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Camp Rancho Framasa
Camp is a place that has quite literally changed my life. When I showed up for staff training in May 2016, I was a quiet pre-med girl who didn't leave her comfort zone often. After 8 weeks, I emerged confident, more outgoing, and in love with nature. That summer, I discovered that my heart wasn't invested in my pre-medical studies and that I wanted to work more closely with kids so I went back to school and changed my major to education. Camp is constantly making me a better leader, friend, daughter, sister, and educator. My favorite part of each week is getting to know a new group of campers. They all bring such fun and unique personalities to camp and watching them grow and form friendships throughout the week is so rewarding. Without camp, I would not be where I am today and I'm so grateful that it opened my eyes to my future career in education!
Boys and Girls Club
I decided to volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington to give myself more experience working with kids from underserved populations. I spent 2 semesters volunteering in the teen room (most students were in 6th-8th grade). For part of the afternoon, the kids had time to work on homework. During this time, I would monitor students to ensure they were staying on task. Additionally, I would provide help on homework assignments in all subject areas, as needed. After homework time, I worked with other staff members to provide various enrichment programs. For one semester, I led my own arts & crafts seminar to give students a creative outlet. I also helped facilitate a program called Smart Girls, which was for the female members and aimed to teach them social and emotional skills relevant to their lives.
Undergraduate Learning Assistant
In the fall of my junior year, I worked as a ULA for a School of Education course titled "Using Computers in Education." I took this course as a sophomore and loved learning about how technology can be incorporated into the classroom. Because of this class, I've been able to design lessons that utilize technology and allow me to express my creativity and engage my students in doing science in ways that might not otherwise be possible. This positive experience led me to apply as a ULA. I worked with another ULA to assist the professor of the course in running bi-weekly class sessions. We planned lessons on digital citizenship, resume building, and designing technology-based lessons. We also assisted the professor with providing feedback on assignments to students in the course in order to help them identify areas of growth as educators. This experience gave my direct teaching practice and helped me to further solidify my beliefs about utilizing technology in the classroom.
