so I didn't want to be a nuisance by calling someone's home. My attitude changed when I called a home and was greeted by a kind mother who so grateful when she heard that there was still space for her daughter who had participated last summer; apparently this woman had an important surgery that impeded her from signing up her daughter earlier this summer, and she assumed that there wasn't any more space left. The gratitude and excitement in her voice really pumped me up and I no longer felt that discomfort as I called other parents. During the last few minutes of my shift today I met with the teacher that I will be assisting during the program, Mr. Hernandez, and he briefly went over his ideas for our class. I am very excited to get started, although also somewhat nervous.

I continued office work today. I spent most of my morning organizing a shelf that was full of random learning tools, such as math books and flashcards. It's disorganization, however, made it impossible to make good use of these tools, so I made labels and placed the books and cards in a better order. Then I had to shred papers with personal information of students who have participating in the program in the past. Because El Centro is located within the grounds of a public park, the trash bins that we used can be accessed by anyone, so we make sure that we discard this type of paperwork properly. After doing some of this basic office work, I had to call parents whose children have participated in the summer school program in that past, but who have not been enrolled this year. This is a way to try get our numbers up and make sure that enough students are participating in the program. Unfortunately, many of the parents that I spoke with indicated that their child cannot participate this year because they have to attend summer school at their own schools in order to make up a class. It's unfortunate because that means that students from these mainly low-income families continue to do poorly academically. I think it's an interesting pattern and I wonder how many of these cases are due to individual lack of effort, and how many are due to social issues. My studies at Dickinson have highlighted this issue of poor academic performance as a result of growing up in an under-served community, and it is quite sad to see it live. I have hope that I can be a positive influence to some of these students during my time with them this summer.

Between yesterday and today I finally completed organizing the binders that contain El Centro's media coverage over the years, as well as community concerns. I noticed that there are certain issues, such as racial and gang violence, that are persistent throughout the years. I've grown up in Pasadena and I over all these years I had remained oblivious to this problem. I am beginning to notice just how sheltered  and privileged I have grown up. For example, I have had a couple of parents call in and ask me to spell out the organization's name, so that they can write out a check for the children to attend summer school. I was stunned to hear that a native Spanish speaker could not spell "El Centro de Accion Social," something that to me does not present any issue. Another parent came into the office and asked that I fill out the application for her, as she was illiterate. Of course I grew up aware that others lived differently than myself, and that others did not have some of the skills that I did, but it is a much different experience to actually live that, so to speak, so it was very eye-opening. I'm looking forward to these types of exposures over the summer, especially because I believe it is something that I will be encountering often in my career goals. My interactions with parents is sporadic, as they come in or call throughout the day, but when I am not assisting parents, I continue with office organization. For now, I am working on creating more space and making learning tools, such as flashcards and books, more accessible to students, who will be in the office for summer school starting next week.

I began my day organizing books today. It was a tedious assignment at first, but I soon understood the importance of it. The books were thrown on a book shelf in random order, and books that are meant for younger children were at the very top, whereas as adult books were closer to the middle. In other words, young children would not be able to reach any book meant for their age group, so I worked on making that more accessible. I am beginning to understand the significance behind seemingly insignificant tasks like this one; I hope to adopt this way of thinking soon and hopefully take my own initiative on what needs to be done around the office. I also began looking through newspapers articles as far back as the 70s that cover El Centro's history. I'm very glad that staff members and volunteers over the years have kept track of articles. It was interesting to read some of the more recent articles as I was organizing them today. The current director began his position as such in about 2005 or 2006, and he entered with a lot of enthusiasm and support from community and board members. I have yet to meet him, but I am intrigued to find out how his performance has met the expectations with which he entered. I am sure that he has done only good things for El Centro (because he was covered in several articles as I browsed through them) but I think it's great that we have a way to keep track of things like these, as well as other issues that have long been covered in the community, such as immigration and violence. For example, there were just as many articles on Gang-related violence in the year 2000, as there are in the year 2009; that indicates to me that there is either a huge and increasing number of gang violence and/or we have yet to find the correct way to combat it. This reality is somewhat disheartening, but I think that access to this history is vital for change as it serves as a reminder of our past mistakes and will hopefully highlight a solution.

As I mentioned earlier, the next several days I will be cleaning out the office to create more space and organizing materials so that the children who participate in the summer school program can access them easily. Today I sorted old files, from the year 2009, because the center likes to keep track of students who have participated in the program in the past. I also cleaned out a cabinet and separated new and used office supplies. Fortunately the center is conscious of recycling materials, so although there were many old folders and used paper that other offices would surely discard, we will be using those as best we can. I have noticed, however, that the center does not recycle paper that can no longer be used, and I am going to do my best to create an easy system to encourage that. Dickinson has definitely made me more aware of sustainability issues, and I would like to share that awareness at El Centro, especially because we work with so many children and young adults that can be influenced as well. After organizing a little bit, I returned to making phone calls and reminding parents that the deadline for summer school is quickly approaching. My supervisor stepped out to a meeting and left me alone in the office, where there was plenty to do between cleaning, making phone calls, and answering the door. I was quite busy, and I can't believe the lack the assistance that my supervisor has to work with on a daily basis, something that I believe is common in the non-profit sector.

First day on the job

Today was my first day as an intern at the Center for Social Action (El Centro). El Centro hosts different activities throughout the year to benefit members from low-income communities. This summer I will working with the summer school program as a teacher's aid with the 7th-12th grade group of students. Because the summer school program begins in two weeks, I will be working on organizing the office and calling parents over the next few days. Today I spent a couple of hours going through paperwork and discarding any documents that are no longer needed in order to create more space. The Center provides a lot of informational pamphlets about different organizations in the community that can be help with a variety of issues ranging from academic performance to domestic violence, but because there are so many pamphlets it becomes difficult to find the correct information. To help with this I spent the morning organizing and labeling paperwork to facilitate access. The second half of my day I called parents who have signed up their children for the summer school program, but who have not yet completed the application. I have noticed that many of the participating families do not speak English and rely on someone speaking Spanish in the office in order to be aware of the steps. I realized that if I didn't speak this second language, my tasks in the office would be heavily limited. I am looking forward to the rest of my first week at El Centro.