Workshop empowers youth to look ahead

A group of over fifty of our middle school students participated in a remarkable event earlier this week called, “Envisioning Your Future.” This program is an extension of the many activities taking place at our three middle schools via our student success coaches, made possible through ENLACE.

Our amazing middle school “coaches” are Joseph Williams at Gattis, Stephanie Parker at Marshall, and Alicia Turner at Yucca. Working with caseloads of students, they focus on preventive measures to better support students' school success (truancy issues, inappropriate behaviors, and such), and the opportunity to attend the full day “Envisioning Your Future” (EYF) workshop was enthusiastically welcomed.

The EYF program is an “…evidence-based, positive youth development program that guides youth to build their emotional and social intelligences,” along with “intrinsic motivation to make healthy choices in behavior, friends, and their education.” The program is based on four cornerstones: (1) emotional, creating a safe atmosphere for students to express themselves in appropriate ways. (2) relational, focused on valuing and strengthening relationships; (3) interactive, focused on effective communication and collaboration with peers and adults; and (4) relevant, tying what students learn in school with their own viable futures.

I spoke with ENLACE Eastern Region Education Resource Development Liaison Adrian White, who described the workshop and how powerfully it impacted students: “EYF founder, Dr. Patty O'Sullivan, facilitated the all-day session. It was amazing to see all those middle school students thoroughly engaged for a whole day. Topics covered were community, relationships, health care, and peer-to-peer relationships. Lots of face to face activities were embedded throughout. Group activities deeply involved students, stretching them out of comfort zones to participate, especially grouped with students from different schools. Patty was great about circulating throughout, sensitive to scenarios, effectively drawing out students. There was not a single discipline issue the entire day!”

Joseph Williams (Gattis) echoed White's observations, adding, “As we were on the bus, many of our students had never been to that side of town; never laid eyes on the college (CCC) or the Civic Center. It's our belief that through opportunities such as these students will become aware that there's more out in the world than just in in their own neighborhoods or classrooms.”

Hearing the remarkable results of this powerful day-long presentation, sounds as though young lives were changed and that, perhaps for the first time, these middle-schoolers were empowered to envision brighter futures.

Cindy Kleyn-Kennedy is the Instructional Technology Coordinator for the Clovis Municipal Schools and can be reached at [email protected]