The school year is well on its way, and the Fellows are settling into the rhythm of the PLUS Center, which means our regular Life of a Fellow blog posts are back! We're so excited to introduce you to the 2016-2017 Class of Fellows. These individuals have dedicated the year to serving in our partners schools and developing relationships with students.  Follow along here as they share snippets from and reflections on their experiences in the PLUS Center. 

We're starting off with a post from Jesse! Jesse graduated from Oberlin College in May with a major in Law & Society.  As a Fellow at HFWA, he brings boundless energy and a deep interest in the inner workings of nonprofit organizations.  Outside of the PLUS Center, you might find him fostering his newfound passion for golf, or spending time with his family.  

I grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia called Upper Dublin, and after my four years of college in Ohio, I knew that I wanted to come back home. My mom taught elementary school for the School District of Philadelphia when I was growing up, which influenced my future goals of going into education reform. So when I was looking into what I wanted my first job to be, 12+ made a lot of sense. I appreciate the opportunity that I have been given to see the Philadelphia public school system from within. I believe that this experience will make me a more effective leader later on in my life.

This year, Hill-Freedman World Academy (HFWA) relocated to a new building.  The move was interesting, to say the least. Less than a week before the school year was set to begin, teachers and staff were allowed into the building. Faculty rushed to set up their rooms while painters and mechanics finished up making the school presentable for students on the first day. Our PLUS Center did not even have furniture in it until the day before students came. Although I did not know many people in the school, we all were going through a time of transition. There was a feeling of uncertainty that we all shared.

Our organization’s mission is to change culture in schools, but what is cool about my experience this year is that we are helping to create it. This is a year of firsts at HFWA: it is the first year in the new school and it is the first year that there is a graduating senior class. The senior class is smaller than all of the other grades (there are just 38 seniors), but these students are trendsetters. They are a tight-knit community of motivated students, and it is our goal to see all of them graduate at the end of the year.

12+ talks about culture in schools a lot, but it is a difficult concept to really understand. I define culture as the metaphysical environment of a space. It consists of, among other things, past events shaping our expectations for the present and the future. When only one out of every ten students from a public Philadelphia high school goes on to graduate from a post-secondary institution, how are students supposed to expect success from themselves? That is why the strong counter-narrative that 12+ has brought into Penn Treaty and Kensington Health Sciences Academy is so important. But at HFWA there is not yet a narrative to counter. So Ernest, Sarah, and I (better known as #Ersasse) came into the year with high expectations for our students. It is important for the kids in grades below to see their older peers graduate and go on to create their own successful post-secondary paths. This will help future classes at HFWA to recognize that they too can reach graduation and continue their education beyond high school.

It is a good feeling to go to work excited each morning, and leave hungry for more the next day. It is good to know that the work you are doing is important. As I try to help my students find their own paths, mine is becoming clearer. They have already helped me learn about myself, and I know that there is so much room left for me to grow. I applied to 12+ because I wanted to embody this organization’s core values, and in striving to do so I have grown in many other ways as well. I guess that I can’t make any absolute statements about my experience just yet, but from where I am today I can say so far, so good.

This is the last post in our 2015-2016 Fellows' Final Reflections series, in which each Fellow looks back on their year in the PLUS Center and shares what they will take with them as they embark on their next ventures. Today we hear from former Fellow Ernest, who is returning to Hill Freedman World Academy as Site Director this year!

“You want me to what? Oh no no no, anything but that. That’s not really my thing….” These thoughts leapt to mind immediately but I quickly shut my mouth before they could escape. It was my senior year of college and as the President of the Penn 12+ Volunteer Chapter, I had to set a good example. Namely, for the freshman volunteer I had accompanied to help out at Penn Treaty. College Week was coming soon and they needed help making banners to hang in the hallways so they could promote the event. I had never thought of myself as an artistic person; I think the last piece of art I took pride in was a bunny made from a soda bottle I put together for Mother’s Day when I was ten. However, as the Penn Treaty site director held out the scissors and markers with a smile, all I could do was take them and smile back as convincingly as I could. “Come on Aaron, this will be fun!” I heard myself say. “Maybe we could make up a hashtag…”

Fast forward a year, and I’m a brand new fellow at Hill Freedman World Academy. As our third and newest school partner, the school was full of strangers and it was my job as part of the 12+ team to get to know them. I’m naturally a pretty shy person (especially around those who are older than me) so when first met the other staff members at the teacher’s breakfast we were hosting, the alarms started going off again. “Whoa, there are a lot of people here. What do I say? Can they tell I’m freaking out? Say something smart!” I’m pretty sure I still didn’t say anything smart but I must have done alright because those conversations were the beginning of some incredibly meaningful partnerships and friendships.

