Life of a Fellow: Ebony
Ebony graduated from Temple this past May with a major in Adult and Organizational Development and a minor in History. Ebony is a photographer, people watcher, and museum hopper. Ebony is a former 12+ Temple Chapter volunteer, and she now comes to 12+ as a Fellow at KHSA.
Vianca offered the warmest welcome to the new Fellows at Kensington Health Sciences Academy. She was the first student I met at KHSA and since that day our relationship has blossomed. The foundation of our bond started with our mutual love for art. We share images we have captured, drawings, poetry, and creative writings. Gaining this bond with Vianca is just one of the many things I’d like to highlight about my journey as a fellow. I interviewed Vianca about her experiences with 12+ and her involvement with the PLUS Center this year. During my interview with Vianca, I asked her to share as much as she was comfortable with. We also took a few pictures as we walked the streets surrounding KHSA.
So, tell me about yourself!
“My name is Vianca. I always wanted to have my grandma's last name, Cancel, but my dad said no! I love photography, drawing, poetry, and writing stories. I’ll be a writer one day. I love interacting with people! Like if someone needs help or advice, I love talking and helping people through personal problems. I think I get that from my dad. He is my biggest inspiration. He gets advice from his aunt all the time and passes her advice to me. I also want to learn Spanish, so I can talk to her.”
Life of a Fellow: Ciara
Ciara is a Jersey girl and Yankees fan (we don't hold it against her), who graduated from Southern Connecticut State with a double major in Library Science and Psychology and William Paterson University with her masters in Clinical and Counseling Psychology. Outside of 12+, you can find Ciara running and exploring Philly with her dogs, Rocco and Curtis. Ciara brings her wide range of celebrity impersonations and humor to the Kensington Health Sciences Academy PLUS Center this year.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” I find myself asking some variation of this question daily. As seniors at Kensington Health Sciences are finalizing college applications, juniors and underclassman are beginning to chat about their college plans. My first questions always pertains to, “Well, what do you want to do?” Some students launch into detailed descriptions of their ideal job, degree and even anticipated salary. Other students list five to ten unrelated career paths, with intention of conquering the entire list. Others still, respond with a blank stare flavored with a horrifying realization of the future. I was oblivious to the pressure conveyed with my question until I was put in the hot seat myself.
Life of a Fellow: Shaunie
Shaunette (call her 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.
Life of a Fellow: Jenn
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.
Life of a Fellow: Ernest
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
[face]
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.
Life of a Fellow: Frank
Introducing...the 2015-2016 Class of Fellows! These incredible individuals have dedicated the year to serving in partner schools and developing relationships with students. Follow along this year for an inside look into the life of a 12+ Fellow.
Meet Frank: Graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a major in biology, candidate for a masters in biotechnology, diehard New England Patriots fan, obstacle course racer, and Fellow at Penn Treaty.
So I’m finally sitting down to write this reflection. Ideas have been floating around in my head, but it took a while to confront the blank page before me. Perhaps the reason I’ve been delaying this moment is because, subconsciously, I haven’t been able to categorize and interpret everything I’ve come across thus far. It’s a bit unsettling. In the short month that I’ve been at Penn Treaty, I’ve seen students experience a spectrum of emotions, make amazing strides in maturity, and delve deeper into their own ambitions and insecurities than I have in the last 24 years of my life.
On my end, it’s been daunting trying to analyze all the emotions I’ve felt. Admiration, awe, guilt, frustration, pride, exhaustion, inspired, enthusiastic, driven, dejected, betrayed, humbled, respected, trusted, enlightened. (There are so many I can’t even keep my parallelism straight!) I won’t pretend to understand what this all means. Instead, I’d like to share the moments—the vignettes if you will—of students who’ve absolutely stunned me.
A Proud Senior
When I first met him, I instantly pegged him as the class clown. He’s funny and charming, but also quick to walk away whenever confronted with anything serious. He’s overflowing with confidence and has no problem speaking to adults about his future. (Unbeknownst to him, he became my rock as I waded through the intimidating first week of school.) However, it wasn’t until I unintentionally sat in on his math class that I saw the cracks in this facade.
It took some prodding and coercing, but we finally sat down together to look at his math homework. Within 5 minutes, the bravado and jest that I was accustomed to became humility and anger. Phrases like “Man I’m too dumb for this” and “This is why I ain’t goin’ to college” seemed like only clichés before this moment. But despite his outward aversion towards fractions, there was a hungry determination to learn. We persevere, another 15 minutes pass, and now it’s, “Do another, do another” and “See mister, told you I’d get it”.
A couple days later I pop in his math class again, and he flags me down with a sheet of paper. It’s a 100 on his quiz. And there it is—pride, in its sincerest form.