Reflection 1
Back in full gear!! Last semester, the majority of us began to go to Alton (when all of our schedules allowed of course). During that time we got a glimpse at the part of Alton we’d be at, we got to interact with the Boys and Girls clubs’ workers and their teen club. I think being able to go during our first semester helped us get a better idea of how things run and how we can coordinate things based on the clubs’ events and attendance. The area of Alton we are in doesn’t seem like it could be considered well-off, but I do think it’s cool that the Boys and Girls club may have been a school building before. When you enter the building, it’s very inviting and the front desk administrator is beyond kind. You look around and see how colorful the walls are and how all the decorations seem like they would attract kids of all ages. Kind of reminds me of when I used to volunteer at Scottsdale Park District back home in Chicago. It’s like a full circle moment. When it comes to partners, I feel as those in my research team may sometimes forget we are the ones being watched and not the other way around. Technically we may be interacting and gaining data from the kids, but we are the adults to them and we should act as such. But I do have to say all of my fellow peers were careful with their interactions. Other then sometimes not acting right, they made sure to demonstrate fair language, proper body cues and made sure not to do anything that went against Boys and Girls club regulations (exp. Taking pictures of the kids was not allowed).
Coming back from winter break felt as if we never left at all. We knew some kids and reengaged with them, but we made sure to re-introduce ourselves for the students who didn’t remember us or for those who have never met us before. Obstacles we may encounter would be lack of attendance, lack of engagement, and not seeing eye to eye on some things within our research team.. For the most part I feel we were all generally excited! Some of us were working with community partners for the first time (or at least in a bigger way than before) and others were just excited to step out of their comfort zone. If we had anything to be apprehensive about it would be the fact that it’s kind of hard to get data because we do have to ask permission for certain things. The barriers to building trust would be initiating that connection, if the mentee doesn’t connect with you there’s now way trust will form. Adjusting our plans will just be as we go, it was pretty evident that the number of teens was going to be a hit or miss (some days we had 25 others we had 5 kids present).
Reflection 2
As much as I may seem like a social butterfly, that definitely wasn’t the case when at the boys and girls club. I engaged with some of the kids at first but felt there were others who would engage better with them then I would (so I backed off in a sense). I was confident I could help others but wasn’t sure how until they asked. In general I get nervous speaking to new people or people who aren’t my usual circle of people, so I will say I never volunteered to take charge or lead any activity unless I had too. For the most part I was open to any ideas, but was also against some ideas (exp. Waiting for all the kids to finish eating to start an activity, I felt like us waiting was just a waste of time). My behaviors have influenced my interactions by limiting them. I bonded with one maybe two of the students but I don’t think being reserved helped in the sense of being able to bond with others. The one thing I feel I’m doing well would be participating physically (joining in the activities, walking around seeing if anyone needs help, playing games, etc.). Some things I could improve would be, engaging more (vocally), not being as reserved and being a part of the planning.
Reflection 3
For this week, the best data we collected was what they wanted out of our mentorship program and we were able to pair mentees with their mentors. This was done in a focused group environment, they all had a piece of paper and they wrote where they wanted to be in a few years, what they would like to learn and who they’d like as a mentor. Once we paired the mentees with our mentors we never really did anything with them (individually). There were never enough kids to break apart into just our small groups. I guess what went well was working in a big group kept all the kids engaged. Problems we didn’t foresee was not being able to break apart with our designated mentees. None of us got any one on one time with our pairs, which I feel was kind of the point but again we couldn’t predict how many kids were going to be present and which of those kids were our mentees. I feel like we could’ve done many things differently, like finding a way of seeing which kids were always in attendance to have paired them up with mentors who always attended on Thursdays. I feel like communication between us and the Boys and Girls club facilitators should and could have been better.
Reflection 4
I decided to read “Youth Initiated Mentoring: Investigating a New Approach to working with Vulnerable Adolescents” . The first relation that I realized was similar was this study let them choose their mentors or well their results showed that it’s more effective when the kids choose. A quote to go with said comment would be straight from the abstract,” Results also revealed that relationships were more likely to endure when youth chose their mentors on their own (rather than receiving help from parents or program staff) and when mentors were of the same race as youth”. ( Schwartz, Rhodes, Spencer, Grossman) I don’t think we learned anything different then those did from this research, but I do think it helps us understand what we’ve all read first hand. Our lives are 110% different then those in the article and those we are working with. I don’t think I can provide information of what I would change from what they did, but I do think we have a lot to learn from other mentorship programs (no matter if they failed or succeeded) in order to better ours, if we continue past this semester.
Reflection 5
All in all, I feel like we’ve had a decent semester and time while working with the Boys and Girls club. We’ve had ups, downs but all in all I feel like we’ve all learned something.. I learned that it’s definitely not easy working with others. Especially in our research team there are a lot of strong personalities that clash and sometimes it’s hard for all of us to be on the same page Things I’ve learned from working with the kids at Boys and Girls club is that sometimes it’s hard to keep kids who are about 4 years younger than us engaged. Not only that but every other week different kids show up or kids we were doing an activity with the week before don’t show up. It’s very hit or miss with Boys and Girls Club attendance. Something I learned about myself this year is I can be too nice. And maybe that has nothing to do with what we’ve been doing, but that’s one thing of many that I really learned about myself. Another thing I learned is I have the capability to learn from people younger than me. Our goal may have been to leave an impact in these kids’ lives, but I think they also left one in ours. The kids we’ve worked with have not only been through so much but they showed resilience and strength. Those kids could be going through the worst thing ever, but you would never know because they are always smiling, laughing and cracking jokes.