08/10/09

It was my first day on the job for my internship. I have to admit that I really enjoyed working with the children and getting to know the staff members. There were a number of activities that I was trained to help out with. This was also the first day that they had to begin operating on a new schedule that is more organized than the previous schedule. They were allowing different kids to come and go into different programs as they please. Now, as soon as they are picked up from school and dropped off at the facility, they are required to come into the snack room and wait there until all the kids arrive. They are allowed to have one serving of whatever snack is served that day. One of the things that they try to get the kids in the habit of doing is controlling their portion sizes.

After all the kids arrived and received their snack and a drink, my supervisor announced to them the new schedule. They had to choose between going to the game room, playing dodgeball in the gym, or going to an art class to learn how to work with clay. Nobody chose the art class. I went back and forth between the game room and gym so I could learn the different rules for the games in case a disagreement occurs between the kids over how to play a game. One of programs that I am going to be helping with most of the time is Powerhour which includes helping the kids with their homework and playing chess. Therefore, I had to learn how to play chess. I haven't really got the hang of it yet. The last thing that I was taught was how to enter data into their system in order to keep record of their attendance. Basically each kid is assigned a membership number. That number is what is entered into the system. There is a little more to it than that, but it takes a while to explain.

The last activity for the day was to attend a board meeting. Not all of the board members attended, but there were enough to hold a meeting. I was introduced to the members by the Executive Director Jennifer Best, who I am well acquainted with. I learned a lot about upcoming events that are going to be taking place. For example, normally they hold a dance once a month, but due to the low attendance that they have had the past few months, they are only going to hold them around major holidays. They are experiencing difficulties with getting people to donate money to the organization. The Vice President stated that board members need to influance people to donate by telling people what that money is used for and what the organization has done for their kids.