Day of Planning

Wednesday

Today I returned to working with Esperanza, where I will be spending the rest of my project. I started out the morning by having a brief meeting with Melissa to go over a plan for the rest of out time together now that the High School Youth Leadership Program has ended for the year. One item on our list of things to do is go back to TJ one day soon to clean out the Esperanza closet for the summer and take an inventory of the items that we do have, and make a list of where our needs for next year stand.

In regards to next year, we'll be preparing for the new sessions of the High School Leadership Program and Saturday Academy, which helps students get ready for college, in two ways. One way is going through the curriculum lessons we have, and adding to them to make them more interesting and better fit student needs. The other way we'll be gearing up for these programs, is by working on marketing, and distributing the flyers throughout the neighborhood.

In order to accomplish those two activities of curriculum design and marketing, I worked on a few lists for the afternoon. One list I made, for Saturday Academy, is a lot of things that really helped me during the college process that I hope we can integrate into the curriculum. Another list I made, is a list of traits and activities that I think cultivate good leadership skills so that we can try to incorporate these activities in the High School Youth Leadership Program.

The final list I made, which I still would need to work on the next day to finish, took up the bulk of my time. I researched and compiled a list of local businesses, churches, and organizations, particularly those that are run by Hispanics, or cater to a large population of Hispanics. We will use this list next week to distribute marketing materials throughout the local area. Today taught me a lot about all the small things necessary to create connections with students and recruit students and parents to take part in all the activities Esperanza offers.