Shaunette (or Shaunie) is a Brooklyn-grown graduate from Daemen College. She comes to 12+ after working in marketing and sales at highly innovative software company. Shaunie is obsessed with reality TV and hair design. This year, her sparkling personality and positive energy fills the Kensington Health Sciences PLUS Center. 

My life as a Fellow revolves around the Kensington Health Sciences Academy (KHSA) PLUS Center. This year the KHSA Team, also known as K-Squad, is an all-female team. Since the beginning of the school year, only the students that are frequent visitors to the Plus Center remember our names. Therefore, we have retired our official names and now respond simultaneously to any student that say, “Miss.” Although the majority of students have not yet learned my name, the past two months of my Fellowship experience has been phenomenal.

Just this past weekend, we celebrated the seniors for taking the SAT. Our seniors were extremely nervous like many other seniors throughout the nation preparing for the SAT. In an effort to ease their nervousness, K-Squad gave the students wake up calls and also met them at their testing locations. At 7:45 AM on a Saturday morning, I had no issues exerting cheerful energy to boost the students’ enthusiasm. I could tell that the students appreciated this because they were no longer focused on their nervousness. We are anxiously awaiting the test results, but also reassuring our students that they are more than a test score and most colleges/universities will consider their entire body of work.

KHSA Team and students at the NACAC College Fair

Over the weekend we also participated in the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) College Fair at the Philadelphia Convention Center. The seniors had a tremendous time meeting with the representatives from over 400 colleges that participated in the college fair. My days at the KHSA PLUS Center are filled with an array of activities. I find this extremely exhilarating, and I often find myself saying, “OMG, is school already over … we just got here!!”

My students are my world, and I enjoy celebrating their successes and helping them overcome their shortcomings. Not only am I assisting students academically and building a college-going culture at KHSA, but I am also discovering new things about myself and enhancing my professional skills in areas of empathy and flexibility while building effective relationships with the individuals I interact with on a daily basis. I am thrilled to see what other adventures the rest of the year brings.

Jennifer (call her Jenn) comes to 12+ after graduating from Bryn Mawr College with a degree in English. Outside of Penn Treaty, where she serves as a Fellow, you can find Jenn at Bikram yoga or at home with her four lovable cats.  Widely talented, Jenn can do it all from whipping up the perfect baked goods to breathing fire. As a Fellow, Jenn brings her set of talents to her students, showing vulnerability and celebrating successes.

When the new class of Fellows was in training, we heard a lot about how hard the year ahead would be. We had conversations about the ways our students struggle, and how it can be so difficult to listen without being able to solve every problem. We heard, over and over, that the best parts of the year would involve building relationships and celebrating successes.

I thought I was prepared, but I still went into Penn Treaty ready to be humbled. I’m glad that’s the way I started, because every day I’ve discovered new and different things that I’m not actually great at. I’m a terrible dancer, for one, and the students are not shy about making sure I know that I’m embarrassing them.

The first time a student asked me for help with math homework, early in the year, I looked at it for five minutes and then said, “You know what? I’m going to grab Frank- he’s done this more recently, and I don’t want to tell you the wrong way to do it! But find me as soon as you have homework in any other class.”

It worked out, and my dignity was unharmed. I’m not sure if the student caught on that I had no idea what the problem was asking, but I know that he got the help he needed once I turned him toward Frank.

Most days are filled with a combination of those small failures and (way more fun!) celebrations of success. This week, like every other since September, has felt like every day was a month-long marathon adventure. We took the PLUS Leaders to Temple University, I helped a student read an essay riddled with giant words that he had never seen, and one of my senior advisees got her first college acceptance letters. I’ve played (and lost) more games of chess than I can count, and I got positive feedback from a crop of freshmen who I really thought would never warm up to us.

Of all the things I wasn’t prepared for, I think the feeling of pride for my students is the most overwhelming. I am overcome, every day, with the sense that I am being changed by the way they trust me, the way they confide in me, the way they have decided that I’m a person worthy of their time. I am unsure about what I did to deserve an entire school filled with such amazing people, but I am working as hard as I can to make them proud.

