Katey

Semester in Detroit Work Plan: Boys Hope Girls Hope Detroit

Background:

Boys Hope Girls Hope of Detroit aims to support underprivileged youth in the city that show academic potential, but other factors in these students’ lives, such as social and/or economic factors may keep them from achieving their goals. BHGH of Detroit sponsors these children through academic scholarships and fosters a “college-going” attitude among the students. The organization also seeks to create an understanding of the city and its history among the students.

            The majority of youth minorities in Detroit don’t have access to the necessary resources or quality of education to meet their career aspirations. My organization will help these students by sponsoring them with academic scholarships to Detroit Cristo Rey High School, providing them with after school tutoring, and giving them opportunities to visit colleges and gain cultural awareness through a variety of workshops and field trips.

Project Goals:

1)                   Create a college-going culture among the students

2)                  Form and maintain a solid academic curriculum for each grade level

3)                  Increase the cultural awareness of the scholars and foster an understanding of their community

4)                  Foster a feeling of accomplishment and improvement in all students

Objectives:
-Create a college-going culture among the students

-I will be available to all students to talk about the many different aspects of college life.

-I will strongly encourage all scholars to prepare early on for college and give them strategies they can use when applying to and selecting colleges.

-Form and maintain a solid curriculum that includes basic academic skills, study skills, and college prep materials for the freshmen cohort

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  • Throughout the semester, I will develop the freshmen cohort workbook to get the organization started with its development of program curriculum.
  • Starting in January, I will start brainstorming for the freshmen cohort workbook by going through the materials Chioke, my supervisor, provided me and also by finding information on the Internet.
  • In February, I will start putting the book together and continue this work through April until the workbook draft is complete.

-Increase the cultural awareness of the scholars and foster an understanding of their community

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  • In order to teach the scholars about their community, I will develop a lesson plan that educates them about the music, food, and neighborhood culture of Southwest Detroit. I will start developing this lesson plan in February, completing the plan in March, and implementing it in April.
  • Along with planning a culturally informative lesson, I will also be planning a few field trips that will be informative and fun for the students. I will plan these trips in February and they will occur in March and April.

-Foster a feeling of accomplishment and improvement in all students

I will be forming a personalized academic plan for each scholar with the help of Chioke, starting in January, that outlines his or her strengths and weaknesses. This plan will be finalized by February and will help students get extra practice in areas that need improvement.

At the end of the year, I will be helping students put together a portfolio of what they have accomplished throughout the year. This portfolio will function similarly to a resume, but will also give students encouragement by showing them what they’ve accomplished.

Resources:

I will work closely with my supervisor, Chioke Borgelt-Mose, at the after school program, including an hour long weekly meeting on Fridays where we will discuss my objectives and clear up any questions we have for each other. I will also use the many files and documents in our Dropbox folder, along with the assignments and readings from my own courses this semester, to help form my lesson plan. To help me assist students with material I’m unfamiliar with, I will utilize the “Academic Training for Residential Staff” packet Chioke gave me. Finally, I will collaborate with my cohort members and their internship organizations to plan field trips for the students over the course of the semester.

Anticipated Challenges:

• Crafting my own interesting, engaging, and age appropriate (not overly advanced material) lesson plan for the students.
• Helping students at the after school program with subjects and material I’m unfamiliar with.
• Forming an organized freshman cohort workbook with useful information.
• Formulating a personalized academic tutoring plan for each student.
  
  

Evaluation and Assessment:

• Academic achievement and attendance of students
• Usefulness of the freshmen cohort workbook
• Student participation in my lesson plan and field trips
• Ability to connect with students and help them gain understanding
• Feeling of success and improvement by students at the end of the year