10/31 Blog posting

 

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 the THRIVE activity calendar or UCM activity calendar.

First-Year Students:

Director Notes:

FAFSA becomes available online at fafsa.gov for next year.  I know many of you will wait until current tax information comes out but wanted to let families know.  

Virtual Meetings:

We hope you were able to come to our Virtual Meeting last week.  If not, I’ve sent a copy of the video of the session for your viewing.  If you have any questions please contact me.

Spring Semester notes:  Enrolling Now

First-Year Students:

Our first-year students have been asked to give 5 classes that they might like to take in the Spring Semester.  Then staff will look over their choices to help narrow it down to the class that fits in their schedule and gets back to the students on the final class options.

Second-Year Students:  Enrolling Now

The second-year students have been asked to give 5 classes that they might like to take in the Spring Semester.  Then staff will look over their choices to help narrow it down to the class that fits in their schedule and gets back to the students on the final class options.  They will also be asked what internships they would like to have in the Spring.  We change their internships each semester so that they will have more experience and gain more skills.  In some instances, if students are in a paid position, we give the students a chance to stay at that internship as long as they can continue to learn new skills to help them in their future.

Spring Roommate Changes…. Maybe maybe not… First- & Second-Year students…

Also, in Late October the first-year students and second-year students are asked about spring roommates.  The students can stay with the same roommate or if they want to switch roommates they can let us know their top 5 roommates and a couple of other questions.  This helps staff look at what roommates want to move and which students don’t.  The staff look over their choices and make the best decision they can.  Any student moves are then done the week after Thanksgiving break.  This helps the students be ready for the Spring semester.  No families are asked to come back to help move.  THRIVE staff helps the students swap rooms and help get with Housing on any paperwork.

Third-Year Students:   Enrolling Now

The third-year students have been asked to give 5 classes that they might like to take in the Spring Semester.  Then staff will look over their choices to help narrow it down to the class that fits in their schedule and gets back to the students on the final class options.  They will also be asked what internships they would like to have in the Spring.  We change their internships each semester so that they will have more experience and gain more skills.  In some instances, if students are in a paid position, we give the students a chance to stay at that internship as long as they can continue to learn new skills to help them in the future.

University Foundations: Debra Southard  

We exchanged our textbook for a different one for this half of the semester. More than likely students will have a daily writing assignment in class. They will be asked to work on explaining, expanding, and elaborating on their written assignments. Some students may be asked to redo an assignment. Writing assignments will center around their values, goals, and decisions about their lives. Students remembering to put their names on papers has been a challenge. 

Individual Relationships and Health:  Joni Shelton

This week students continued exploring pregnancy with a discussion of labor and childbirth. We ended this Unit with a short youtube video titled “Miracle of Life”. Students were in awe of this process.  We are now discovering the needs and expenses of caring for an infant. Next week, we will start discussing the financial needs of living as an adult and caring for a family. 

Technology Literacy:  Victoria O’Reilly

This week in Tech Literacy students will be completing our Technology Purchase Project. For this assignment, students will pick two products of the same technology to compare and contrast. The idea behind this project is to conduct research on a product students may want to purchase in the future. They will be identifying important features desired in the product to best decide which product is the best fit for their needs. They will be looking at pricing for products and product reviews and ratings. I have prefaced this assignment letting them know that NO purchase is necessary! I’m excited to see their passion come alive in this project!

Pictured below are a few students who stopped by the twins' birthday party this weekend on campus.

Career Exploration: Gary Manning

This past week the students started working on their resumes.  This coming week they will be working on including their educational information as well as activities that they were in during high school or before THRIVE.  I’ve asked students to continue to use their resources… parents, and families to help them remember some of the information.  Please contact them if they haven’t to help them get all their activities on their resume.  We should be doing their final draft over Thanksgiving break and the students will be asked to turn in their final copy for part of their final.

 Second-Year Students:

Transition Planning I: Gary Manning

We finished Habit 6 (Synergy).  During our discussions, we talked about how we need to cooperate with each other and listen to each other.  This can be difficult at times especially when we get frustrated with each other.  

The students worked on Math skills during class.  Within these lessons, we discuss money/budget and decision-making.  We use real-life examples of spending money. 

Internship I: Gary Manning

The past couple of weeks the students have had to make decisions on their internship for the spring semester.  This can be a difficult decision to make.  I have suggested to the students to make sure they discuss these decisions with their families.  I will start finalizing most internships for the spring semester over the next couple of weeks.

Personal Finance I: Lisa Garnier

We’ve been doing an online banking simulation in class. We are using the NGPF Online Bank Simulator to learn how online banking works and practicing using features like transferring money from one account to another, setting up monthly and one-time payments, inputting purchases to see how they affect account balances, etc. We even created an overdraft situation by spending more money than we had available so they could visualize what that would look like. Feel free to check out the simulator at https://www.ngpf.org/bank-sim/home?returnUrl=%2F

Third-Year Students:

Transition Planning III: Lisa Garnier

The class is learning methods for discovering what activities engage and energize them and which ones don’t. They kept a log of how they spent their time each day and ranked their level of engagement and energy while doing all the things on their list. Currently, we are categorizing them and will begin looking at what some of the activities is engaging and what aren’t. The goal is to better understand what daily activities at work and at play make them happy and how they can apply their discoveries to their daily lives to be more productive and fulfilled.

Internship III: Lisa Garnier

We have been reviewing internship evaluations and what the students can do to make the most of their internship opportunities. This has included a review of dress codes on the job and how different types of jobs have different dress codes, arriving on time and staying on task, and asking what else they could do when they finish a task and still have time left on their shift. I am setting up Spring Internships now and should have them finalized in the next week or two.

Foods and Nutrition: Debra Southard

This week we are working on blueberry muffins. So far we have made Mac and cheese, biscuits, funnel cakes, omelets, cookies, and monkey bread. I know we have made a few sweet things. But the next recipe will be pizza. Students are learning a lot about being prepared in the kitchen and understanding the steps in a recipe. Also discussed with a mouse! Make sure you wash the utensils BEFORE you use them. 

Plato: Debra Southard:

Plato is going well. Students continue to tell me how much they like the new subjects they selected. If a student does not complete plato the week before they will be requested to attend study hall plus. If they complete it by 3:00 and email me after checking they could be removed from the study hall plus list for that day. 

THRIVE Activities: 

Mentor Activities: This last weekend Paige and the students made Ghost Pizza Bagels with Strawberries.  Pictures are below:  

There will be more on Facebook soon.

Great Job Everyone!!  For more pictures please join our THRIVE Facebook and/or Instagram pages.

Important upcoming dates: 

Next Mentor Activity:  Next weekend Ashtyn will have a Yoga workout planned.

UCM Athletics:

There are lots more pictures on our Facebook page.  

There are also three other activities that students said they’d be interested in that are on the back counter.  Badminton, 3 on 3 Basketball, and Pickleball Tournament.  I’ll update you as they get closer to the time.  We have three Pickleball teams that will be participating in the tournament on Saturday the 29th and Sunday the 30th.  We hope to have pictures next week.

"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."