November 2009 Archives

Since my last post, my project has changed quite drastically. The meeting that I had with the Wilder Foundation worked about very well, but unfortunately I had to sacrifice my Kool Klub hours. At Wilder, I am part of the Youth Leadership Initiative program. The main goal of this program is to provide high school youths with the abilities and tools to effectively serve and lead in their community.

During my weekly routine, I average 7.5 hours at Wilder. On Mondays, I attend two-hour long staff meetings. These meetings are used to plan and organize the rest of the week's activities. On Wednesdays, the mentors meet. This group of 15 high school mentors meet to plan their curriculum that will be used at the retreat in February. My job during this meeting is to assist them in doing so. And on Thursdays, the action teams meet. These teams are groups of high school age youths that meet and are split in four groups: poverty, human rights, environment, and fitness. They get together to plan their own large-scale service projects to help each issue in their community. Once again, my job with this gorup of teens is to assist and guide them as they create their own projects.

Today was my first day working at Kool Klub! It was a great time. Kyle, David, and I arrived at Bethlehem Lutheran Church and met with Pastor Radtze (spelling?) and discussed what many of our responsibilities are going to be as helpers in Kool Klub. We actually have a lot of responsibility and power to change up the schedule and activities.

Tonight was a slow night. Pastor said that the average number of children ranges from 8-18 but we only had three girls tonight. Lydia was the first to show up. She is a 5 year old Hmong girl who was very shy at first. But after a game of Chutes and Ladders, she really started to open up! With a little bit of help, she showed me that she could count to 100. Second to show up was Julianne. She was 6 years old, and was fluent in French. Boy was she a handful! Easily the most rambunctious, she was was always running around and was super-competitive at the Chutes and Ladders. Last to arrive was Alma; she was 7 years old, and was Hispanic. The funniest thing was the Spanish-counting contests she had with David (he always lost).

Apart from Chutes and Ladders, we also did a lot of activities in the gym. We started with "Birds and Fishes" and went through about six other games. It was such a fun time and they all had energy to spare.

Tomorrow morning, I am meeting with Nou Yang of Wilder Foundation. Hopefully, this will be where the bulk of my hours come; I am hoping to get at least 6 hours a week here. The meeting tomorrow will hopefully let me know what I can do to also help out that organization.

A lot has changed with my project since my last entry. I have yet to hear from the organizations that I originally contacted, but another opportunity has fallen into my lap.

The two organizations I will be working with are Linc Twin Cities and the Kool Klub. Most of my hours will come from Linc, but will be supplimented by 3 hours a week at Kool Klub.

Kool Klub meets on Wednesday night. It is held at a local church, and reaches out mainly to Hmong and African-American children. The main goal of Kool Klub is to provide structure for these kids who do not have much in most aspects of their life. Some of the kids are very far behind socially, academically, and in other crucial areas. By working with them, even for just a few hours a week, I hope to make a difference.

Linc Twin Cities is another organization that I am very excited to work with. The main purpose of Linc to network local churches, especially in developmental areas. The work that I will be doing is traveling to different churches and talking about ways to better the community.

The details of both still need to be figured out. However, I met with Sue Hewitt of Linc and Pastor Radetz (spelling??) of Kool Klub, and we got a nice start. Hopefully, within the next week, I will actually be able to start my project.