McKenzie Ross

September 7, 2021September 7, 2021

Scholarship Interview: Swetha, Ben, and Johnathan

This is part of a series of interviews with our scholarship recipients for our 2021 Build A Better Future scholarship sponsored by Honors Graduation. We hope you will find their stories as inspiring as we do! For information on our 2022 program, click here”.

Introducing our next scholarship winners: a group of three working together on the same project and splitting the scholarship winnings. Swetha Palakur, Johnathan Polucha, and Ben Kim. These three high school students worked together on a project for their engineering class, where they specifically needed to come up with a solution to a problem.

They chose to create a keyboard specifically for persons with Parkinson’s Disease and other similar, neurodegenerative diseases. The reason for choosing this group of people specifically was for two different reasons, first that they realize what vital importance of using a computer is in this day and age and they recognized the struggles those with PD have using a typical keyboard. And second, they had close family members with Parkinson’s Disease, meaning this project hit close to home for them.

After creating their first humble prototype made of cardboard, they were able to meet with the head neurologist at the University of California Irvine. She gave them great insight into how the minds and bodies of those with PD work, as well as some feedback on their prototype. One worry Ben, Swetha, and Johnathan had was that the keyboard would be too complicated to figure out, but she reassured them that it would be a great cognitive and problem-solving practice for the PD patients.

After more teacher and peer feedback, more prototypes, and working out some wiring issues, they were able to create a functioning keyboard! Ben, Swetha, and Johnathon hope to someday patent their keyboards and spread them to Parkinson’s Disease patients all over.

Ben is attending Princeton University, Swetha is attending the University of California, and Johnathan is attending Oregon State University.

September 3, 2021November 8, 2021

Spotlight on Omega Phi Alpha

Omega Phi Alpha was founded in 1953 at Bowling Green State University. A handful of students at Zeta Kappa Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity wanted to start a new organization for the purpose of assisting with projects on campus that they were working on. After a group of women stepped up and wanted to fill the role, a sorority was started with a similar, but different name. Omega Phi Alpha. Originally the sorority was only open to members of Girls Scouts or Camp Fire Girls. This has since been changed.

Their core values are service, tradition, sisterhood, diversity & inclusion, and leadership. Each separate organization is centered around service in some way. They state on their website their purpose:

“The purpose and goals of this sorority shall be to assemble its members in the fellowship of Omega Phi Alpha, to develop friendship, leadership and cooperation by promoting service to the university community, to the community at-large, to the members of the sorority, and to the nations of the world.”
omegaphialpha.org

They truly are a sorority founded on women that stepped up to help and will continue to leave a legacy of women willing to step up to help. They are a positive influence on college campuses everywhere!

You can see more about Omega Phi Alpha and the overview of the sorority here in this video:

September 1, 2021September 1, 2021

How To Choose A Good Preschool

I feel bad writing this post right now because the time to choose a preschool is more in the late winter/ spring since that’s when registration typically falls. However, it’s been a subject on my mind as my daughter attends her second year of preschool and I talk with friends and neighbors about the preschools they’ve chosen for their kids. It made me realize that not all preschools are created equal and there should be a good thought process/ questioning stage before sending our kids off to them.

First and foremost- preschool is not required. It’s not something you have to sign your child up for, especially because it can be a HUGE financial responsibility when you factor in monthly tuition for 8-9 months for one child, let alone multiple children over multiple years. There are a lot of preschool curriculums you can purchase to use at home if you’re willing. Our favorite is Playing Preschool by Suzy from Busy Toddler. But there is also NO shame in not doing a full-on preschool curriculum at home with your child either!

If you’re looking for an in-person preschool, here are a few tips and questions you can look into before choosing the correct one for your family:

Ask about the curriculum and look for keywords like “play” and “social interaction”. It shouldn’t just focus on letters, numbers, shapes, and strict learning. If you have to ask about playtime, that’s a red flag! Almost every preschool will have playtime built into the day, but if it’s not something they bring up without prompting, it’s not their sole focus.

Here are multiple posts on why preschool is not just letters and numbers:

There’s More to Preschool Than Letters and Numbers

An entire page on multiple early childhood resources focusing on play, preschool, and independent kids.

Can you tell our previous writer, Mary, and I are incredibly passionate about this subject?!

Another tip: tour the preschool if possible! Look at the setup, are art supplies, backpack hooks, toys, and other supplies at a child’s level? This promotes independence and gives children access to a world that often shuts them out.

Does the space feel safe and somewhere learning can happen? Is it open and ready for play?

Is the preschool within a reasonable distance from your home, or is there a bus/carpool system?

Questions to ask:

Is homework ever required? (Unless the homework is to play, paint, enjoy childhood, or only if the child wants to do it, the answer to this question should always be NO.)

How much is monthly tuition and are there any other fees on top of that? (You need to make sure it’s affordable and sustainable for your family!)

What school supplies is my child required to have? (Again, affordable and sustainable for your family.)