12+’s core message that we seek to impart to students is also our motto: “Believe, Act, Inspire.” The more I think about it, the more I realize how truly important that first part, “Believe,” is. Before I started at 12+, there were a lot of beliefs I held about myself and I defined my limits based on those beliefs. “You’re not artistic or creative. You’re awkward and not good at meeting new people. You’re a poor writer. You can’t dance to save your life.” So when it came to acting against these beliefs, my first instinct was always to pull away or let someone else take up the responsibility. However, in the past year I have done things I never imagined I could do. I’ve built and decorated a PLUS center, built workshops from scratch, coordinated dozens of volunteers during Career Day, written poetry, and somewhere along the way even picked up a few dance moves! Every time, I’m surprised at how well things turn out compared to my expectations.

In the process of doing these things, I’ve come to realize that many of the beliefs I held about myself simply weren’t true. I do have a creative side, it was just buried deep inside and a bit rusty from lack of use. Being awkward isn’t necessarily a weakness; I may still be awkward, but by embracing it I can let my students know it’s OK if they feel awkward at times too. Writing may be challenging at times but can be really enjoyable and even if I am still pretty bad at dancing, it’s worth it if my moves can bring a smile to the students faces!   

Realizations like these are precisely why I keep coming back to 12+ - first as a volunteer, then as a fellow, now as a site director. It’s not because I’m some expert at helping students get into college but because no matter what I do as a part of 12+, I’m still learning. The things we tell our students, like “There’s no such thing as smart or dumb” and “Your brain is always changing and is capable of learning new things” aren’t just bland encouragement or clichés - they’re invaluable life lessons that I’m still internalizing even as I teach them to the students.

This upcoming year is full of uncertainties but one thing is certain: I’m going to be put in situations where I’ll be asked to do something I believe I’m not great at. But if the last few years have proved anything, I know that it’s not about things I can or can’t do. It’s about things I’m comfortable with, and things I haven’t given an honest shot at yet but can do with a little belief and hard work. Now that I realize this, I can’t wait to get back into school and work on the rest of the motto: acting on these beliefs, and hopefully inspiring the kids to do so too!

This is the fourth post in a six-part series, in which each Fellow looks back on their year in the PLUS Center and shares what they will take with them as they embark on their next ventures. Today we hear from former Fellow Ciara, who is returning to Kensington Health Sciences Academy as Site Director this year!

My Fellowship experience has changed me significantly. I have grown a lot as a person over the past year, not only professionally but also personally. I began the year excited to participate with an organization that had goals and missions aligned with my own beliefs.  New to Philadelphia (and Pennsylvania), I had a lot to learn very quickly. I wanted to start the year familiarized with Philadelphia School District policies and the way in which their students are treated (and feel treated). I set out in a manner that I was very used to; an organized, in-depth, dissection and analysis of the school district and how 12+ fit into it. There was only one problem: I was hired 5 days before the school year started! I did not have much time.  

This was the first time I needed to come to terms with the fact that my strategic, organized, or what some might call “rigid” approach was not going to fly in the KHSA PLUS Center. The first time I met with Christine Liang, 12+ Site Director at Kensington Health Sciences Academy, to discuss plans, goals, and challenges for the year, I expressed that my personal goal was to become more comfortable with less structure. After finishing my Masters degree I had been in school for a total of 17.5 years. I recognized that I had become comfortable in the role of a student but also grew accustomed to the structure provided by academia. Even though my Fellowship year would be spent in a high school, I recognized that the structure offered to students is a luxury not always afforded to school faculty, administrators, or partners.

Sure enough, within the first month I was asked to “fly by the seat of my pants,” whether that meant improvising a portion of a presentation I had not previously prepared, or walking a student through an Algebra 2 concept that was lodged too far into the back of my brain for me to remember. Sometimes substitute teachers sent a class of 20 to the PLUS Center at the last minute, which certainly required some spontaneity. It took several weeks before I even realized that day-by-day my panicky feelings subsided when I was asked to perform under unstructured environments.

It took even a few more weeks to realize that this new skill I had developed was bleeding into my life outside of 12+ and KHSA. I was suddenly  a “spontaneous friend” (relatively, of course). I have not jumped out of any airplanes on a whim, or hopped in my car to travel across the country. Instead, I’ve hosted parties that did not go as planned, and with just a few deep breaths, survived! I have been able to make plans closer to the last minute with ease, which my friends are thankful for. While I still haven’t given up my color-coded daily and monthly planner, thanks to my Fellowship year I know some things might change color, time, day, or month, and I’m okay with it!