Best Meeting Yet

Monday, February 13 was another meeting with the girls. It was one of the best meetings by far, all the girls interacted very well and the conversations flowed very well. To start off our meeting Ana and I showed two clips from YouTube, which were very interesting and made us open our eyes, and realize that reality can be harsh sometimes. We agreed and disagreed with some of the things that the second video showed, but everything was great. The first video was about how little girls are starting to feel uncomfortable with their bodies, and who they are. They are so young and this is happening, it makes you think about us, how we see each other and are uncomfortable with one another.  The second video was mainly messages to us, most were reflections about our everyday life and what we do. We realize that there's other people out there with similar problems like us; we're no alone. Nevertheless, on February 21st, we have a small field-trip to Clear Lake to ride a horse-wagon. It should be exciting. It's sponsored by Girls, Inc. It's such an amazing privilege, and I can't wait to go.

SCHEDULE

There had been some changes into our scheduled meetings. Bill, our principal, wasn't very enthusiastic about having the meetings every week, so now we have the meetings every other week. Ana and I are still working hard in coming up with a redesigned schedule. Most of our meetings, like I have said before are every other Monday. We've had a success so far, about 15 girls have showed up to our meetings. Last meeting we discussed about possible field trips that we can do as a group to be confident about our selves. Our meeting was about self image and how we see each other might not be the same way other people see us. We have yet to over come some of our fears and insecurities, but with time this shall be no problem, and we will all grow as a person. Allison has been such a great help in our meetings, she's so kind and patient. Since she has experience with girls and meetings she knows when there's a little bit of awkwardness in the room. There was an activity we did, which when I had planned it everything went went in my head, but as we proceeded many people were shy and didn't really participate. So, she decided to change the activity and helped us out. I was stiff, I wasn't planning on the activity to go so bad. But at the end everything was fine and we ended up having quite some fun. I guess it's true when they say that you learn from your mistakes. 

Panel

Allison Marek: She’s in Girls Inc. She has helped us in every meeting, guiding us by giving us hints and feedback of how to improve our meetings.

Rosita Waden: Counselor at Chinquapin-- gives us information with things such as psychology.

Susan Davis: Chinquapin faculty member, minored in Women’s Studies, and taught in two all-girls schools.

Kenny O’Donell: Personal mentor. He’s knowledgeable of the things we’ve gone throught o accomplish this project, and has been contacted for some of the meetingswe’ve had; to have a different view of things, not just a women’s perspective.

Bridget Anderson: Chinquapin Board member, and as a women of great experience she willgive us educational insight of improvement.

FIRST MEETING!

Well, our first meeting was quite interesting. It was mainly an introduction to the course, and we got to know a little about each other and interact with one another using an activity. This activity required us to cut out magazine pictures that tell us what we want to get out from this Club. Things that are conflicting in our lives, somethings that we would like to become comfortable with. Nevertheless, it went well. Ana and I were a little nervous, but Allison guide us through it, and made our jobs easier. Allison is the person from Girls Inc. that has volunteered her time to come and help Ana and I with our Senior Project. Our future meetings are scheduled to be every Monday, once a week--during P.E. and part of Chores. All the girls have a legitimate excuse to leave these activities, and come to Women's Group. Ana and I are hoping that the meetings become a success and more girls would like to join. It's very exciting, yet a little scary.

Project Blog

In August I had the most amazing idea of what to do for my project; I thought it was going to be very easy. But it turned out to be very complex. There are many things that I had to do to accomplish what I’ve accomplished today. Time management was a great factor for this project, luckily by next semester I shall not worry about college applications. Nevertheless, I’ve grown so much with this project. I’ve never thought what guys out of school thought of girls that attend college level schools—naïve. Throughout my project that’s been constantly behind my head. And that has caused me to improve my project, to get everything out of the way. Some topics are very racy, but so is life. We encounter all the topics that we’ll be talking about in life, so if we encounter them in life, why not talk about it in school? The main reason why we attend school is to learn new things, to know and learn about everything. I’ve learned that many girls don’t have the basic conversations with their parents, that such talks are “awkward”. This club will be very helpful for all the girls; they will improve their everyday lives.

My “planning has been enriched” plenty, for us girls that have had the talk with their parents is not always enough. There are other things that people encounter every day, and you learn from nothing but pure personal experience. That’s when one tells friends about the incident, and that’s how other people get informed.

I honestly can’t wait to start having meetings on January, and impact the community! Daniel Pink was right, there has to be a motivation in life. Everyone has a different motivation. At the beginning I had no idea what was my motivation. I didn’t think I had a motivation, but that made no sense, how can one live without a motivation? I always thought money was my main motivation in life. But with this project, since money is not involved at all, that made me realize money wasn’t my motivation.

Changing people’s lives in the smallest possible way is my motivation. To see their faces when I was right; to see when what and where I’ve guided them was the right path makes me so happy. It keeps me going. And that’s what my project does, it improves girls’ lives and makes them happy.

It’s such a great feeling to see what two people can do with motivation, help, and research. To accomplish all the plans I have in mind for my project I’ll follow the timeline that I’ve designed. That way procrastination will not catch up to me, and I shall be ahead of the game. And my project will turn out to be as planned.

Sentence

The Ladies of Chinquapin, with a college level, educational meetings, prepared girls for a greater future in life.

Procrastination

Liszette and I have been very diligent, we have been working on our timeline to help us schedule and have us on track of the stuff we need to do and accomplish at a certain time. Our goal has been to have at least eight meetings before we graduate: May 24th, 2012. Starting on January, not so far from now, we shall start organizing our first meeting. Yay! I'm so excited, it's incredible to see how far we've come and finally have our first meeting. We are hoping for the best. Even though, after coming back from our amazing trip at Washington, D.C. we've slacked off just a bit. Procrastination is something we are trying very hard to avoid. With college applications due on Dec.1st and finals coming up our work has been delayed quite a bit. Our entire schedule has been quite hectic we've managed to put ourselves together through this hard times. Our website is looking great, and we are now currently working on a presentation.

Personally, I'm having trouble finding interesting books* that not one or two individuals want to read, I want at least more than half of the Chinquapinian girls to like the reading selections we choose. I'm a very open-minded individual, and I wish for everyone in our club to try to be the same. Therefore, I want everyone to be comfortable with the reading and with the conversations involved with the reading and the club. Any suggestions with the readings I could have us read?

*books - short readings, not very long novels.