Community Livin’

When I tell people that I live with nine other people that I also work with, they always ask if we get along. It might be because of our laid back personalities or because we all truly get along, but living at the apartments has been awesome.  The apartments have become more of a house than separate living spaces. Many nights have been spent with seven of us eating and chilling around the kitchen table in Apartment D. We also did not hook up our TV until election night, so we spent many hours bonding while playing Super Tennis (a game that is older than some interns!) on the Super Nintendo and watching many movies.

Some nights are filled with teaching each other new skills. The night of December 3rd will go down as the night Josh attempted to bake cookies.  Without the help of Andrea, Hannah, Hannah, and Whitnet, he would have been up all night trying to bake the cookies.  We have cooked together (Hannah Cauley’s Orange Zest French Toast is the best), traveled together, karaoked together, and even camped out together.  We are all very different, but we know this and have opened ourselves up to new experiences because of this.

Rachel Luna
Site Coordinator
Chapel Hill UMC

Intern of the Month: Destiny Harris

Name: Destiny Harris
Hometown: Dallas, Texas
College: El Centro College
Major: Criminal Justice
PT Site: Pleasant Mound UMC
Hobbies: Reading, Writing Poetry 

Why did you want to serve as an intern at Project Transformation?
My love for kids and the opportunity to help change lives. 

What is the most important lesson you have learned from working with children/youth?
I have learned about having patience. 

What is your favorite part of the Project Transformation experience?
I love visiting the kids’ homes through Home Visits and building close relationships with their families. 

If you could tell one story from your experience at Project Transformation, what story would you tell?
The kids fighting over who gets to sit with me during meals!

December Family Fun Nights!

At Pleasant Mound UMC we had quite the Family Fun Night! We had about 50 families attend, and to their surprise, we had the kids perform Christmas songs on handbells. This was thanks to our volunteers from St. Stephen United Methodist Church. They performed three songs with our kids, and the parents absolutely loved it. After our kids performed, the handbell choir proceeded to play additional music for our students and parents to listen to while they enjoyed dinner. After the choir was done, we had lots of exciting activities like face painting, Christmas cookie decorating, and a Rudolph candy cane craft. The event was perfect  to ring in the Christmas season! Events like Family Fun Night make me so happy to be an intern with Project Transformation.

Hannah Escalante
Site Coordinator
Pleasant Mound UMC

Elmwood Book Fair!

Recently at Elmwood UMC, the kids have been showing us flyers for their book fair at school. A lot of them were really excited about the new books they purchased, except for Jennifer. She was sick when her school had their book fair, and she was sad that she missed out on it. That’s when we decided to have a book fair of our own at Elmwood.

We set up tables and tables of books that had been donated to us for the children to have (books generously donated by First Book), and their faces lit up when they saw all of them, especially Jennifer. Everyone was handed a bag and was able to ‘shop’ for the books they wanted. They had a great time and we had some very satisfied customers.

Whitney Parson
Site Coordinator
Elmwood UMC

Learning Through Technology

This semester we have been lucky enough to be blessed with donations of technology for our reading program, including 15 Kindles and over 100 netbooks. These gifts have allowed us to really step up our reading curriculum this year, by being able to teach our kids in new ways that they enjoy. One of my favorite parts of this semester has been the reactions of the children to the Kindles at Pleasant Mound UMC and Elmwood UMC. Since introducing them to the sites about the month and a half ago, the children’s excitement toward using them has been off the charts. I made sure to load them up with some awesome books that were donated to us online, some free classic books, and other free logic and learning games from Amazon. Every day when our participants come in from school, they immediately ask if they can use the Kindles after they finish their homework. I am so thankful for the opportunity that these Kindles have given to our children to be able to read any kind of book that they are interested in.

Hannah Cauley
Reading Program Coordinator

Jumping Through Hoops for Our Participants

Joanna with a participant in summer 2012

One day this week, one of my fifth graders told me that her class was going on a field trip the following day, but that she sadly could not go.  This child is diabetic and truly relies on insulin to live.  Her teacher told her that in order to attend, she needed to have a guardian with her at all times, but her parents were unable to attend.  This child loves nature, but has always been kept from it due to her health condition. This field trip would have been her first trip to an environmental center.  She expressed how she always has to miss field trips because no one can check her blood sugar or give her insulin.  I could see how sad she was to miss the field trip, so I started to make phone calls to address the situation.

