Day TWO :)

Ridiculously amazing! I did not know I was in for such an awesome experience, and I am glad I listened to the feedback of my friends and acted on it, because this is potentially life-changing.

Oh, SEAL Net…

TODAY IN A NUTSHELL: orientation and goal setting with the PP09 team; Jollibee lunch; meeting and 1st leadership training with UP Cebu High School students; dinner at Lemongrass Thai in Ayala center; brief shopping; debriefing in hotel; work time in focus groups; “Spotlight On…”; sleep

Breakfast

is in room 211 – I remember all these cereals! Milo ChocoFlakes, those stars, and boxed milk! I wrote my name on a plastic bowl and we met Jenssy and Stephen who arrived last night/early this morning. Took taxis to UC Banilad, where Orientation activities will occur. It’s a little weird to be the outsiders in a pretty homogenous society, but it’s not something new for me. I’m wondering how the others are thinking about being an object of curiosity. It seems everyone is taking it in stride.

Orientation

We are currently writing our STAKE, IMPACT, and OUTCOME for Project Philippines 2009. We split into our three focus teams to discuss, and Kevin gave us some great feedback in the Adult Outreach Team about goal-setting. It’s already proven great to have his experienced perspective feeding back into our thought processes.

We came up with our statements, but when we reached “OUTCOME,” Kevin counseled us to be more quantifiable with our goals, so we went back to the drawing board! Here are our final brain/heart products:

STAKE: Empower the Alaska community and high school students to be catalysts for change by instilling in them a sense of social responsibility, service leadership, and sustainable ownership.

IMPACT: (1) Health as a priority among Alaska families; (2) Share knowledge and lifelong passion for service; (3) Inspire students to take action and instill optimism; (4) Raise awareness and challenge preconceptions.

OUTCOME: (1) Equip high school students with leadership skills and confidence; strengthen sense of community among SEAL Net Club members; (2) Speak to each of 25 families expected to attend our Adult Outreach event one-on-one; each parent receives health education materials and three key points; tell other families! (3) Research number of schools and establish a target distribution number; (4) Create a coloring book

Next, we moved on to Ground Rules:

1. Be on time!

2. Be clean and neat with materials.

3. Have positive attitudes.

4. Respect other’s opinions and attitudes (SAFE SPACE!)

5. Respect everyone we are working with in the community.

6. Leave things/spaces better than we found them.

7. BE SAFE!

8. Get to know entire SEAL Net team.

9. Learn about and respect the local culture (be curious!).

10. Deal with conflicts on an individual basis unless it involves the whole group.

11. Set a good example for the high school students with your actions.

Then, we finally found out the names of our mentees!

Mine: Joni and Niña Ann Margaret!!!

My small group: (#6) Susie and Diana

Debriefing

Susie thinks kids are amazing and hopes they’ll stop being shy

Stephen is excited about eventually breaking into their comfort zones, and circles of trust

Justine enjoyed human knot game and the awkwardness it dissolved and closeness it allowed

-also, she suggests that it would be nice to come prepared to talk to students with a list of questions and conversation prompts

Kayla: “potential” is the word of the day

-In the Define a Leader activity, asked students if anyone has all the listed qualitites? No, but among them, they have them, so showed that leadership is about teamwork

Kevin: Laundry lists of ideas are good, but make sure that you are prepared to summarize and let people leave with one or two solid ideas

Diana: a lot of students brought notebooks; they’re ready to learn!

Kevin: good that we brought students up to write, speak

-Liz: these tactics don’t make it too obvious that we are intentionally putting them through public speaking exercises

Kevin: we can raise the level of the workshops and stretch the kids a bit more than just discussion — Change the style of delivery — He has specific ideas!

A.Plan: learning how to be a mentor (Kayla’s a bit crazy) — It was interesting to see how others of us achieve familiarity with the high school students and to see the mentoring styles

janet C: one student said favorite part of high school is crushes! = they’re still kids and it’s good to have fun!

Alex: need to encourage them to take themselves out of their comfort zones

Janet R: older kids might intimidate the younger students; or alternatively the younger students might defer to the older as a mark of cultural respect for elders

Liz: kids have changed from introverts to extroverts, maybe because of SEAL Net workshops, but probably because of age

-Make sure to wear DEET tomorrow and cover up; wear “disposable” shoes and don’t bring them into the hotel; don’t bring a purse/bag

Some of my thoughts from today

My high school mentees! They had forewarned us somewhat about the caliber of these students, but I was still pretty blown away by their ideas, enthusiasm, and dedication — and I am not one for lavish hyperbole. We discussed in small groups the characteristics of leadership and I was pretty moved by the output of those talks and how much they already understand and perceive about the role of leaders, perhaps because of their status in the privileged charter high school of a premier University , and the great experiences they’ve already had with leadership. Also, the things they’re proud of having accomplished are great@ From being able to stay through four years of a tough school to projects they’ve accomplished already. This project will be much more enjoyable with the company of these students, and so much more power and sustainability!

-Sylvie

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