#ebbsa

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Internship Review- Looking Back, Looking Forward

I left my internship more than a month ago. In the time that I have been re-adjusting to college life here in Minnesota, I realized that my internship taught me so much about myself as well as good practices for achieving long term and short term goals. When I started the EBBSA internship, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. EBBSA was new and still in the process of establishing its goals and solidifying its position as the powerhouse collective it is becoming. Although I started out unsure of what lay ahead, I soon became very comfortable in the flow of work and found so much joy in the progress that I was able to make.

For this internship, I had the honor of working from the building of one of EBBSA’s partners--SAY Si-- with their awesome communications manager, Stephen Guzman. I first have to say that working with Stephen just made my internship that much more amazing. He was so nurturing and relaxed but always professional. It was awesome to work from someone so accomplished and intelligent! Knowing I would have Stephen to lean on and to learn from each day made me feel more confident and his positivity made my experience so much more fun.I was immediately brought into the internship to help out with the annual summit. Once again, I had no idea what to expect and it turned out that the summit was huge! I tried helping as much as I could but I was somewhat nervous just because I didn’t know anyone yet. The summit was really fun and it gave me an introduction to both the work being done by EBBSA and the potential for connections that lay ahead. I soon learned that my job would entail strengthening the EBBSA “brand” and I began to work on establishing a social media presence. I worked on learning more about all of EBBSA’s partners (Which was quite an undertaking!). Because I was the first official EBBSA staff member, it was important to me to get to know about all of the different partners and the services they provide to students during OST.

My favorite part of this internship was that it was so multifaceted. As the summer progressed, I was given tasks from Stephen and the engagement working group but when I completed those tasks, I was truly free to do things such as schedule visits, post on social media and create blog posts. I was responsible for sending out and managing emails, I worked on both the old and new websites, I met nonprofit organizers from all over San Antonio and I even helped with different SAY Si tasks. With all of these responsibilities, I got into the habit of making “to-do” lists and visualizing what my long-term and short-term goals were for the summer. To this day, I use the same google document bullet points to effectively check off the tasks I need to accomplish. I also utilize the same email program for the organization that I co-facilitate-- the Mixed Race Identity Collective. Finally, this internship was unique because of just how many connections I was able to make. One of the major differences I have seen between Minnesota and San Antonio is the lack of community that I feel here. This college is, as my advisor, Marcos Ortega, a fellow Texan, noted, professors and students here tend to be very individualistic. I loved this summer and now, with this comparison, I can see that the amazing community that being a part of EBBSA allowed me to build, was one of the reasons why I was so happy. Now that I understand the importance of community, I actively seek out and maintain connections with mentors in order to foster the sense of community that I need in order to feel like I can make it through my last year in college. I definitely envision myself continuing to work in conjunction with OST partners in San Antonio be it something I do in my free time or something that I incorporate into my future career.

Looking back on my experience as I settle into the routine of college life once again, I can say with certainty that my internship was much more than a job--it was a learning experience where I was granted an inside look at work done by amazing people which will ensure a brighter future for San Antonio and the world at large.

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City Year SA- Corps Members

City Year recruits around the country for individuals, deemed corps members, to serve as teaching assistants, tutors, and after school program facilitators. I attended one of the trainings for these individuals, visited with them and learned more about what they will be dedicating the next 11 months of their lives to doing.

The target corps members for City Year are 17-24 years old and may have a wide variety of interests. Corps members serve on teams of 7-16 individuals. This school year, City Year has 105 members serving in 9 different schools in San Antonio. When applying for City Year, applicants may choose one of three options--serving where there is most need, applying to a region or applying directly to a site. This means that a team of corps members may include individuals from several different states. Before the corps members are assigned to a school, each member takes a survey to assess what interests match up between the members and the students from a school. Corps member diversity is important- the more varied the interests and experiences of the corps members, the greater the variety of learning opportunities for students. City Year staff make observations and track data from each school district every year to make sure that the core members do indeed have a positive impact. Also, teachers’ needs are not forgotten; teachers take surveys which allow them to express their opinions and experiences with the corps members.

A day in the life of a corps member is jam packed with duties. Before school, corps members monitor the students eating breakfast and check in with how the students are doing with homework and classes. Corps members make sure that the students they know have trouble with attendance are present and may help with unfinished homework. During the day, the corps members’ schedule mimics a teacher’s schedule in that they stay in classes and take notes to set a positive example for the students and so that they can help absent students catch up. They use their free time to call parents about absent students and plan for after school programming. Once a week, the corps members meet with a small group of students during lunch to set goals on how to do better in classes and propose rewards for success with those goals. Finally, clubs meet after school to add to the assistance the students are receiving during the day. This after school assistance begins with 45 minutes of tutoring. Next, students have a snack and conclude the day with fun time which is unique to the demands of students from each school. The corps members try not to make this after school programming too much like an additional class to ensure that the students continue to attend the sessions.

