Summer Acceleration Program Analysis

The community participation that has changed my life for the better is being apart of The Accelerated College Education (ACE) program at American River College. Being apart of this program has given me a push and motivation to finish and succeed in school. Before I started in the American River College ACE program, college success was not always a part of my college career. I have been and will always consider myself a part of the ACE program community in which I have participated in for the past two years. Unfortunately, I am no longer among the rest of my cohort classmates that have been a part of this amazing community. Looking back I now see that the time was well spent in the ACE program. The experiences were life changing in this program

Almost nine months after graduation, I began working at a small non-profit organization called Job Path. I started out at Job Path with a part-time entry-level position as a Community Support Worker for individuals with developmental disabilities. The position consisted of working one-on-one with developmentally disabled adults (participants). I was responsible for taking the participant out into their community to participate in entertaining activities and voluntary jobs of their interest. Additionally, I would train the participant on traveling, assisting with overcoming barriers, and just being a friend and a confidant.

...s Teen outreach program, Making Proud Choices and Focus On Youth, being trained as a facilitator for one of the programs will have enhanced my capacity to have more active participation in the sessions.

I entered this internship in panic mode and scaared of the future. I am now happy and love my internship. Everryday is different and I have not had one bad experience. I love the kids, camp, and staff at the Franklin Institute. It is a lot of fun teaching children science and seeing the look on their faces when you’re blowing stuff up, playing with liquid nitrogen or just doing an activity.l I will utilize this experience to network myself within the museum community. The museum educators community is small and everyone knows each other or has worked at the Franklin and moved on to other museums in Philadelphia. The Franklin Institute is also a prestigious and wwell known museum across the United States. It will definitely have me stand out on my resume, espicaally my job title as a Sppecial Needs Camp Counselor. I worked one on one with kids with different disabilities and modified the lesson plans for their needs so then can get the full experience at camp. My favorite memory of making a difference with a child of special needs was a boy named Jacob. He had several learning disabilities, socially awkward but he was genius his health notes said. He loved to play with the imagination playground blocks and make obstacle courses and have the younger kids try it out. Jacob asked if he could play with blocks during camp, I was asked to stay late and play with Jacob. It was so much fun building an

I have worked for the West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services (WVDRS) for over three years as a Rehabilitation Service Associate. During that time I have been given the opportunity to work with the clients that we serve on a regular basis. However, the internship experience provided me with an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the rehabilitation process and what it means to work as a team with individuals to achieve goals. During my internship I was given the opportunity to work with students in high school sitting as well as students who were already involved in training services. Working with these students on a one on one basis provided me with the opportunity to use the counseling skills I have learned throughout

...r children. It was then I enrolled in the Regional Occupational Program for child development. A co-requisite of the program was to do volunteer work of 180 hours at a local day care. I chose Tutor Time, and it was an amazing choice. It was there I really was able to observe the different developmental techniques in action and how the children interacted.

While working at SACC during the summer help me to realize that this is not the profession for me. Although I really do like working with the kids; the fact is that I get too attached to them and it just does not pay enough. I feel as though the lessons that I have learned and have been taught while I have worked at SACC will help me later in life. Whether it is with being a team player or if it is just simply having enough patience to just wait for my bonus to come. SACC will always be my first job where I can actually say I never worked a day there because I enjoyed what I did.

I have always tutored and assisted others in math and science, but about eight years ago while pursuing my master’s degree in Wildlife Biology, I took a couple of classes that changed my life. These classes (natural resource interpretation and environmental education) opened my eyes to the fact that I wanted to become an educator. I loved my education classes and discussed with my major advisor the fact that I wanted to become involved in education. As an extension specialist, my advisor was very involved in education and community outreach and he could help me to further my pursuit of education as a career. He offered me the opportunity to coordinate the Utah WHEP (Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Program), a 4-H wildlife education program. I took the position and conducted the program for three years. During my time as the Utah WHEP coordinator, I worked with youth (aged 11-19), teaching them about wildlife, their habitats, and their management. With this experience, I knew that I had definitely found my calling.

The summer after sophomore and junior year, I worked at Aim High teaching math, but I feel like I did so much more. I worked one-on-one with a student named Deshawn who has ADHD and has difficulty focusing in class. What I learned through working with him is he wanted someone to care and pay attention to him. I developed a behavior plan for him where he would get prizes and we worked away from the larger class. Deshawn is one of the most intelligent kids I have ever met. Through working with him I know I want to fight for kids who need more attention and are struggling to find that in public education school systems. I remember on one of the last days of program he said to me, "You are like a sister to me because you always help me " and I

It has been a while since I started at the internship and I am really glad I decided to work here. I think the experience in this area is a good preview of my career and future. I am learning some important skills and finding out some things about myself and the tough skin I will need in order to stay in the area of juvenile support.