Warm Welcome to Esperanza

Today was my first day working with Esperanza and it was a wonderful experience. I walked in and was given a tour of the area and shown where I could get coffee in the kitchen and put my lunch. And I got my very own cubicle! A cubicle with a rainbow sign on the computer that said "Welcome to Our Company Megan"! I felt incredibly welcomed!

My cubicle came in handy that morning when I worked to help my mentor, Melissa, make preparations for her summer program. Local high school students will participate in a six week program where they do volunteer work around the community and get paid by Esperanza to do so. They also help train the students in the program to get the necessary skills to get a real job. In order to help develop the program, I used the Hawken community service directory to call local organizations throughout Cleveland to try to set up partnerships. Most of the time I was only able to reach voicemail, but I did manage to set up opportunities for the students to work with Medwish and the Greater Cleveland Sports Council.

After lunch, I worked on making a favorite things worksheet to have the students do one day and looking at some icebreaker games for ESL students. Because it's so close to the end of the year, the TJ after school leadership program that Esperanza runs is pretty small at the moment. We really only have four students, brothers and sisters in different grades, that still come everyday. They were all really nice, though, and for most of the time, I helped the seventh grade brother do his social studies homework.

Next week is the last week of the Esperanza after school high school leadership program, so there is a big party for that next Wednesday that I'll be helping to set up. Along with that, I'll be helping to develop more curriculum for the summer programs and school year programs for next year. I'm very excited to continue working with Esperanza and learn how they support the students with whom they work.