- "Intern and mentor will meet every two weeks to discuss progress." - That happened exactly once, and there was no discussion of progress because there were four of us at lunch together for the meeting instead of just the director and me. I know Joann is way too busy to bend over backwards for my paperwork and such, so I wish we hadn't agreed to that one.
- Creative component - I think I was being overly zealous about finding great objectives to put in on the paper. I planned to set up an art workshop in collaboration with Big Car gallery, where my housemate Ben worked this summer, for the students. It looked less and less likely as I realized there was a rather specific format for Academy, and while I probably still could have squeezed it in (maybe instead of our "education" day, since the entire discussion basically consists of "get one"), but nobody returned my calls.
- More meetings - Joann was going to set up meetings for me with Roger, the guy who started AIM, and with another IUPUI professor who does the statistics tracking for the program. Those meetings never took place.
- A final report - This I can still do. I said I'd write a report for AIM evaluating their practices and making suggestions. I'm becoming less and less confident that I have any standing to do that. I had a pretty specific role for most of the summer, so while people made sure I got a good feel for how the program worked, I was mostly just exposed to the Academy at any real depth. Also, without the meetings I was supposed to have, I don't have much information on this stuff.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Things that didn't happen
At the beginning of the summer, we had to fill out some "mutual expectations" sheets and create objectives for the summer. I understand the value of objections and expectations - the former give directions, and the latter avert problems down the line. But now that I have just three days left, I'm a little anxious about these things - some of them aren't going to happen. I don't feel bad about that, because things just went in a different direction, but I'm not clear on how bad the Peace Institute is going to hit me for not fulfilling my goals.
My best day
The Friday before last (just over a week ago now) I got to ride along with one of the home-based counselors instead of doing my normal Academy duties. I loved it. This is the stuff that really, really interests me - counseling psychology. Obviously I couldn't do an internship in that, because not being trained and certified I'd just be observing all summer, and I don't think I'd be getting credit for that.
I spent the day with Mike, a Cuban-American (habla español!) who somehow knew my family background despite me never having talked about it to my coworkers. He had me sign a confidentiality notice and let me come along to talk with three of the kids assigned to him.
I was worried it would be weird, but I guess by this point in the system the students are used to having lots of people sticking their noses into their personal lives. None of them seemed to have a problem with my presence, and one of them was even a former student of mine who actually missed coming to Academy ("it's boring at home"). Be still my heart.
We took one kid out for lunch at a delicious Mexican restaurant, which was good for my stomach but not my wallet; between food and gas, I've been in the red for a few weeks now. Mike told him to eat some of the green salsa, and for some reason he did. "Te pica dos veces," Mike said.
The last meeting was my favorite, because both the student and his mother seemed to love having us there. I could have stayed and chatted with them forever, but soon we were off.
I was going to call Mike to ride along again this week, since the Academy was going to close for a couple weeks during training for the new volunteers. It's staying open, though, to finish out a couple of kids. But I might call him anyway.
I spent the day with Mike, a Cuban-American (habla español!) who somehow knew my family background despite me never having talked about it to my coworkers. He had me sign a confidentiality notice and let me come along to talk with three of the kids assigned to him.
I was worried it would be weird, but I guess by this point in the system the students are used to having lots of people sticking their noses into their personal lives. None of them seemed to have a problem with my presence, and one of them was even a former student of mine who actually missed coming to Academy ("it's boring at home"). Be still my heart.
We took one kid out for lunch at a delicious Mexican restaurant, which was good for my stomach but not my wallet; between food and gas, I've been in the red for a few weeks now. Mike told him to eat some of the green salsa, and for some reason he did. "Te pica dos veces," Mike said.
The last meeting was my favorite, because both the student and his mother seemed to love having us there. I could have stayed and chatted with them forever, but soon we were off.
I was going to call Mike to ride along again this week, since the Academy was going to close for a couple weeks during training for the new volunteers. It's staying open, though, to finish out a couple of kids. But I might call him anyway.
Success and failure
On Friday, one of our students was expressing some frustrations with family issues during our drive home. Stacy and I let him vent and talked with him a while, offering him some options for dealing with the situation. All told, it was probably the best I've felt all summer about my job - I really felt we were getting through and helping this kid with an issue.
His mom called and told us not to bother picking him up yesterday. He's in deep trouble and on the run. Sometimes you can't help feeling your effort was wasted... at least in terms of AIM's stated mission, which is to prevent recidivism.
His mom called and told us not to bother picking him up yesterday. He's in deep trouble and on the run. Sometimes you can't help feeling your effort was wasted... at least in terms of AIM's stated mission, which is to prevent recidivism.
Meetings, research, and more top-secret stuff
Today I met with Tedd Grain, an IUPUI graduate research assistant who knows everything there is to know about the nonprofit industry. I can't really discuss what the meeting was about, unfortunately.