Because City Year is a national organization, it is extremely streamlined and well run. I was impressed by the enthusiasm I saw in the corps members being trained. It takes driven and energetic individuals to help teach! One of my favorite aspects of City Year is that it really allows for more individualized mentorship and tutoring and, often, there are even supplemental lesson plans to help individual students. With the work I have done this summer and in the past with students, I have experienced the difficulties in teaching a large group of students. More adult mentors in the classroom is exactly what students need so that no student is overlooked. City Year is helping all students reach their full potential!

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1. (from left to right) Sarah Garza is the regional recruitment manager at CYSA. She mainly recruits at universities but also visits college prep high schools. Megan Heron, Learning & Evaluation Director at CYSA, is from Florida and had never been to Texas before working for City Year as a corps member. Heather Kubicek, Impact Manager at CYSA, is from Iowa. She worked as a corps member for 2 years after college.

2. and 3. Training reminded me of college orientation! Appropriate mantras for use with students hung on posters on the walls and corps members created fun skits based on their job duties.

4. Destiny, from Georgia, and Devan, from Arkansas, were excited to make the move to San Antonio.

5. Daniel from Washington D.C. has worked with kids before in a program called America Scores.

6. Zack from San Antonio worked with another one of our partner organizations, Boy With a Ball, throughout high school.

7. A short description of EBBSA was included as part of the orientation lesson!

This summer, I made two visits to the San Antonio site for City Year, an AmeriCorps affiliate and one of EBBSA’s partner organizations. During these visits, I learned a lot about what City Year does and how they train corps members.

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GSSTX Camp Metro

Girl Scouts influenced my life in a huge way. Here, I had the chance to explore my interests in robotics and art. I earned my Gold Award and, ultimately, I learned about the amazing things girls can do. Because of my experiences, I was delighted to be invited to Girl Scouts’ Camp Metro. This camp provides girls grades K-8 with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in different areas each week including community service, healthy living, environmental awareness and more. At this fun camp, like at all Girl Scout events, girls earn patches and get guidance from camp staff to develop skills they may use to make a difference in the world.

As mentioned before, the camp features a different theme each week. Because I am an artist myself, I scheduled my visit during art week. In the morning, the girls went through the daily Girl Scout flag up ceremony where they raise the flag and make any announcements they may have. Throughout the day, the girls completed multiple art projects based on the ideals of famous painters and painting movements. When I arrived, the campers were creating blot paintings based on Claude Monet’s Impressionist paintings of bridges. Earlier that morning they had created portraits based on Pablo Picasso’s work. After painting, the girls moved to the final station where they used toy food, dolls and silverware to practice still life drawing. The end of each day consisted of each group meeting and, finally, gathering outside for the daily flag down ceremony.

What struck me most about this camp was the engagement by the mentors. There are two levels of mentorship: program assistants, grades 9-12, and group leaders, college students. I talked with one program assistant who had previously been through the camp. She was happy to share her experiences with me and her enthusiasm for the program showed through. She admitted to me that when she first signed up to volunteer as a program assistant, she was first interested in obtaining volunteer hours. However, after already completing her hourly requirement, she has stayed with them for the remainder of the summer because she genuinely enjoys working with the girls.

The groups are split up into age groups. The mentors have the same age group all summer but the groups vary because girls can enroll on a weekly basis. During my visit, I met with Miosha, Alisha, and Alex, three of the group leaders for girls going into second and third grade, or ‘Brownies’.I had a great discussion with Miosha. She stressed that she loves how it feels like a family at Camp Metro and noted how willing everyone is to celebrate and support one another. In fact, it was one of the program assistants’ birthdays the day I visited and, at the end of the day, the entire camp celebrated the birthday girl. This was a stark example of the camaraderie and community building characteristics of a Girl Scout event. Although it’s been awhile since I was a Girl Scout, my visit showed me that these characteristics truly have stood the test of time!

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SA Works

On Monday I attended the SA Works informational meeting at the San Antonio Area Foundation. I learned all about a new program initiated by the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce called SA Works. This new program is modeled after the Private Industry Council in Boston which is a nonprofit organization that emphasizes fostering the skills needed in the pathway from school to career.

SA Works similarly aims to impact students from 7th grade up to college level by connecting them to internships at businesses around San Antonio. This summer SA Works already provided internships to 30 students at businesses and nonprofits around San Antonio! In addition, SA Works wants to include teachers in their endeavors. They will do so by creating opportunities for externships for teachers in order to keep them up to date on necessary workforce skills and how they can better format their curriculum to meet that reality.

