3/2 Blog

 

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.  Please refer to the THRIVE activity calendar or UCM activity calendar to keep updated on what's coming up.  Also, if you want to learn more about assistance with your son/daughter learning how to drive please contact Mr. Brunkhorst.  

Director Notes: 

Spring Break is coming up…  March 7th through the 15th.  The students will need to be out of the dorms by 6 pm on March 6th.  Please start making arrangements with your students.  

Update on Graduation for this year’s 2nd-year graduation/celebration:

In the coming months I’ll have emails to the families of 2nd-year students but I did want to share the times of graduation and our THRIVE Celebration.  The students will graduate with the College of Education’s program in the afternoon at 2 pm, March 9th.  Since the students will walk in the afternoon, we’ll have their celebration in the morning.  The THRIVE celebration is where we’ll give the students Certificate of Success.  This will be from 10 -11. This should give time for families to go grab a bite and then be at the Multi-Purpose building around 1:30 pm.  Again, I’ll have more information going out to the families in the coming month.

Update on Scholarships:

We have worked with the students’ MyCentral to make sure that they have “Opted In” for scholarships.  This should enable them to automatically be put into our THRIVE scholarships.  However, to increase their chances of getting one of our needs-based scholarships, please make sure you work with them to fill in the new essay component that helps explain how they are financing their education.  We will rely on this information to help us know who needs the scholarship and how much?  We have experienced a drop in one of our main donors, so the following years, we may not have as much money to send our students.  You will also notice that some of the scholarships are for 1st-2nd year students and some are for 3rd/4th year students.  We did this to try to even out the available scholarships for each group.  Please make sure your son/daughter works with you on the essay component to ensure all information is there.  Plus, there is a word count on the essay, so please make sure it has enough information…  Thank you and good luck to everyone.

Job Shadow coming up for First-Year students:

First-Year students had had their first job shadows.  They will have their 2nd job shadow in a few weeks. 

Rec Center Activities:

We have the sign up sheets for the Rec Center activities in the THRIVE Lobby…  Basketball started last week, we’ll hope to have pictures…We have a few new ones that are up, Softball, Badminton Doubles, Ping Pong, 6 on 6 Volleyball, and Disc Golf.  See if your son/daughter has signed up…

Last Basketball Game for Rec…  Great job…

First-Year Students:

Foods & Nutrition I: Joni Shelton  

This week’s cooking lab was Pizza Snacks with homemade crust. We also had a presentation about eggs and assignments about eggs and reading recipes by putting the Pizza Recipe in order.

Workplace & Community Skills: Gary Manning & Mrs. Shetton

The students did their 1st job shadow this week.  We have discussed how the students need to act and how to dress for their job shadows.  The students will do two more job shadows this semester.  

First Job shadow…

We also discussed problem-solving skills and how many decisions/problems the students have to make every day. 

Daily & Independent Living Skills (DILS):  Mrs. Swainston

This week has been about skills needed to land a job and keep it. Soft skills are important when looking for a job. Practicing them daily helps strengthen and make responses automatic.

Second-Year Students:

Transition Planning II: Gary Manning

The students are getting excited about spring break.  However, we have asked the students to start looking for jobs.  Therefore, the students may be asking about locating applications and different locations. 

2nd workshop at the Career Center on Campus.

Internship I: Gary Manning

The students did their 2nd  workshop at the UCM Career and Life Design Center.  This partnership that we developed with each other has benefited our students.  The students will begin utilizing the resources at the Career Service Office.  Those resources include interview skills, resume building, mock interviews, and professional dress attire. 

Sam at the basketball game…

Personal Finance I:  Lisa Garnier

Personal Finance students spent the week learning about the difference between checking accounts and savings accounts. Checking is for money you spend regularly on wants and needs, while savings is for money you access only for large purchases or unexpected expenses. Again, we discussed the 50/30/20 budgeting method, with 20% going directly to savings and the rest to needs (50%) and wants (30%). I also explained that the percentages for wants and savings could be switched, so more money goes into savings and less money goes towards wants. 

Third-Year Students:

Transition Planning IV: Lisa Garnier

This week, we began the employment module. Students are learning how to analyze a job posting to determine if they are qualified for the job. We also discussed red flags in postings that may indicate it’s a fake job (too good to be true) or that it's not a good company to work for. We also looked at specific jobs in the student home areas to apply the job analysis skills they learned.

Internship IV: Lisa Garnier

Supervisors have given excellent feedback on their evaluations. 

Fourth-Year Students:

Senior Portfolio II: Lisa Garnier

This week, students worked on cover letters. They have created a generic cover letter that can be tailored to specific positions. This generic cover letter goes in their portfolio at the end of the semester.

Internship VI: Lisa Garnier

Students have some things to work on in terms of professionalism in the workplace, but otherwise, it’s going well.

Plato: 

Students continue to work on Math, Reading, and Language Arts skills in the Edmentum online courses. They will not be required to work on PLATO during their Spring Break.

THRIVE Activities:

Last 5 on 5 basketball at the rec…

Great game!

Mentor Activities: 

Here are the upcoming activities that the mentors will be doing…  

Valentine craft day at 1, on Saturday the 28th.

We also had a picture that didn’t get entered from last week’s movie with Cooper.

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

Important upcoming dates:   

Next year’s second round of Interviews is this week- Students will have online or group work for their THRIVE classes so that the team can be involved in the interviews.

THRIVE Scholarships should be up and ready for you to apply for.  Please also don’t forget to update your FAFSA early this year.  There is a new setup for scholarships.  Staff will be helping the students get started, but parents are encouraged to help with the financial need essay.  This will help get scholarships out.

Next Mentor Activity:  

Spring Break is next week, March 7th - 15th, so no mentor activity.

UCM Athletics:

Basketball is in full swing with both Mules and Jennies playing games at the MIAA tournament this week.  Jennie’s ranked #1, and the Mules are ranked #2. 

"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 that 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."