The meeting was scheduled for 12:00, and I was to meet see the secretary on the fourth floor of the SPEA (School for Public and Environmental Affairs) building in room 4032T. I got there ten minutes early, but that and more was eaten up by the fact that it took twenty minutes to find a place to park. Ultimately I stashed my car in a loading zone, flashers on, hoping nobody would notice that it was there longer than twenty minutes and no one was loading anything.
I found the fourth floor of SPEA without too much trouble, but was a bit frustrated by my search for 4032T. You see, while one side of the hallway stretches from 4026 to 4060 or so, the other side is just 4032A, 4032B, and so forth. That is not how it's supposed to work.
Anyway, I caught Tedd on his way out to lunch and was able to join him and a couple of other grad students in some good conversation (and the remains of a delicious sub), marking what was probably the least work I've ever done on the clock. He was able to point me in the right direction (he told me the phrase I needed to know to do research, basically), and then took me back to his office and gave me a massive binder, with a tab on the exact subject I needed to learn about. Jackpot!
After that I called up Stacy to see if she needed me to join her at academy, but she said it wouldn't be necessary. She's trying to help one of our students get his state ID (something the mentors would usually do, I think) and told me she'd just see me tomorrow. So I'm back at the house to do some research, and I decided that I'll take breaks here and there to catch up on some of the blogging I haven't been doing enough of. Look out for those posts throughout the afternoon.
(As if enough people read this frequently enough for that kind of comment to be helpful.)
The meeting was scheduled for 12:00, and I was to meet see the secretary on the fourth floor of the SPEA (School for Public and Environmental Affairs) building in room 4032T. I got there ten minutes early, but that and more was eaten up by the fact that it took twenty minutes to find a place to park. Ultimately I stashed my car in a loading zone, flashers on, hoping nobody would notice that it was there longer than twenty minutes and no one was loading anything.
I found the fourth floor of SPEA without too much trouble, but was a bit frustrated by my search for 4032T. You see, while one side of the hallway stretches from 4026 to 4060 or so, the other side is just 4032A, 4032B, and so forth. That is not how it's supposed to work.
Anyway, I caught Tedd on his way out to lunch and was able to join him and a couple of other grad students in some good conversation (and the remains of a delicious sub), marking what was probably the least work I've ever done on the clock. He was able to point me in the right direction (he told me the phrase I needed to know to do research, basically), and then took me back to his office and gave me a massive binder, with a tab on the exact subject I needed to learn about. Jackpot!
After that I called up Stacy to see if she needed me to join her at academy, but she said it wouldn't be necessary. She's trying to help one of our students get his state ID (something the mentors would usually do, I think) and told me she'd just see me tomorrow. So I'm back at the house to do some research, and I decided that I'll take breaks here and there to catch up on some of the blogging I haven't been doing enough of. Look out for those posts throughout the afternoon.
(As if enough people read this frequently enough for that kind of comment to be helpful.)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
More high stress
The students really didn't want to focus on Monday. They were distracted, disruptive, and at some times downright defiant. Then we took them to a career fair that was going on at the IUPUI campus, and they disappeared... I'm pretty sure they didn't spend one second actually looking at the booths. They wandered around campus doing who knows what until 4:00, which was half an hour after we wanted to leave.
When Stacy told them they weren't getting counted for the day they started shouting about every complaint they could think of. We ended up canceling the Academy yesterday, and Stacy and Amy went to each individual student to talk with them. I was supposed to go to court but was miserably sick, so I stayed home. I went in today and went with Amanda to check in with truancy court kids at their elementary schools, but ended up coming home early to just do some research because I wasn't feeling up to finishing the day.
I'm still feeling pretty icky, but hopefully I'll be able to handle tomorrow, since I have some things I really do need to get done.
When Stacy told them they weren't getting counted for the day they started shouting about every complaint they could think of. We ended up canceling the Academy yesterday, and Stacy and Amy went to each individual student to talk with them. I was supposed to go to court but was miserably sick, so I stayed home. I went in today and went with Amanda to check in with truancy court kids at their elementary schools, but ended up coming home early to just do some research because I wasn't feeling up to finishing the day.
I'm still feeling pretty icky, but hopefully I'll be able to handle tomorrow, since I have some things I really do need to get done.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
It must be a Monday. Oh, wait.
Today was probably the most stressful day of work I've had this summer. For starters, one of my students was re-arrested last night, which is always a bit of a disappointment. Then, though I wasn't actually leading the class today, I still managed to become incredibly frustrated at the constant disruptions. The students were just not in a mood to be focused today.
It's difficult, trying to figure out how to deal with this stuff. While we could tell them to shape up or we won't count their attendance, or that we'll tell probation that they're not behaving themselves, I figure that having spent three to nine months (or more) in a juvenile facility, they're all too used to the idea of punishment. I don't want to punish them, but I don't like to just let them get away with everything either. I've been trying to strike a balance, and from their point of view I'm probably not doing too poor a job, but sometimes I feel pretty helpless here.
