Our college project managers and students have finally meant and finished their first sessions together. They are all very excited to get the ball rolling and start on their projects for the semester. Here are a few blog posts from our CPM's about their experience while meeting their students for the first time, and a little of what they have learned.
The first
session with our project team went great! everyone worked together, was
respectful and put in effort towards group activities and communication! I was surprised
to see even a medium amount of enthusiasm just because I know how hard it is to
be a high school student and usually wanting to focus on friends and fun rather
than putting in the extra hour of learning and group work. So far I don't
see any weaknesses, but I see many strengths including the use of good
communication, respect, and participation.
-Leah
Gazinski
I was pleasantly surprised with how much the students wanted
to work on this project. They were all focusing and participating. They were
very excited about the opportunity for a job. I believe that one of their
strengths is that most of them are determined to focus and do well on their
project. I believe that their weakness is the few students who do not feel the
need to participate. They do not pay attention and even attempt to distract the
other students,
-Brianna Seybold
I have found that the water industry, especially in
Milwaukee, is currently booming. There are new job opportunities in research
and innovation. Due to the enormous fresh water
Lake Michigan provides us, we have the opportunity to potentially increase
economic and resource production/preservation. The more jobs we can create and
the more innovation we can inspire, the more we can improve current living
situations for those around us and preserve this precious and valuable
resource.
- Jacob Herzfeld
This past
week at our third meeting there were quite a few more kids! Some did have to
leave for Drivers Ed about half way through but while they were there, they
were excited about being in the program and the opportunities Lead to Succeed has
to offer. We played a game where we had to write things that we needed water
for and had to place the sticky notes that we had written on, on one of the
three boards. They said, “used to make things, used for fun, and used for health.”
The kids as well as the college project managers came up with a lot of good
ideas for each board.
The one
with the least was “used to make things.” The next game we played that
introduced water was a guessing game. Justin showed us a picture of an object
and we had to guess individually how much water it took to make that object.
There were a lot of surprised looks when we found out the correct answers! It
was fun because it got us interacting with the kids and made us feel more
comfortable with each other. I look forward to next week when we start an art
project with the kids and start diving into our ideas for our final project at
the end of the year!
- Karen
Linhart
This weeks meeting was full of surprises! I was able to start
our meeting off with an icebreaker to get the students interacting in teams.
With the attendance turn out for this week I was able to have two large teams
compete in a “throw a marshmallow into your teammate’s mouth contest!” This was
AWESOME! The kids loved it and we were able to discuss strategies and reflect
on how each team communicated together.
After the icebreaker, the fun continued! The students then
interacted with each other in smaller groups to play the price is right: Water
Edition! The students and I were all surprised to see how important water is in
our daily lives. You could see the shock on their faces when they found out
that you need water to make just about everything around them; cars, books, and
even the plastic chairs they were sitting on! Many students were even making their own examples
on how they use water everyday in unfamiliar ways to the class that went
outside the box of just using it to shower and brush their teeth in the
morning. The students are eager to see what will come in the next few weeks and
to learn more about the impacts on water around them.
- Melissa Palmen
