Happy Belated New Year! I hope you had a restful and fulfilling holiday season!
I apologize for the long hiatus from blog updates. My New Year’s Resolution is to get back on track with blogging! I obviously won’t be updating once a week, but I will definitely try for more frequent updates than of late. Thanks for sticking with me!
My volunteer placement (Learning Center Assistant, College and Career Planning Coordinator at a non-profit that serves foster youth) here in Seattle has definitely been the most challenging, rewarding, energizing, and simultaneously exhausting job I’ve ever experienced. My students range in age from 6-20 years, and I’ve never before worked with so many students at once who vary to such a strong degree in maturity and development as my current students do. Even though many of them often test my patience (“MISS ALYSSA! I already did my homework! GO AWAY!”), they’ve all managed to capture my heart--hook, line, and sinker. Here are three examples of countless student stories that illustrate just how fulfilling and heart-warming my job can be.
A few weeks ago, a middle school student showed up in our Learning Center after school looking dejected and frustrated. Her normally bubbly smile and laugh were noticeably absent, and instead of greeting me with her usual enthusiastic “Hellooooooo Alyssa!” she simply said “Hey.” I asked her what was up and she explained that she wouldn’t be able to go to her Orchestra concert that evening because she didn’t own black dress pants, which were the required attire. She was currently on the brink of failing orchestra, so she really needed to participate in the concert. Fortunately, our organization has a Wearhouse that provides free new and gently used clothes, school supplies, and toys to children and teens, so I took her down to the store to see if they had any black pants. We discovered that she’d already used all of her allotted shopping visits for the month, but I explained the situation to our store manager and she was more than happy to make an exception. So the student and I dug through the racks until we found the perfect pair of black pants and a matching sparkly belt. She made it to her concert in style and reported to me the next day that the “magic pants” made her play so much better!
Earlier this month, one of my most challenging sixth grade students needed to type a story for her English class. This particular student is usually extremely reluctant to complete assignments, and writing papers usually ends in a stream of tears and screams of frustration. She’s several grade levels behind in reading and writing, so the frustration makes a lot of sense. But this day was different. She immediately pulled me to the computer and asked me to bring up a word document because she just had to type the story of an “albino lobster that loves celebrities.” Here’s the story in a nutshell: A gregarious lobster ran into Rihanna during its daily stroll around town. Rihanna was scared of the lobster, so she called Drake to "dispose of it," but Drake just thought the lobster was cool so he called the Black Eyed Peas, who were working on their latest Music Video, to write a rap about the lobster. Then the lobster ran away and found itself on stage during a Beyonce concert. Beyonce immediately called Niki Minaj to fill her in about the amazing lobster sighting. Eventually, the personable lobster made the evening news, but the FBI had to be summoned in order to convince the lobster to go back to its home. My student was so proud of her story that she ran around our entire office with the printout of the finished product, gleefully reading it aloud to anyone who would listen. Ah, what a milestone!
One last story. This past December I took two students to an art opening downtown to see their own artwork framed and displayed in a gallery for the very first time. A group of our youth participated in a “powerful voices” art-making workshop for foster youth, and as the culminating step, they were able to see their artwork in a public gallery. These are students who rarely ever have the change to express their artistic talents due to budget cuts in the schools and a lack of family resources. So this was a HUGE deal. We dressed up and rode the bus downtown together after the tutoring center closed, and the whole bus ride they kept asking me if I thought anyone would be there to see their work. As soon as we walked into the gorgeous gallery packed with people, the two girls spotted their pieces, ran up to me and screamed "That's our artwork on the wall!!!" And I just started crying. Right there in the gallery. And then to top it all off, both of their pieces had already been purchased. For $200.
It’s moments like these when I truly feel the sunshine.
Here’s to a year full of rewarding, positive moments.
