Peer leadership

This week, Steve and I participated in the first session of the new peer leadership program at the high school. Through the program, 22 juniors and sophomores from around the school will learn how to promote respect among their classmates and friends. Half of the students came from the ESOL program and were familiar faces to us. I had only seen students from the other half in passing, but they too were very involved at their school. They included cheerleaders, JROTC cadets, and National Honor Society members.

During the first day, all of the students got to know each other and learned about prejudice and discrimination. The facilitators, Jerry and Fatimah, led the group through fun exercises--like making identity sculptures out of pipe cleaners and writing stories about lemons--that got students talking and working together.

While the population of the high school is diverse, students from different groups aren't always friends with each other and don't even necessarily know each other. One of the best things about the day was seeing students who have never met share their perspectives with each as they prepare to become leaders within the school. We'll be continuing the training in the next two weeks. I look forward to seeing the students continue to learn together then.

Back in our room...

While we've spent considerable time on activities outside school lately, the time we've spent at school has been pretty stable, which means that every week is still awfully interesting.

For instance, mancala and knitting are now the new crazes in our room. Chess remains extremely popular, so much so that school administrators are visiting our room to play with students and a brand new chess set mysteriously appeared in our room.

Seniors continue to get acceptances from colleges and fret over their projects, while among juniors, a free SAT class taught by Penn students is one of the most popular new activities. I continue to work with seniors with applications and essays, only this time, the applications are for financial aid and the essays are for scholarships. Just this Wednesday, we were in the computer lab holding a workshop so students could complete their FAFSA.

We continue to meet new students, either through their classes or friends. Some of them have just come from other countries, while others are from other floors of the school. Sometimes, the latter students are far shier about coming into the room. "What is this place? Can we come in here?" (Yes, they can. Just as long as it's their lunch period.)

We ended the week with a valentine-making project that turned into something else indeed, as students turned out glittery paper flowers and red-and-pink pipe cleaner glasses. Next week will be quite different, as we start to pursue some brand new projects. More to come...

A visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art

I always enjoy telling students about all the cool stuff that's available in their new city. So when the education department at the Philadelphia Museum of Art invited us to visit, we were excited to go.

On Sunday, Mary, Pete, and I went to the museum with 13 students. The museum had even supplied a school bus for us. We were there for the Asian New Year party, and the main performance featured Chinese opera. The students also enjoyed the galleries; the arms and armor exhibit and the Japanese teahouse were especially popular. The contemporary art galleries surprised them. We also went outside to the steps and took pictures of the Rocky statue. Most of the students had never been to the museum before, and they were happy to know that they could see the art again on the pay-as-you-wish Sundays.

All in all, it was a fun trip. Students are already asking about the next one, which we have scheduled for February 29: the zoo!

Lost No More recap

Back in the fall, when the One Book, One Philadelphia selection was announced, Amanda decided that we would have an OBOP event at the local library. This was not the first time we had such an event; last year, since the selection was an immigrant memoir, we solicited autobiographies from our students. As "What is the What" is also the tale of an immigrant, we asked our students for their stories again.

All of us worked hard on getting students to contribute. They responded with stories of their journeys here, observations of American life, and funny anecdotes. In the two weeks before the event, we worked on editing the essays to prepare them for the event. Oumar and Steve translated some of them from French and Spanish. Meanwhile, Mary started a project about graphic novel memoirs, and selected pieces from Art Club participants to be included at the event.

On the Saturday of the event, Mary, Steve, Amy, and staff from the office gathered at the library to set the space up. We put the artwork and information about our organization up around the room. Audience members trickled, and then poured in. We knew some of them as students and teachers from the school, and others were friends, colleagues and acquaintances, but many of them had come because they had heard of it somewhere. After all, Isabelle had been publicizing the event for weeks, and Rosara had designed a beautiful poster.

As more people came in, they filled the chairs and started to stand around the room. At 2 pm, we began. Amanda talked about what we did, and I introduced the students' stories, and we began performing them. While most students were not available to come read their stories, one brave student did read another student's story.

After all of the stories were performed, the second part of our program began. Our guest speaker, Macharia Yuot, is a runner who came from Sudan, like the narrator of "What is the What." We started by showing a segment about him that aired on ESPN. Then Macharia stood up to speak.

The audience sat rapt with attention as Macharia spoke. After he shared the lessons he learned since coming to Philadelphia, the audience eagerly asked him questions about Sudan and his experience in the United States. It was clear that everybody there, young and old, found him to be a great inspiration.

We ended the program at 3:30, but many of the audience members stayed to talk to Macharia and to us. It was terrific to see the community taking an interest in these stories. All in all, about a hundred people came out in all. We look forward to seeing many of them in the future!