Saying Goodbye

Photo by: Ellen Magner

As this year comes to a close, I realize the importance of preparing my students as well as myself for saying goodbye. Whether it is this June or next, the day I must leave my school and say farewell to the children I have come to love so dearly is unavoidable. The time has come for me to start thinking about it, because avoiding it won’t help any of us.

The end is a time to reflect and as I reflect on this past year I think of all the time I have spent at my school with my students. I remember everything they have accomplished this year and my overwhelming pride for their growth. I remember helping them with their homework and playing with them after school. I remember staying late for events and getting to know their families. I remember going to their games, even on the weekends, and cheering along the sidelines. I have spent more time with my students than with my own family this year and there is a special place in my heart for each and every one of them.

One student in particular stands out in my mind, and I guess moving on after City Year I will call her my starfish. At the beginning of the year she would not talk to me or show me any of her work. In fact, when I asked to see what she was working on she would often tear the paper into pieces and throw it on the floor. Whatever abuse she threw at me I never gave up on her. I can’t tell you the specific moment when I broke through her callous façade, but eventually she opened up to me. She told me some things that even her friends were unaware of. She started to show me her work and ask me for help before anyone else. She has taken ownership of her education and I couldn’t be more proud of her. Now, the time has come for me to say goodbye and it terrifies me to think of her without me or someone close to walk her through. I realized the best thing I could do was prepare her.

There is a quote that City Year painted outside of my classroom. It reads, “Be the change you want to see in the world. –Mahatma Ghandi.” I took my starfish down to our office and told her I was leaving. I told her that it’s time for her to ‘be the change’ and be the leader I know she can be. In that moment, I understood that in order to prepare my students for the end of the year, I would need to prepare them for independence. I will not be there to look over their shoulders next year, so I encourage them all in these last few weeks aswell as the years that follow to ‘be the change’ and take hold of their own futures. If I can instill this idea into the minds of the children I serve before the end of the year then I will feel confident when I say goodbye to Room 205.

South Side Service Day at Mitchell School

The students and staff at Alexander Mitchell Integrated Arts School are getting excited for the upcoming South Side Service Day scheduled to take place on April 30, 2011. City Year will be leading a group of volunteers in a day of service to clean up and beautify Mitchell School. Some of the projects include painting indoor and outdoor murals, spreading mulch, and painting lines on the playgrounds.

The students have been especially overjoyed with the prospect of newly painted lines for basketball, four square, and kickball. “I want you to come paint my school because we got the best teachers and City Year people,” one student said about the service day. “Also, we have good games on the playground and if we got fresh paint on the ground we could play basketball, football, four square, and kickball. Everyone will respect you and they will show you love. Mitchell’s one of the most fun schools to be in.”

Blacktop, before the transformation

Service days such as this unite communities around a single cause and bring about a feeling of true accomplishment for everyone involved. If you are interested in learning more about our day of service or if you would like to serve with us at Mitchell, then please send a message to us at volunteermilwaukee@cityyear.org. City Year Milwaukee and the Mitchell School community look forward to seeing you there.

City Year Milwaukee Goes Camping

Spirits were high on Thursday, January 27th as City Year Milwaukee headed out to Camp Whitcomb-Mason in Hartland, WI for our Advanced Training Retreat (ATR). The two day retreat was filled with fun and excitement as the Milwaukee corps and staff participated in thoughtful discussions and entertaining activities. Executive Director Jason Holton presented a state of the site update complete with a mid-year video by Recruitment and Alumni Affairs Manager Jake Drollinger. The South Division High School Team was the proud winner of the New PT Move Competition with their powerful crab walk. An evening Talent Show brought out the corps’ melodious voices, impressive instrumentals, and moving verses. On Friday, the sun beamed down on camp with excellence as the everyone enjoyed some outdoor time with a friendly yet surprisingly therapeutic game of contact broomball. Meanwhile the forest was alive with shouts and taunts as another group took part in an epic snowball battle, demonstrating the true mobility of snowshoes.

For most, the real highlight of the retreat was Friday’s discussion during which the entire corps, senior corps, and staff evaluated CYMKE’s progress towards attaining a Beloved Community. While we have come a long way since our first days in August, our founding corps community is a work-in-progress and we still have much to do before we can truly achieve Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ideal of acceptance and interconnectedness. We were all reminded how important it is to step out of our comfort zones and push ourselves to actively seek out and connect with those we may not know well yet. If we cannot change our own community, then how can we expect to change the Milwaukee community, let alone the global community? Over the next five months we must challenge ourselves to be more intentional about even our smallest actions- such as whom we sit and speak with when we are together- in order to avoid exclusivity. Through our daily service and special events like ATR we are given a unique opportunity to build lasting bonds of friendship and help build the Beloved Community for everyone to be a part of.

 

“Something must happen so as to touch the hearts and souls of men that they will come together, not because the law says it, but because it is natural and right. In other words, our ultimate goal is integration which is genuine intergroup and interpersonal living. Only through nonviolence can this goal be attained, for the aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation of the beloved community.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 

Mitchell Elementary Holiday Extravaganza

The Mitchell Elementary team on stage

The City Year team at Mitchell Elementary School joined forces with the Boys and Girls Club for their annual Holiday Extravaganza on Wednesday, December 9^th. This event is a favorite of the South Milwaukee community and brings in, on average, 600 excited guests per year. The evening kicked off for students with an impromptu performance from the City

Year team complete with guitars and caroling. Once the chants and cheers for City Year died down, hundreds of cold families filed into the gym for the holiday performance put on by the students of Mitchell’s CLC (Community Learning Center) After School Program. The students performed hip-hop and cultural dance routines as well as an African drumming arrangement and a creative rendition of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle presented by the Props and Theatre Club.

Following the presentation, families enjoyed activities such as holiday card construction, cupcake walks, karaoke, face painting, cookie decorating, writing letters to Santa, reading stories, and more. Once a student had participated in at least six activities they were allowed to visit Santa Claus who sat jollily in a wooden rocking chair with enough presents for

Nano (left) and team member Jeff (right) practicing

 every child in attendance. The gifts ranged from footballs and board games to dolls and science kits. A few patient children carried home nicely wrapped gifts to open on Christmas morning while the impatient majority eagerly ripped away the paper and held their gifts up with excitement for others to witness.  Students and parents slowly departed from the Holiday Extravaganza holding large paper bags overflowing with the spoils from their evening activities. City Year would like to thank the Mitchell Boys and Girls Club for all the time and hard work they dedicated to planning this fabulous event for the Mitchell Elementary community.