Unfortunately I have to start this blog post with some bummer news. The summer program we have been designing for Roosevelt High School students has fallen through. To our dismay, we simply couldn't recruit enough participants to make the program a viable option. However, hope for a productive and educational summer is by no means lost for Roosevelt students or for our RHS intern team. Right now we are looking into a number of options for redirecting our focus for the summer. Lucky for us and for Roosevelt students, there are a number of programs already in place to help tutor academic priority students in the summer months. Some of the programs we are looking to help out with now that our program is no more include Step-up, a program for high school freshman, Summer Seniors, a program that helps seniors prepare and apply to college, and a program that helps tutor recent African immigrant children in the area. In addition to these options, we are also working on establishing a strong curriculum and recruiting strategy for an RHS writing center summer program that can be implemented next summer. While I must admit I was originally a little stressed about the abrupt halt of our program, I am still hopeful and excited to not only work with students through these other programs we will be helping out with, but also to play a role in planning a stronger writing center program that can be successfully implemented next summer. Even though things are not going as planned, I am actually starting to think that this will be an even more valuable learning experience than the original program may have been, allowing me to work with a wider array of kids and helping me take a leadership role in helping to design a sustainable summer program for the future. After all, the greatest experiences often don't go according to plan.

In my first blog post I suppose I should introduce myself and explain exactly what I am doing for my Interns for Justice placement. This summer I will be working with the Roosevelt High School Writing Center to put together a summer school program that teaches students leadership skills, writing skills and deepens their connections and familiarity with the St. Johns and North Portland community. The program is set up in manner that pairs upperclassmen students with incoming freshman and sophomores. This design is aimed at helping the upperclassmen gain first hand leadership and teaching experience, not only in an effort to help both parties gain the skills and experience necessary for high school and college success, but also in hopes that these connections will help foster a greater sense of cross-class community within Roosevelt High School in the years to come. On the other hand, the older teachers and interns, like myself, act more as supervisors and organizers, putting together the curriculum and making sure everything goes smoothly. For the last month or so I have been working with the writing center to gain a better understanding of the type of work and expectations that Roosevelt students face as well as how I can best help tutor them to go beyond simply writing better papers, but ultimately to  become better writers. As the start of the summer school program draws closer, our team of teachers and interns are beginning to put together a list of sites in the community we want to visit, including local parks, businesses, historical sites and large companies, like adidas. Just talking about the curriculum and sites we will be visiting is getting me excited for the program to start and, while I may be the first person to ever say this, I cannot wait until the first day of summer school.