January 22th Meeting by Juan Franco

• The meeting of January 27th was perhaps one of the most insightful and powerful experiences I’ve ever had, not only did I learn a lot about myself, but also about those who live in my same environment (Summit Park). I connected too many people while we were doing the “step to this side of the room if…” exercise through common experiences or ways of thinking, but I also realized how diverse our group is. Most Drury students cite Summit as the place where the best students are, but I learned that night that we could all be the best students in hundreds of different ways. It takes a lot of courage to undertake projects like we all did, and even more to discuss them with our class and teacher. What I take from that night was that I should never be quick to judge. Most people in Summit I thought I had figured out, but after that eye opening experience I can humbly say that I was wrong and that I want to get to know a lot of them better. “Excellent teaching and learning for all” is the motto of Pipkin Middle School and I can say that I couldn’t be more proud of working with an institution that promotes learning for everyone no matter what education level you may have. Although our project is limited to only Summit, I know the school hosts a Reading Club and I’m almost positive that they take on volunteers.
  Community website link-https://sites.google.com/a/pipkinpirates.org/pipkin/
• Pipkin Middle School

  sites.google.com

Juan Fernando Calderon Monthly Journal Blog about Community Partner

On the class from 1/27 there were several points that could be taken to consideration of making connections and diversity. In this class we made an activity that was called "cross the line", were the speaker made questions to the group and either you needed to cross the line if the answer was yes, or stay were you were if the answer was no. This activity helped to me and I believed to my group because I could understand more about my summit peers and their backgrounds. Also this helped me see how a diverse group of people we had in our class. It was a hard activity were some questions were compromising that sometimes people didn't want to respond. This showed me it takes value to cross the line and to accept what the reality to what the question is. The key point I took is that with a simple activity like that you can get to know a group of 40 people. Thats what we can do in getting to know our Pipkin students with simpler activities but get to bond with them with simple activities like this. 


Our community partner does not have a link but the Springfield Public Schools does have information about Pipkin Middle School. 


http://springfieldpublicschoolsmo.org/relocating/pipkin.htm


Mission Statement: Excellent teaching and learning for all.


You can get involved with our program by visiting the school and working together with us so that we can gather a bigger group to work with more kids instead that only 15. This also could raise awareness in Springfield Public Schools so that the school system can be changed and there will be better education and easier access for college. By gathering more people we can show the society that kids are our future and that we need to work with them. Thats why we need to gather people who is interested in joining our program or could join us in the weekdays that we go to Pipkin to work with the kids, one hour a day, Monday, Wednesday, or Friday.

Community Partner key point

So during the meeting that we had last week I observed and learned a lot about my teammate’s experiences and personality. A very important key point that I took away from my community partner in this activity is that he is very organized with his schedule. I will like to implement this to my leadership since organization is very important to do things right and maintain a high level of performance. Organizing my time will allow me to do more things and even get a better communication with the people that I'm working with. I excited to start my Pipkin help and organization will be fundamental to fulfill the goal of this group. For this semester our goal is to teach our boys success is achievable and that a great future is waiting for them if they make good decisions in their lives. 

Danny Loza