Ernest is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (where he's volunteered with 12+ from the start!) and passionate fan for the 76ers and all Philly sports. Ask him to beat-box or about his quest to watch all released animated Disney/Pixar films. Ernest is the inaugural Fellow at Hill-Freedman World Academy. In this post, Ernest breaks down the formation of a PLUS Center.

Building a PLUS Center

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When I stepped into the Hill-Freedman PLUS Center for the first time, there really wasn’t much to look at: a big old desk, an empty filing cabinet, a dirty mirror with paint chipping off its frame. As part of the new 12+ team, I knew we had big shoes to fill – the PLUS Centers at Kensington and Penn Treaty oozed a sense of welcome and warmth that filled you and made you feel safe and happy…and ours was just a big empty square. That being said, I couldn’t help but feel a bit of affection for the room, knowing that it would be my home for the next year. That affection quickly turned into excitement as we began our task of transforming Room 112 into more than a room.

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We started with the basics: tables, chairs, a computer, and a ficus that we named Raymond. Then came the subtle but crucial touches: hanging plants in front of our door to greet the students, painstakingly cutting out blocky letters spelling out the 12+ motto, and pulling dozens and dozens of staples out of walls so students wouldn’t accidentally prick themselves. Next came the fun bits: Bananagrams, UNO, Apples to Apples, and of course, the essential chess board.

Thanks to a very effective mass email, we soon started receiving boxes and envelopes full of free stuff from colleges all around the country. Pens, pencils, pennants, posters, sunglasses, flash drives, giant flags, puzzles, tattoos, even a customized set of stationary (it’s just too bad none of us are also named Allison S.); you name it, we probably have it. The colorful pennants, which we strung up around the room, quickly became my favorite part of the center.

Best of all were the gifts we received from generous 12+ donors, many of whom we’ve never met yet spent the time and money to make sure the Hill-Freedman Center has everything it needs – thank you so much! Every time we get a new box, it feels like Christmas came early. At this point, the Center was starting to look great, but even after all this shopping and decorating, the space still lacked something…

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In the first few weeks, the only students we would see were the ones that were looking for the guidance counselor (we are in her old room).  “No, Ms. W is in room 225, sorry. By the way, we’re 12+, an education nonprofit partnering with Hill-Freedman…” and they would already be gone. This was rather discouraging at first, but once word got out that we had games and comfy chairs, the floodgates were opened.

Lunches quickly became a flurry of activity, filled with laughter, fierce competition, and many side-conversations about college. It was through these conversations I learned how eager many of the students are for college (“I have a list of 15 schools to show you!”) while others are just beginning their search.  To be honest, I was initially quite nervous about being able to connect with students, but I was relieved to find my life experience was well suited to answer their questions, like: “Can you show me how to build a resume?”, “Do you want to hear about the 3D printer I built?”, and “Do you like Pokemon?” In case you were wondering, the answer is yes to all three.

As a naturally shy person, getting to know the teachers and staff seemed even more daunting. Things were awkward at first, but I’ve found that offering help when opportunities arise to be particularly effective. Some were planned, like providing them with breakfast before school one morning, while others were spontaneous, like taking a break from printing to help the principal build office chairs. In turn, the teachers and staff have been more than gracious in helping us learn the ropes and forgiving us when we make mistakes – we are so fortunate to have their support!

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As I sit in our beautiful Center, I’m pleasantly surprised to see how much it has evolved. The change has been so gradual that it wasn’t until I took this moment to reflect on it that I’ve really noticed the difference. The desk is still here, covered with PLUS passes and odds and ends that students have left behind, as is the filing cabinet, now filled with free college t-shirts and other goodies to be eventually shared with the students. Even the old mirror is still around – I often catch students checking their hair with it on their way out of the Center. At the same time, I also can’t help but imagine how it will continue to evolve. There are still plenty of empty spaces on the wall to be filled with photos of students of the month, posters highlighting career paths, and hopefully someday, college acceptance letters. As for us, new regulations will need to be learned, students will need to be pursued, and complications will inevitably arise but through it all the HFWA team will continue to build this Center, little by little.