With Saint Patrick’s Day soon approaching, we decided to “go green” for our Mentor/Mentee meeting. We had matching clover name tags and clover question “cards”. We had a green salad and Oreo’s dipped in green colored melted chocolate.

This was the first meeting where mentors and mentees were able to sit together and talk about their experiences and where they are now. Our mentors included Amy Kleinman, Jane Renehan, Mina Donkor, Kati Wright, and their weekly mentor, Natali Camacho.

We began our meeting with an ice breaker. On the clover question cards were wither questions for the mentee or for the mentor. Each color of M&M matched either a number or letter on the clover question cards. Each mentee and each mentor answered their respective question, which allowed for greater insight to their backgrounds.

Once a bit more comfortable, they were separated into groups with one mentor per group.

They went over “The Dream Builder”, which is a collection of questions about various categories of aspirations and goals for the future and what actions you can start to take now.

The meeting was a success, and it was great for some of the mentees to spend more time with their mentors. Not all mentors could attend, unfortunately, but a big THANK YOU to those that did. We really appreciate the work you are putting in connecting and helping these students out as they progress towards higher education.

I look forward to future interactions with mentors and their mentees.

Post-Secondary options can be overwhelming since they all have different requirements, different environments and for one student alone, figuring all this out alone can be daunting.

Thankfully we were able to connect with like-minded and like-hearted individuals to help present this, at times, overwhelming information to our students.

Our two amazing presenters were Heather Gillis, College and Career Counselor and Itzelt Santos, CalSOAP Coordinator. They both work at Paso Robles High School in the College and Career Center helping students with help on:
•Job Applications and Resumes
•College Applications
•FAFSA/Dream Act
•College/Career Planning/Search
•Scholarships
•Volunteer Opportunities
AND SO MUCH MORE!

They did such an amazing job and I hoping they join us again to go through this process for the parents as well. That way both parents and students can be on the same page through this very intensive material and processes!

There was so much that I learned….so. much.

Below are just some of them:
•Besides the UC application, CSU mentor, and the Common App, we now have something called “The Coalition Application“, which includes a lot of East Coast schools.
•In terms of high school graduation requirements vs. college requirements, visual & performing arts may not be the same, so make sure to keep an eye out for that!
•There are two levels of transfer students: Upper Division (60 units) vs. Lower Division (usually not accepted)
•Khan Academy has SAT practice tests and can have a personalized study schedule and lessons mapped out for you based on your test date. WOW!
•Due to CSU’s being impacted, and only increasing as time progresses, if denied from one school, you will be “redirected” for free for about 35 days to another potential school.
•WUE: Western Undergraduate Exchange. This process allows some schools to admit non-resident students with resident tuition.
AND SO MUCH MORE!

These professionals did an incredible job delivering the information. My hope is every single one of the students I work with visits them at their office for further assistance.

Below are some more photos of the event with slides of information showcasing the details that go into applying and how important it is for them to continue exploring their options as well as the importance of keeping the parents engaged and on the same page about the process for their students. It is a lot of take on, but I believe in our students. Especially when they have amazing people like Heather and Itzelt in their corner.

Thank you both for being worthy warriors of a grand mission. I appreciate you both very much!

For this meeting, we continued working on our vision boards since we had some additions to our team!

If you are interested in creating your own vision board, here are some great resources for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zESeeaFDVSw&vl=en

https://blog.mindvalley.com/vision-board/

https://chopra.com/articles/vision-board-101-how-to-use-this-manifestation-tool

https://www.jackcanfield.com/blog/how-to-create-an-empowering-vision-book/

We were very excited to have our meeting with the new members of SLO C.E.L.E.B.R.E. Although not as many students as the larger sites, the students seems very interested and engaged.

We worked on getting to know each other and beginning our vision boards!

Such great topics of conversation and energy around the room.

This was one of those days where not everything went the way I had planned….

Having different regions with different groups of students, I mistook the vision boards from one region for the others’. I showed up with the incorrect boards, but realized I needed to find a way to give them inspiration, while still a bit academic.

What a better idea than an educational and inspirational movie!?!

Half of the students had not seen the film, and the other half that had already seen it spoke highly of it and were excited to watch it once more.

What resulted was a great day for those that had their boards to continue working on them while watching the film, while those that did not have their boards were able to immerse themselves in the world of Freedom Writers, a really great film about a new educator who fought for her students to have what is best for them as individuals in the world of academia where they are already placed in categories and boxes of “Most Likely to Drop Out”.

Maybe we will look into having an “outing” where we have popcorn and a movie to watch that is both educational and inspirational soon!

Much like in Paso Robles, we played “College Jeopardy” at Arroyo Grande in order to get us more familiar with the material we would be talking about throughout this project.

The link to the game is: https://www.playfactile.com/celebrecollegejeopardy/play

Gather ’round some friends and you play!