SA Works shares a similar goal with Excel Beyond the Bell in that it seeks to be a collaborative organization. The current vision of collaboration between SA Works and nonprofits is to align current programs to the needs of businesses. SA Works wants to continue a relationship with these organizations, in part, to make sure that any programs that may already be in place are not duplicated. This way, SA Works will make the most of established programs around town and will build a network with one common goal: to educate and encourage youth in order to prepare them for the ever-changing competitive workforce. The speakers also discussed an interest in bringing in business people and non-profit members to talk about the journey to their current career path. In addition, non-profits will be able to promote openings in their organizations. In response, SA Works will work to connect qualified students to fill those positions.

SA Works’ goal is to be available to and working in all schools around San Antonio but they are currently starting with schools offering career and technical education (CTE) courses as those schools are already formatted to easily facilitate their goals. At our last EBBSA coffee hangout, partner organizations discussed their interest in working more closely with schools. If a partnership with SA Works is created, this could definitely become a reality. The future looks bright for collaboration in youth development!

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Espresso Beyond the Bell

Last Thursday, EBBSA hosted the second partner meet-up deemed “Espresso Beyond the Bell.” Employees from EBBSA’s nearly 40 partner organizations were invited to meet, have coffee and share ideas. EBBSA will host a coffee hangout or happy hour at least once a month to continue to foster such collaboration. The hangouts were initiated by the engagement working group as a way for members of partner organizations to casually connect. The event was held at local cafe, Halcyon Southtown, and was a huge success!

At the hangout, conversation emerged around the topic of EBBSA partnering more closely with school districts and, in doing so, what it would look like to incorporate the 40 developmental assets. Members also talked about creating an event where OST providers would be able to forge a relationship with principals and other school staff who work on afterschool programming through the schools. Excel Beyond the Bell members are aware of what it takes to collaborate and, by assessing the needs of school districts, I am confident that EBBSA will be able to create a symbiotic relationship in no time. An emerging program called SA Works, which I will blog about next, may even be the key to creating such a relationship. Great things are in the works for youth development in San Antonio!

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Boy With a Ball San Antonio

Last Week I had the opportunity to spend a day with one of Excel Beyond the Bell’s partner organizations, Boy With a Ball San Antonio (BWABSA). I spent time with the amazing two-person staff, Sergio Gonzalez and Pamela Torres. My day with BWABSA began with an introduction to their programs and history. Boy With a Ball is an international organization that officially launched in San Antonio in 2010 and now serves communities in Kenya, Nigeria, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Here in San Antonio, there are three main programs that Sergio and Pam work on throughout the year: Velocity, Union Pines Super Saturdays, and Summer Fusion. All three programs focus on building teams, outreach, mentoring in small groups and fostering skills which will equip the kids for community development.

Velocity is an after-school program at Harlandale which teams high school students up with middle school students in a mentor-mentee relationship.The lesson plan for this program is based on research done by Dr. Michael Karcher, Professor of Educational Psychology in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Texas at San Antonio. The main idea driving this program is that family, reading skills, culture, school and friends affect the child and who they become in the future.

Union Pines Super Saturdays are a slightly smaller scale and more casual program. This program consists of students from Harlandale visiting the apartment complex next to their school where they hold outdoor programs for youth in that community. Currently, there is a 5:00 p.m. curfew for all kids in the Union Pines apartment complex because the community has complained that if the kids stay out any later, they will vandalize cars and other property in the complex. BWABSA recognizes the importance of allowing youth to socialize and play outdoors and wants to extend this curfew or eradicate it completely. They hope to instead provide tools for youth to learn how to play together productively by building community relationships.

Finally, Boy With a Ball’s summer program is called Summer Fusion. This is a six week program where each week is focused to promote the growth of focused, motivated students and caring community members. It continues the structure of Velocity in that students from the community will work as mentors and leaders for younger children.

For another part of my day with BWABSA, we took a trip to meet with a potential sponsor. At the end of the day, we came back and I helped work on a two-pager that would be distributed to potential sponsors for the Summer Fusion camp. These experiences demonstrated the importance of cultivating and maintaining donor relationships for nonprofit organizations. I also learned about the difficulties involved in creating a compelling, concise and informative handout to attract donors.

The ultimate goal of BWABSA’s programs is to create a sustainable impact. If one student is affected by their programs, that student should have the tools to impact at least 12 other students, and so on. BWABSA aims to create a change in the structure of the south side of San Antonio and wants to foster a strong network of families, students and neighbors. Boy With a Ball is an organization run by caring and passionate people who genuinely care about the community they serve. I’m grateful to them for letting me visit for a day and I feel like I have made some cool new friends!