Reflection #4 Summary

Written by Andrea Satchwell | February 2013

The reflection began with a summary of what everyone is doing lately with their programs: any problems or good things, just a general summary of how the quarter has been. We talked a little about what we've accomplished since the beginning of the year. I think this was really helpful to most people. It gave us all a clearer picture of what's going on with service learning as a whole. I know that I benefitted from hearing what other programs are up to.

Because we had such a low turnout compared to what we planned for, Vicky and I scrapped the format we agreed on earlier and just chatted as one big group. We talked about ideas for collaborations, and how those collaborations could be helpful to different groups. A few tentative plans were made for collaborations spring quarter.

We specifically talked about FIRE's First Fridays, and about how the CESs would probably like going to those more often. FIRE and El Sol talked about working with Cesar's after-school program. The Woodward PALS program discussed perhaps working with Partners in Art. Farms to K and KDO discussed working on a few activities together. CAPS essentially invited everyone to collaborate at some point because we have Saturday tutoring sessions in need of some variety.

I think all in all it was a very productive reflection. 

Written by Vicky Sebastian | February 2013

This reflection was awesome! It definitely benefited all of us to hear what other CESs are doing. The reflection gave us a space to celebrate our achievements or struggle through to finding solutions for some of the problems we have. It established a better connection within each other. 

Chris reached out to us to help him find more tutors for his program. (Usually, the El Sol Team would usually just ask each other for help). This allows us to reach a larger body of students, that otherwise the El Sol team couldn't reach alone.

Bridgett invited us to First Friday's @ FIRE and asked us to circulate by email and word of mouth. She was having trouble with people showing up for FIRE events and last Friday she had a pretty good turnout.

These are two solid examples in the recent things that came out of the reflection. Like Andrea wrote,  we talked about bigger collaborations between the programs for Spring. I wish we could have gone beyond talking about planning. I think we need to remind each other that we'd all like to make this happen, how beneficial it would be for our programs, and hold each other accountable in making this happen. I know that it's 9th week and maybe this isn't something we want to take on this quarter (I don't really know), but definitely, Spring Quarter, we should sit down, plan, and make this idea a success.