This time we had two teams with the majority being seniors! As you may imagine, compared to the Paso Robles group with varying grades levels, the group in Arroyo Grande flew through most of the questions! Regardless, we were able to get a solid game rolling with answers to questions we already knew, as well as answers to questions we had no idea about.

A small piece of information I threw in there that doesn’t really count for our against the team is the concept of HYDRATING!
Staying hydrated while at college is so essential for many reasons.
Check out this link for more information in quite the hilarious way: https://collegeinfogeek.com/stay-hydrated/

With topics about: College Prep, Financial Aid, High School vs. College, True or False, College Lifestyle, and Miscellaneous College, the students learned a lot of vital information important to them. 

Starting off the session with Jeopardy kept the enthusiasm going and sparked light bulbs around the room to topics we need to be more conscious of when it comes to going to college. 

It also helped that the winners received CHOCOLATE BARS! Yum!

We were very fortunate to have a community presenter come speak with us about the topic of Fibromyalgia. Rachael was and remains very communicative, and has a real passion for people, especially Latinas, to realize the reality and commonalities this condition carries.

We were able to “circle up” and listen to her journey of being a nurse for so long and being hit with this condition later in life. Almost unwilling to fully believe and immerse herself in the reality of Fibromyalgia, she shares her experience in being a doubter to a believer of this beneficial book:

Since her recovery, Rachael has gone to develop an extensive Fibromyalgia support group throughout SLO county.

A website that might be helpful is: www. ccfibro.com

The students seems to really begin listening to warning signs and feeling they may also benefit from help from the book and Rachael as a resource.

Below is more information about the support group and what Fibromyalgia is all about.

Thank you, Rachael for your time and your insight!

This was our first non-meeting outing for C.E.L.E.B.R.E. I was surprised to hear that for about half the students it would be their first time bowling. It was nice to be able to spend a Friday evening having fun together.

I believe non-academic outings are fantastic to build the community within the students and their community around them. All their lives and not once had they gone bowling! wow!

Although not academic, I did try to sneak in a bit of physics for the newbies in order to help them better understand the angles and point of release and rotation for the bowling ball as to where it will eventually begin and end. Oops, guess I couldn’t help myself throw in some academia.

Some were getting frustrated they were not able to get any points since they kept getting gutter balls. I mean, without bumpers, even some really good bowlers get gutter balls. We eventually put the bumpers up and I explained that expecting to be amazing at something the first time you try it isn’t always setting you up for a good time. We all start at a basic level, and we learn through observation, research and LOTS of practice! Although…we did have one student get strikes their first two turns!!! Beginners luck? Hidden bowling prodigy? The world may never know….

We also had the opportunity to play $1 pool. ONE. DOLLAR!!! I was very excited as were many of the others.

Here are some of our students during our outing!

Enjoy!

Welcome to our new C.E.L.E.B.R.E. gals in the Arroyo Grande, CA area!

Since I spoke to most of these students before the meeting, our informational part of the meeting was brief, which allowed for us to begin working on our vision boards ASAP.

Much like the group in Paso Robles, they began their vision boards differently, but with a purpose. I was very excited to see how involved everyone was and it was great to visually see what is going on in their minds.

You may or may not have noticed, but we will be conducting similar meetings at different locations so all the students get a chance to participate in all the great things we are offering!

Have a great weekend

To get us more familiar with the material we would be talking about throughout this project, we held a “College Jeopardy” game.

The link to the game is: https://www.playfactile.com/celebrecollegejeopardy/play

Gather ’round some friends and you play!

Out of the five teams we had, with awesome team names such as “The Lobsters” and “The Onions“, we were able to get a solid game rolling with answers to questions we already knew, as well as answers to questions we had no idea about.

Did you know FAFSA stands for FREE APPLICATION for FEDERAL STUDENT AID?

With topics about: College Prep, Financial Aid, High School vs. College, True or False, College Lifestyle, and Miscellaneous College, the students learned a lot of vital information important to them.

Starting off the session with Jeopardy kept the enthusiasm going and sparked light bulbs around the room to topics we need to be more conscious of when it comes to going to college.

It also helped that the winners received CHOCOLATE BARS! Yum!

After a fun activity of “College Jeopardy” we began a really important, key piece to our being here: Our Vision Boards.

A vision board is a collage of visual images or words that represent the life you want to live. Quite literally, it is a tangible representation of the vision you have for yourself.

https://chopra.com/articles/vision-board-101-how-to-use-this-manifestation-tool

Our vision boards are there to help us see what we want for our academic future, our personal future, career future, and so much more.

Using arts & crafts tools and skills, the students began their journey on creating their vision boards. Overhearing some on them express their interests was really a great experience. From wanting to be a police officer to an immigration lawyer. These students are inspiring and such a pleasure to be around.