Despite my rather bad day, it's occurred to me that I fully understand many of my (former) house mates, who found relatives willing to pay the Indy Peace Institute program fee for them and came to work this summer to earn nothing. While I couldn't have afforded that, I've realized that, if I could, I would happily do this job for free. It's not easy, and not always fun, but it is always good work.
I'm glad to be here.
It's difficult, trying to figure out how to deal with this stuff. While we could tell them to shape up or we won't count their attendance, or that we'll tell probation that they're not behaving themselves, I figure that having spent three to nine months (or more) in a juvenile facility, they're all too used to the idea of punishment. I don't want to punish them, but I don't like to just let them get away with everything either. I've been trying to strike a balance, and from their point of view I'm probably not doing too poor a job, but sometimes I feel pretty helpless here.
Despite my rather bad day, it's occurred to me that I fully understand many of my (former) house mates, who found relatives willing to pay the Indy Peace Institute program fee for them and came to work this summer to earn nothing. While I couldn't have afforded that, I've realized that, if I could, I would happily do this job for free. It's not easy, and not always fun, but it is always good work.
I'm glad to be here.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Change of plans
It looks like I won't be going up to Logansport to help lead job readiness classes on Saturdays after all. Joann (the director of AIM) says she's having trouble getting clearance for me. We were at lunch with a couple of other co-workers and she said we'd talk about it later, so I'm kind of assuming it's because of my arrest last year.
"That's ridiculous," said Laura, one of my house mates. "It was civil disobedience!" I told her that's probably worse because I can't (and won't) say it was a mistake.
I'm a little disappointed, since I was looking forward to shaking up my daily tasks a bit, but I'm also kind of relieved: if I did the Logansport thing I'd either be working six days a week, which I didn't rule out, or skipping a day of Academy. It seems I've reached a level of importance such that they actually have to replace me when I can't do Academy, so I feel guilty about any time I have to miss it (or, more commonly, drive separately from the van, since Stacy still prefers to find someone else to ride with her). Now I just have to get to the point where they can't replace me and I'll have it made.
Not really. After all, I'm only here for the summer.
Today was one of my less valuable days. We like to do something fun (like a field trip of sorts) on Fridays for the kids, and today we took them to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I say we, but I mean Stacy, because I had a previously mentioned lunch meeting and had to show up at the IMA later. I was there for a grand total of an hour and fifteen minutes before it was time to go. And since I drove separately, all I had to do was head straight back to the office.
At this point it was only 3:00, and I'd started work at 11:30.
I started some work on a lesson plan for next week but ended up going home at 4:00. I'll devote Monday morning to finishing that up.
I commented to some of my co-workers today that I'm amazed how much I actually look forward to going to work. I mean, I've never had a job I really didn't like (and liked working at Messenger Magazine last summer), but being only 21 most of my work history consists of jobs aimed towards getting gas money (factory, farm, water & sewer, etc). I can understand why those of my house mates who were able to reach into their pockets and pay for this program themselves chose to do so - the work is really fulfilling.
Sadly, my summer is almost halfway over. That's no good.
"That's ridiculous," said Laura, one of my house mates. "It was civil disobedience!" I told her that's probably worse because I can't (and won't) say it was a mistake.
I'm a little disappointed, since I was looking forward to shaking up my daily tasks a bit, but I'm also kind of relieved: if I did the Logansport thing I'd either be working six days a week, which I didn't rule out, or skipping a day of Academy. It seems I've reached a level of importance such that they actually have to replace me when I can't do Academy, so I feel guilty about any time I have to miss it (or, more commonly, drive separately from the van, since Stacy still prefers to find someone else to ride with her). Now I just have to get to the point where they can't replace me and I'll have it made.
Not really. After all, I'm only here for the summer.
Today was one of my less valuable days. We like to do something fun (like a field trip of sorts) on Fridays for the kids, and today we took them to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I say we, but I mean Stacy, because I had a previously mentioned lunch meeting and had to show up at the IMA later. I was there for a grand total of an hour and fifteen minutes before it was time to go. And since I drove separately, all I had to do was head straight back to the office.
At this point it was only 3:00, and I'd started work at 11:30.
I started some work on a lesson plan for next week but ended up going home at 4:00. I'll devote Monday morning to finishing that up.
I commented to some of my co-workers today that I'm amazed how much I actually look forward to going to work. I mean, I've never had a job I really didn't like (and liked working at Messenger Magazine last summer), but being only 21 most of my work history consists of jobs aimed towards getting gas money (factory, farm, water & sewer, etc). I can understand why those of my house mates who were able to reach into their pockets and pay for this program themselves chose to do so - the work is really fulfilling.
Sadly, my summer is almost halfway over. That's no good.
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