3/9 Weekly Blog Update.

THRIVE Director Notes

Posts on this Blog will be directed to help families see what is going on in our THRIVE Program.  Items discussed on the Blog have already occurred. To keep updated on what’s coming up please refer to your students or UCM activity calendar.

DIrector Notes: 

We will keep families posted on any new developments involving our campus and the coronavirus.  It is a very fluid issue and we’ll do our best to have options. Thank you in advance for being flexible about whatever the university decides to do.  Facebook, Twitter, and email will be the primary modes of any university updates.

First-Year Students:

Workplace & Community Skills (Mrs. Southard & Dr. Manning): 

Monday we talked about customer service. The discussion centered around dealing with unhappy customers and not letting someone's unhappiness spill over to students' home life. Wednesday students were assigned to write a paragraph on a video that Dr. Manning showed illustrating respectfulness and treatment of others. The discussion centered around working with others that are different than yourself. 

Learning Strategies (Mrs. Southard): 

Monday and Wednesday involved going over the correct answer on the questions of the last pages of Chapters 1,2 and 3. Organizing notebooks and to-do lists. The class centered around how to study for a test. 

• Using index cards for definitions and was told to carry them around with them to look at during the day. 
• Memorizing the questions at the end of chapters 1,2, and 3.
• Break down studying - 1 hour each day
• Use resources- textbook-powerpoint-write yourself some questions.
• Studying with friends

Students were given a review sheet on Friday, March 6th for the test that was Friday, March 13th. Students were also invited to two Kahoots reviews to help review some key objectives. The test was on Friday, March 13th. 

Personal Math (Mrs. Garnier): 

This week, students continued to practice how to keep a running balance in a check register, and we also spent time looking at a bank statement and learning how to reconcile it with a check register. Additionally, we talked about interest as it applies to savings accounts and loans. They learned the formula for figuring interest I = (P) x (R) x (T) and practiced using it to figure interest on various loan amounts. I was impressed with how quickly most of them caught on! 

Second-Year Students:

Transition Planning II (Dr. Manning):    The students are working on getting their electronic portfolios and hard copy portfolios together.  The portfolios include a resume, cover letter, reference letters, professional development plan, goals, and assignments that may have been done in classes.     

The students continue to contact Vocational Rehab offices in their area and try to set up meetings with that office.  We do have resources we have been giving to the students but feel free to contact the THRIVE office if you would like to receive these resources to help with the transition from being a UCM student to joining the workforce.  

Nash wanted to make sure the students were destressed before Dr. Manning’s class...

Internship II (Dr. Manning):  The students’ internships are going well.  The supervisors have been very pleased with the students' professionalism and work ethic.  The students’ do need to continue working on showing initiative at their internships. We have talked about showing initiative in class and what showing initiative may look like. We have been discussing problem-solving skills and critical thinking skills.  

We have also been going through different scenarios on what individuals may have to do when working with customers and customer service.    

PLATO (Mrs. Southard): All students had new assessments. ALL students completed plato last week. Therefore no one was asked to attend study hall plus due to missing plato from the week before.

THRIVE Activities:

This weekend students moved home for Spring Break.  Have a great week everyone.

Important upcoming dates:

THRIVE Spring Softball games: This semester we are again having a softball team.  Due to wet fields, they have postponed the start dates to after Spring Break.  We just found out that instead of Monday nights the games will be held on Wednesday nights instead.  The students started practicing last Sunday afternoon. I’m sure they will have more practices in the coming weeks.  All games will be held at the Jennie’s Softball Complex on DD highway. If you’d like to come to a game and don’t know how to get there, please get with me.

Game times:  Due to scheduled THRIVE Activities at the moment we’ll have one game on 4/1.

4/1-  7 pm

THRIVE Formal Dance- We are excited to announce that the Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority is again putting on a THRIVE Formal.  This formal will be on April 8th from 6-8 at the Panhellenic building. This is a student only dance, sorry staff members are not invited, but I’m sure the mentors will have pictures posted.

Interviews for next year’s cohort of 2022:  We’ve started inviting students to be a member of the Class of 2022.  We have a few more seats, but they are filling up.  

2nd-year Families:  In the coming weeks we’ll have some updates for 2nd-year graduation and activities.  Please monitor your emails.

Athletics to watch:  The Jennie’s are still playing in the tournament.  They are MIAA Champions and UCM will be hosting some of the first tournament games coming up on Friday.  GO JENNIES!! UCM Mules Wrestling also has some matches in the coming weeks. The Mules and Jennies baseball and softball teams are playing so watch for upcoming activities.   I’ve also copied activities to the students’ 2019 Activity Calendar (Google) that they can access and prepare for.

In addition, the students can participate in Intramural Athletics: Students will need to watch the back table for any upcoming activities.

"This blog is a programming blog written by the director and staff of the THRIVE Program on the University of Central Missouri campus.  This blog doesn't accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. 

The views and ideas expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners.  This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.  We are simply telling you what we plan to do in our program and using the blog to help spread what we are doing on a weekly basis."