Graduation!

Graduation was on June 1st, 2017. This was a great day with many current YESS senior and past YESS students graduating. I was very happy to see that Leonel was the main translator for the ceremony and Guadalupe was the salutatorian speaker, as well as an honorary board of education awardee.

Lupe's speech was very motivational. She talked about how she will be moving across the country to soon start her life, then she thanks her mom for being up early with her during the week so that she could heave breakfast and get to school early.  I loved that she did her commencement speech in English and in Spanish.

Jennifer from engagement center also gave a commencement speech and talked about how you can do anything as long as you set your mind to it. It was great seeing so many YESS students speak at graduation as well as graduate in the top 10.
I am very proud of how hard the seniors worked this year. It was a very joyous moment to see those students that did struggle walk across the stage. I know all of the mentors will do great in life and no matter what they choose to do, they will be the best at it.

Final two weeks

For the past two weeks students have been working hard to get their grades up, and to complete missing assignments for all of their teachers. It has been amazing to see and hear mentors motivating their mentees to work hard.  Yesterday I was signing senior check out sheets and a student told me, "Ms. I can't believe I am graduating! If I had to do it all over again I would have tried harder. I didn't really care and I only wanted to get by. I try to tell my mentee to not be like me and to really make an effort." I was surprised that we were having this conversation, and what made this conversation even better, was that his mentee was listening to the conversation.  This student went on to tell me that his "ah- ha" moment was when teachers, counselors, and Emily asked him about what college he was going to. That moment made everything real. He had to start thinking about his future.

He went on to tell me that he was looking at school requirements and he did not meet these requirements. He then looked at his mentee and said, "don't close all the doors for yourself now, you don't want to be a senior and wish you could go here or there."

These last two weeks have been long and very busy, and something I have learned while being at North is that mentors really own up to the role of being a mentor. These mentors care for their mentees, not just academically, but really care for their future and life.  I am very impressed with these students. It has made my transition from Shaw Heights Middle School to North High School easy.  I am excited to see many mentees become mentors next year!

5/8/17- 5/12/17

This week was a very busy week for students at North. Many mentors were busy taking AP tests, and many students were finishing projects, taking tests, and turning missing assignments in for their core classes. Luckily a few students got the opportunity to see Chris Brown, thanks to tickets that were donated to YESS.  Sabrin, Lupe, Hannah, and Julianna went to see Chris Brown on Monday evening. They had great seats and a great time!

Mentor leaders worked very hard in preparing for the YESS End of the Year Celebration. Mentor leaders talked to Mr. Wolf about speaking at the event, made arrangement with one another to finish tasks such as interviewing Todd Davis #51, and also assisted in putting together the script.  I am very proud of all the work they did in making the event successful. From North main campus we only had 9 students absent from the event!

At the event we had four scholarship winners. The winners were: Leonel, Sabrin, Marivel, and Jaquikeyah. North High School had the most winners. I am very proud of all scholarship winners. They deserved it.
Sabrin won a 2,000 dollar scholarship.  She mentioned to me that she was shocked that she won. However, she did not think she should take the scholarship since she has all of her college costs taken care of. She felt in her heart that she should give Leonel, mentor leader her scholarship since he will be attending school of mines. Sabrin has such a big heart in giving her scholarship to Leonel. YESS has honored her wish and is allowing her to give her scholarship of 2,000 to Leonel. Leonel will be the second student in many years to attend School of Mines! It is moments like this that make me proud to be apart of YESS and moments like this! Overall, this was a great week in the YESS classroom at North!

5/1/17- 5/5/17

This week students began their final project. Their final project is to create a personal brand that represents them. Students are to reflect on all of the material they have learned through the school year and create a brand that represents them, Students are to create a resume, a business card, a log, and a presentation that states their personal mission and vision statements. These presentations are due next Friday. I am excited to see their presentations!

This week students worked hard on their homework support day. I noticed students were more focused and ready to get those grades up because there is not much time to turn in work. I am glad tht students are ending the year focused.

4/24/17-4/28/17

This week was a very busy week for YESS students. This week students continued to work on learning about credit and debt, how to budget and save for things they want, and also learned about investing. We discussed how loan programs can have higher interest rates because of ethnicity and race.

On Wednesday, the YESS breakfast took place at the PPA event center.  Casianna from 6th period talked about the impacts of losing her mother at such young age. Casianna spoke about grief and how it lead to carrying around anger. She discussed how the anger would come out at school and on others. I was very proud of her for speaking about losing her mother to breast cancer and how she has tried to do better this school year. Many of the people at my table cried and told me what an amazing young lady she is.

Eight other seniors attended the event and networked and made some amazing connections. Throughout the week I have had many people emailing me asking me about a some of the students that attended the breakfast. One has offered Casianna a basketball scholarship, and another person has offered to help another student with making connection at a school he will be attending in the fall. Overall, this was another successful YESS breakfast.

4/17/17-4/20/17

With only a month left of school, students are getting to the end of the new YESS Curriculum. Currently students are working on financial literacy. This week students discussed the value of money, as well as reflected on what they spend money on when they are sad, happy, have anxiety, and as a class we discussed why we spend money on the things we do, when we feel a certain way. Students also worked on goals they have with money and set short tern, midterm, and long term financial goals. This week students began to do research on credit and debt. We will continue to work on financial literacy next week.

This week mentor leaders at North met mentor leaders from West High School, Adams City High School, and from Lincoln High School. The mentors from all 4 high schools met to discuss the end of the year event, who should be awarded mentee and mentor of the year, and decided on which students will share their story. Students also put together the outline of the event, who will speak, and what they will say. I am very excited to for the event and see all of the hard work mentors leaders are putting in to make this even happen!

4/10/17- 4/14/17

Students in YESS mentoring have been working diligently on the YESS curriculum. Last week we discussed stereotypes and labels. We discussed situations where we have been stereotyped or labeled, and how it made us feel. After students discussed this last week, students came up with the idea to express who they are through art. Students spent some time catching up on missing work while also working on self-portraits. Students presented who they are beyond stereotypes and beyond labels.

Also this week, we finished our nutrition lessons and discussed  how we continue to put our health first based on the research that was done during nutrition 101. Many students expressed how hard it is to eat healthy because they live in a food desert, a location where there are no grocery stores. Students also mentioned why eating healthy is hard. One student said, " I get 20 dollars a week, so I can only spend 5 dollars each day on lunch. Salads cost more than burgers or fries, so I have to budget what I can afford into my lunch." Some students made suggestions of packing lunch from home, but some students argued that the food at home is not healthy either because of money. This was eye opening because it can be easy to make suggestion and tell students to eat healthy, however everyone's circumstances are different. Healthy food costs more money than fatty foods, and at a young age, it is very hard for students to control what goes into their bodies. Students made plans on walking more and being more active during the day.

Overall this was a great week in YESS at North. Students were able to create a work of art that demonstrates who they are, as well as learned more about how to care for themselves, not just emotionally, but physically.