The First Few Days

I started my job as Assistant Coordinator of the GEAR UP program, and my days have been very interesting. One of the first things I did was attend a truancy board meeting. I didn't know this, but Washington has a law that says all kids must attend school. If they have a certain number of unexcused absences (I don't remember the exact number) within a certain time period, they can ultimately be in trouble with the law -having to present their case in court and even ending up in juvenile detention. The law is a result of a murder which occurred to a young girl while she was skipping classes. Her parents had no idea she wasn't at school. For safety reasons, a law was passed. (Of course there is a more to it, but that is the gist). The school district I am working with has decided to step in to help kids in hopes of preventing them from having to enter the court system.

The truancy board is made up of 8-12 adults. The truant student has to come to the meeting with their parent or guardian and present their case - explain why they have been absent, why they have been missing classes. The board asks the student and parents a lot of questions - everything from home life to problems with other students in their classes. The idea is to try to get to the root of why they aren't in school. It is very intimidating. The reason Rosalie and I had to attend this meeting was that one of the GEAR UP students was going to be there - she had missed numerous days of a particular class. Because of this she is failing the class and not doing well in others. Her GPA is below the benchmark for participation in the GEAR UP program and she risks being exited from the program at the end of the summer if she can not bring her grades up. If that happens she loses her scholarship she would be given for college. This scholarship is very important to the students in the program as their GPAs are generally not high enough to qualify for many of the scholarships out there.

Another interesting thing I got to do was to sit in on a few of the Senior Culmination Presentations. One of the high school's graduation requirements is that students prepare, present, and pass their culminating project. This is a portfolio that the student works on throughout the four years of school. It includes everything from academic works, to resume, to autobiography, to future plans. Out of the six or so presentations I listened to, all of the students talked about how they had gone through periods of deep depression and anger, particularly around their second year. It was very eye opening and almost immediately brought back memories of my high school years and the tough days that accompany the millions of thoughts, emotions, and insecurities you have as a 15 or 16 year old. The GEAR UP students are currently sophomores and it got me thinking that many of them are probably dealing with those emotions right now. It sparked an idea to create a workshop for our summer program where we can take the students off-site, get them in small groups, and have them do some soul searching. Not sure exactly how we will do this yet, but we're gonna try to put something together for them. Anything we can do to help them get over that hump will be much appreciated and is something that they can discuss a few years from now when they have to do their own culminating project.

Most of my time so far has been spent learning as much as a I can about GEAR UP. There is a lot of paperwork and administrative tasks that have to be done in order the grant to run successfully. I have had the opportunity to meet about half of the students in the GEAR UP program. All of them have been polite (at least to my face), but I quickly learned that it is going to take some time to earn their trust and respect. For example, one kid already lied to me about his name. I think many of the kids will try to test the boundaries with me, which I think is going to be the most challenging part of my job. It is very strange to be in this environment after becoming very used to working in a professional environment!

I'm looking forward to getting going with planning the summer program. It is going to be a busy summer for me, but I think I will enjoy it. Stay tuned for updates!