So recently, I have been discussing the fact that I have been very disappointed with the outcome of my project. I am happy to announce that that is no longer there case. I shared that I received an email from Mrs. Johnson regarding a meeting with Ms. Burger, the 8th grade counselor at TMS. On Friday I was able to get together with them and discuss the future of my ideas. They asked me if I would be interested in becoming a mentor for the Trickum Middle School Mentoring Program. Of course I accepted the offer. To begin my mentoring I will be assigned a small group of 8 Latino students that are at risk for giving up on their academics, and eventually the group will keep growing after the students andI become comfortable with each other. I am currently working alongside Mrs. Johnson with coming up with a curriculum to begin with, and Ms. Burger is working on making a calendar to schedule my visits at Trickum. Once we get this whole plan together we will present the idea to Mrs. Sands, the principle so I can be officially granted access to becoming a mentor. I am so grateful for this opportunity and I cannot wait to actually start getting close to those kids.

I have received some amazing news from the ESOL teacher at TMS. I recently recevied this email Mrs. Johnson received from the 8th grade counselor, Mrs. Burger:

Subject: Next steps for Latino small group mentoring
Hi Ms. Johnson,I wanted to follow up with you regarding the young lady you mentioned to Ms. King and I.  Can you schedule a meeting with her so I can get an idea of her plans for the students?  I would also like you to give me a list of 10 students maximum who you think would benefit from this venture.  Ms. King,  I can take the lead on this and gather the information and then review it with you if you'd like.

- Mrs. Johnson has told me they are trying to make me "official" at Trickum. We have been working on a date for all of us to meet up together. I am excited to share the upcoming news after we have this meeting. My passion is helping these students, and I could not be happier!

We are coming to an end with this project and I am beginning to become disappointed with my outcome. I have been hearing of the great things my peers have done and I feel like I have not done enough to have a successful finale to my project.

I am constantly trying to contact the ESOL teacher at Trickum, but I don't ever get a secure reply. I would like to meet with the students as much as I can before the final presentation. I would love to be able to share a successful story to my classmates, but for now I realize I only have one success in this whole project.

I am beginning to think I need to contact other schools, but a part of me is only interested in helping out TMS. I want to help the kids in my community grow; especially those in the 8th grade. I personally think that 8th graders would be more attentive when I reach out to help them because they look up to me since I am in high school and they want to know all about it.

It seems like I only have complaints on how terrible I think my project is going, but enough of that; it is time to grind. Wish me luck!

Current plans

I was absent last Thursday when we worked on 20% time in class, but I did work on things outside of the class. I received an email from Mrs. Johnson that said she was thinking of me, and she would love if I came to Trickum soon. I am so happy she finally got back to me because last time we tried to schedule a meeting it was hard to find a time that was convenient for the students because they had just started a schedule, and they needed to get more used to it. My goal is to prepare at least 3 more meetings with the middle schoolers, and even meetings outside of school where we can go to the park or starbucks and just talk about life and ourselves. Also, I want to provide a tutoring service for them.

I have been unable to talk to the students for a while now but I have been working on lesson plans and ways to get them to be comfortable around me.

During my journey of preparing for colleges I have realized that most of the schools I am interested (UGA and Emory) offer programs for Hispanic students like myself. I have personally attended to programs which both schools offer in which they hold informational days for both Latino parents and students in order to really get them to understand the college applying process.

With that being said, I am very grateful for the opportunities out there that many schools provide to assist Latino students. All of these new experiences I am going through are vital to helping the students I am trying to work with.

The amount of assistance for Latinos that schools are providing will keep increasing through out the year because they truly want to help us be successful with our education. My goal is to raise awareness to the young students at Trickum about all of these wonderful opportunities they have for them.

I have slacked on writing my blog on time each week. Last 20% time in class I focused the majority of my time on researching statistics on Hispanic education. I want to learn as much as possible about the information that is out there on the education of Latinos.

Currently, there is a rise in Latino students, but it is still not as high as it could be. My dream is for every Hispanic to make education a priority in their lives. I understand that some people are not meant for school, and there are people that do better working on things outside of a classroom. That is still not an excuse for dropping out of school, or not even trying to do well in class.

It infuriates me that some Latinos in the US do not take advantage of the endless opportunities they have to succeed here. There are people in foreign countries that would do anything to attend school and have the chance to further their education, but they have limited resources available. Here in the US, there are so many resources we have to make our education valuable, yet people seem to ignore this and give up pursuing a higher education.

With that being said, my goal for the next meeting is to express the educational opportunities that the Latino population should take advantage of. I still have not heard from the Arcado principle so
I am assuming she doesn't want me to participate with the students.

Hopefully by the end of this week I will have the next meeting with the TMS students scheduled.

Today, I attempted to contact the Arcado Elementary School principle, Penny Young. I previously emailed her when I began this project, but I received no response. 

My younger sister really wants me to go in and speak to those ESOL students. She told me that she spoke to Mrs. Young, and apparently Mrs. Young really enjoyed that idea. Also, when I went to Trickum, the principle, Mrs. Sands said that she spoke to Mrs. Young, and she told her that I went in to speak to the students. 

Even after those remarks, I am not sure if Mrs. Young is interested in having me come in to speak to the students. I am trying my best to do so because I believe that if I reach out to those students now, I have the ability to change the rest of their educational lives. 

Also, I am still trying to set up a meeting time with the TMS students. It is hard to go speak to them because I really do not want to disturb their class time. Hopefully, we are able to work something out. 

I am currently doing some research on ways I can truly impact each student, and how I can motivate them to succeed.