What is your goal for the children throughout the school year? (If they say something along the lines of “have them reading before kinder”, please RUN far away and do not incline your 4-5-year-old to the pressures of reading before kinder.)

What are some daily activities they will be participating in? (Painting, play-dough, pretend play, singing, reading, and other fun activities along those lines are the answers you’ll want to hear.)

August 31, 2021August 31, 2021

Scholarship Interview: Hannah Storrs

Hannah Storrs with her project “Your Voice Counts” was one of our scholarship winners this year and for good reason! Hannah originally started this project because she wanted to obtain her Girl Scout Gold Award, which focuses on a community project. When considering what she could do her project on, she remembered her love and interest in politics that started when she was only in 4th grade! This is what she based her project around.

Hannah’s goal was to promote unity and understand (and hopefully abolish) voter apathy. She dedicated hours speaking to students in physical classes and on Zoom classes, both at her high school and her dual-enrolled college, Florida State University. On top of speaking with classes, she created an online platform with YouTube and Instagram to help students understand voting, the process, and feel confident they are making good voter decisions.

You can see her YouTube platform here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBU6GcWXAZNTDgJsLmgmNpw

Hannah’s long-term goal for Your Voice Counts is to create a student organization at her university that she is currently attending.

August 26, 2021August 26, 2021

Bid Day! An Overview and Some Tips

So you’ve gone through Rush Week, took in all of the information for each organization that you could possibly handle, and now it’s BID DAY! Here’s a quick overview of what to expect on bid day:

At this point, you’ve submitted your preference of house that you would like to join and the houses have done the same for their recruits. If you match up, a bid is offered to you. This means you’re in! You’re invited and welcome to join! You accept the bid and join the house. The rest of the day is full of excitement and activities as everyone rallies around the new members. Some houses assign their big and littles on this day as well, while others may wait. There’s cheering and chanting and one big party!

A few tips for bid day:

Drop the stress! You’re in and they’ve offered you a spot.

Look into how long you have to decline the bid if you can on bid day. Some will show up at the house and participate in the excitement of bid day, only to regret their house choice later. It’s worth it to look into if needed!

Don’t worry about getting to know everyone all at once. There are probably people there that you didn’t even see or get to know during Rush Week because they were working behind the scenes the entire time. You’ll get to know everyone eventually, given time.

Enjoy it. You only get one bid day! It’s a big day, so take it all in and enjoy it while it’s happening. Take pictures and videos and remember the moments that mattered the most.

August 24, 2021August 22, 2021

Why Do I Write About Personality Typing in Education?

I’ve worked on multiple blog series on this page about personality typing and how to use it in the classroom. You can see them here:

Myers-Briggs

Enneagram

The Child Whisperer

Some may wonder why writing about these different personality types and why they can be beneficial in the classroom. The reason I’ve written about multiple types of personality testing is that I know some personality tests make more sense than others. One person may prefer to use Myers-Briggs while another prefers to study The Child Whisperer. But how can they help in the classroom?

It helps us have empathy for our students.

It gives us a little inside window into their brains and the decisions they are making.

It helps us learn more about ourselves as well.

It reminds us that we are all different with different goals, thoughts, and priorities.

It can motivate you to learn more about not only your students, but coworkers, family members, and more!

It paints a picture in our minds that we all have different personalities and each of them works together in different ways to create the world we live in.

There are so many benefits to learning more about different personality tests and using them in your classroom. What benefits have you found?

August 24, 2021August 24, 2021

Scholarship Interview: Our Top Winner- Kayla Klurman

Our top 2021 scholarship winner was Kayla Klurman, who also received a $5,000 grant for her project, Kayla’s Care Bags. She graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High School in Miami, Florida. Kayla sat down next to a girl named Rosy during lunch at school and listened to her story about foster care and how hard it was for them to obtain the proper clothes, shoes, basic toiletries, and school supplies. This moment is what sparked Kayla’s interest in starting up Kayla’s Care Bags.

These are care bags made specifically for foster kids in Kayla’s community. They are put together by donations from others in her community, picked up personally by her, and then placed in bags organized for specific ages and genders. Take a quick look at the process here:

Kayla primarily used social media to spread the word on the needs of Kayla’s care bags and would drive to various places within her community to pick up supplies and put the bags together. One problem Kayla felt like she was running into and wanted to troubleshoot was that she was only able to know the ages and genders of those entering the foster care system so she could not put together personalized bags. In order to work through this, she’s brainstormed closets made specifically for foster kids to enter, shop around for what they need, and take free of charge. Kayla is also focusing on stocking the closets with maternity clothes and items for those in foster care that are pregnant. She would have to work hard to keep these closets stocked with items, but with help from the $5,000 grant, it will be possible.

Kayla is an inspiration to us all! She heard a story from a friend that encouraged her to make a change in her community. She saw the problem and found a solution.

Kayla will be attending Davidson College in North Carolina studying political science.