When it was time to pick up the kids, I spoke to her father and let him know that she didn’t need a guardian with her at all times because I spoke to the environmental center risk management and nurses.  I found a school nurse that could service his daughter before the field trip to give her the insulin shot and that she would be safe at all times because the environmental center assured she would be under the best care.  I gave him the risk manager’s number in case he needed anything.  All he needed to do was sign the permission form so she could go.

He agreed to let her go, and I made sure to give her my bug spray and sunblock so he didn’t need to purchase those items for her.  The child was happy and the parent was beyond grateful that I had jumped through hoops for his daughter.

Joanna Osorio
Elmwood UMC Intern

Moments of Transformation: Excitement for Learning

Interns work with students to build their love of learning

Our interns experience transformation everyday.  Here, several interns share about the excitement for learning that they have seen grow within their students during the after-school program.

Luis came in on Wednesday extremely excited (and a bit too loud for homework time!), saying, “Miss!  I have great news!”  Usually, Luis is never this excited about anything.  He explained that he received a 100 on his writing assignment without asking anyone for help.  It was so great to see him excited and so proud of himself.
-Whitney Parson, Elmwood UMC

At Pleasant Mound this week, a first grader who always struggles with reading, was an All-Star with a rhyming puzzle activity.  He got so excited about getting them all correct that he did a celebratory dance, shouting “Miss!  I’m on fire!”  He then proceeded to help the other two struggling members of our group.
-Hannah Cauley, Reading Coordinator 

At site, our fifth and sixth graders have been reading The Phantom Tollbooth.  At first, they were not excited about reading it, but this past week they got to act out what they have read so far.  They loved getting to act out the story and did an amazing job.  So good, in fact, that now the first through fourth graders want to read and act out a story!
-Hannah Escalante, Pleasant Mound UMC

Moments of Transformation: Academic Growth

Playing academic enrichment games at Chapel Hill UMC!

Our interns experience transformation everyday.  Here several interns share stories about the academic growth of participants that they have witnessed in the after-school program.

Yesterday, one of our kids who had been struggling in math had a project to do.  He needed to create a greatest common factor tree and had to pick any number from 100 and up.  He chose 600 and at first regretted it because “big numbers are too hard and scary.”  Once he broke the number down, he was able to do the problem all on his own and then wanted to factor 2,000….just for fun.
-Whitney Parson, Elmwood UMC

At site, we played Boom (a fast-paced spelling game) and had our third graders spelling fifth grade words.  At first, they didn’t want to try, but when the game was over, and I reminded the group that they were spelling hard words, all of their faces lit up in excitement and Michelle, a third grader, said, “Who knew we were so smart?!”
-Hannah Escalante, Pleasant Mound UMC

Oak Cliff has a second grader named Ismeal who has been super frustrated with reading this year since it is harder than first grade.  Lately, he has been getting discouraged with his reading homework and even crying over bad reading grades.  However this week, after a conversation about trying easier books, he greeted me with a book in hand and asked to read together for extra time even though he had finished his 20 minutes of reading already.  Since choosing more level-appropriate books, his interest in reading and his smile have returned.
-Hannah Cauley, Reading Coordinator

Now I Help You

At the beginning of the after-school program, one of our youngest students, Maria, did not know how to tie her shoes.  She would always come running to me saying, “Miss Kerri, Miss Kerri!  You help me?”  I worked with her on how to tie her shoes many times following so that she could learn.  This week, I had been so focused on all of our activities that I didn’t realize that one of my shoes came untied.  Maria ran up to me and got on one knee.  I looked down in confusion, and she smiled up at me as she tied it for me.  “Miss Kerri, now I help you,” she said, and continued to tie my shoe.

-Kerri Schmidt
Casa Linda UMC Intern

A New Addition to the Reading Program!

P Mound participants reading on the new Kindles!

This month was very exciting because we got to start using Kindles at our sites!  We had a generous donor donate 15 kindles to Project Transformation, 9 of which I get to use at Pleasant Mound. The day I brought the Kindles to site was like Christmas at our site, as the kids were so excited to start using them. The students love to get their homework done now, as when they are finished with their homework, they get to use a kindle. What is more exciting is that next semester we will be able to have the 5th and 6th grade students use the Kindles for reading enrichment in reading a book on their level on the Kindles. The interns, students, and I are truly grateful for the donation of Kindles, and I cannot wait to see how much our students will learn academically from this technology.

Hannah Escalante
Site Coordinator
Pleasant Mound UMC