CAS Blogs

So I am in youth leadership organization called GHCF and we just finished our spring semester cycle about veterans. However there is a group of researchers who are doing a national study of leadership service programs: see what works what doesn't and all that good stuff. They said that our group is very different because it is led by young adults and they wanted other programs to do that because it is very helpful for the kids to learn these skills. They asked Eesha and I to help because we are the presidents and Ashton because he has been in the group the longest. We had to help plan the interviews and meetings with the youth leaders. However it was a bit hard because this is the end of the school year and the end of our cycle so the youth leaders were getting busy and so was I. It became harder for me to finish the work that they asked me to help them with. But I, with my great time management, found time to meet with them and finish the work before the meeting with the rest of t...

This week I realized how the Post Oak way of teaching that promotes a lot of group work is super beneficial. Recently I was able to see how it is helpful and what happens when someone does not have that same social kind of education that helps you learn how to work with people. Working together with someone can help you learn more about yourself as a person. It really helps you know yourself and how you will react to certain things in a work environment. It also helps you learn how to deal with different kinds of people in a work environment. For example I have always been the person who does the majority of the work in a group project and through practicing more I have learned how to be more patient and organized with my group. I have also learned to communicate. That one seems obvious but communicating is hard. Whether communicating through text, email or in person it is very important to communicate in a group and also maybe make a checklist of what needs to be done so that it can b...

 So in my family you have to make a case like in business for things you want. Well only big things such as technology. So I had to make a case for an iPad and then a phone. My sister had to as well. She got her iPad in middle school like me but her phone in highschool whereas I got it in middle school. So there is no set age to get this kind of stuff, you can get it whenever you want as long as you make a good enough case. Now my little brother, Cooper, recently got an iPad yet he had to make no case. So unfair. The youngest siblings are always the most spoiled which is super frustrating to the older sibling. Now he is trying to make a case for a phone. Which is annoying to me because he already got an iPad without a case and now he wants to try to get a phone in 7th grade when I got mine in 8th. I know it probably doesn't make sense but this is just what we can categorize as sibling rivalry. Doesn't make sense unless you are in their shoes. Anyways last night while I was driv...

 A little background. I planned an A-term about martial arts and there was a "fieldwork experience" part which is what I will be talking about. Now I put quotations around fieldwork experience because I guess it is counted as the fieldwork experience for that A-term but I'm just used to experiences where we go to an actual field in Jamaica or something. Anyways I already wrote a blog about what it was like planning it in the moment but I thought it would be cool to kind of reflect after the A-term to see what I should do or not do in the future when planning these kinds of activities. So things that I think worked were: zoom, that was very useful and the coaches definitely interacted with those students and didn't overlook them. I also think that my scheduling was very good so that even though they were exercising for two and a half hours they still had fun and did different things. Things I could've done better is definitely prepare the students. I prepared them ...

 This semester in GHCF, we are learning about veterans and non-profit organizations that help them. Before this I never really knew much about the problem. I knew it was an issue but I didn't really understand the scope of it. This semester we are learning more about this problem in Houston and the different non-profits that are trying to help. We decided we wanted to focus on non-profits that helped them with mental health problems as well as ones that are trying to integrate them back into society via jobs or another way. As the vice president of this group it is my job to do some research on each organization as well as find a few statistics and facts to present in a fun way at our group meetings. While doing this I found out that some of the places had programs specifically for women and two were helping only women because they had a higher risk of PTSD and a harder time in society in general. I thought this was horrible but interesting. As a woman, I've always been interes...

This semester I have to start my EE. Cue dramatic wailing. Although I will say that I am glad we get to choose our topic because it makes it easier to research something that I chose and am passionate about. The downside is that our initial research is very open ended because we don't yet have a set question. So using my finding I have had to try to create a question. Sounds a lot easier than it is. But in doing this, I've learned how to find good resources and also find general information to help narrow down my question. For example I found out that a good way to get a feel for the topic you want to explore and help narrow down your in depth search is to look into statistics. Now sometimes statistics are hard to find for certain topics however if you can't find sufficient statistics for me that is a sign that there isn't much research on that. But if you find enough statistics on things in between you can make an argument to connect them. What I mean by this is if I a...

 I don't exactly know if planning an A-Term is counted as service work but I don't know what else it would be categorized under so we're just going to go with it. Anyways my A-term has gotten approved. Yay. However there is still a lot of planning with my coaches and the teachers. Although I could procrastinate and just cruise for the planning, I should instead hammer out the details for each day and talk to my coaches to plan each lesson. You'd think the work would be over once it got approved but that is the exact opposite. Now I have more work because I have to figure out all the details so that we won't be running around like chickens without heads. I also have to talk to the teachers for this A-Term. I don't know exactly who they are which isn't good so I also need to find that out. This probably sounds like a checklist more than a reflection but I am just writing what comes to my mind. I think that I've already come this far so ironing out some mor...