Recap of 11/5 Mentoring Event (Guest Post)

Greetings readers! I unfortunately was not able to attend the most recent Morris Academy Mentoring event held on November 5, 2005. The description of the agenda for this Saturday's event (in quotes below as written by Brett Anderson) suggested that this would be one of the most relevant events to date, as it deals simulateneously with college planning, job-preparation, writing, and presentation skills.

"For next Saturday, we've decided to present some tangible materials involved in the processes by which our kids will move from high school to what they might want to do after high school. Other materials we intend to bring are an application to work at MTV Networks, and a trade school type application (NYFD, NYPD, etc.). The purpose is not that everyone wants/can go to college, work at MTV, or go to a trade school. Rather this is an introduction to what the first steps "look like" and the kind of questions, pre-requisites, and writing skills that are required to attain these post-high school positions. We encourage everyone to talk about specific goals again with their kids and follow up on a weekly basis to see what they've done; and above all, to encourage. Soon we will have everyone bring in a college essay writing sample and have the kids begin to work on their own based on that template."

In my absence, I've solicited guest postings on the 11/5 event from some of the mentors in attending. As such, the following posting comes to us from a guest contributor, Ms. Ji Son Choi. I want to thank her whole-heartedly for the written piece:

From Ji Son Choi:

The ebb and flow of fallen leaves gathering in the gutters of the Bronx streets could mean only one thing.

Autumn is here, and hence, class has begun.

Inside the school building, our Digital-Age students were abuzz about the new hit songs on the radio (curiously, playing from their cell phones) as some of their parents met in a classroom downstairs, bandying ideas for the bake sale fundraiser on December 2nd – 3rd and the upcoming Junior Ball dance.

The students hushed as Dori, one of the programming team members, rallied everyone together for the day’s mentoring session. Picking up from the SMART goal-setting exercises done two weeks prior, we were to delve deeper into the goals through the discussion of plans and the applications. The applications, that is, for college (known as the "Common Application"), MTV and the NYPD which were distributed as examples of the initial stage of the career process.

To make the grades in school in order to be educated, to graduate, and/or to move onto college -- is the common denominator of most students and one of my mentee's greatest concerns. We put pen to paper and broke down this all encompassing goal to more specific goals. Once the excess was cut out of these specific goals, the roadblocks became lucid as did the bulldozers to clear them.

After our one to two hour battle sessions were through, we all bantered with our students and fellow mentors. Between the laughter and fun, I paused to look around with a kind of admiration that is said be unwarranted for a group of the so-called lackadaisical, Generation Y, adolescent youth.

But then again, you don’t know our kids.

(Posting was kindly contributed by Ji Son Choi, a dedicated Morris Academy mentor.)