Blog 10/24

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:

Virtual meetings next week.  This is a good time to ask any questions, we’ll also be discussing what to expect for the Spring semester.  Also, for 2nd-and 3rd-year students, we’ll be looking at what you’ll need to do in the next couple of months.  If you didn’t get an email invitation please let me know.

First-Year: Monday 10/24 at 7 pm

Second-Year: Tuesday 10/25 at 7 pm

Third-Year: Wednesday 10/26 at 7 pm

Spring Semester notes:  Will be enrolling soon…

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 get back with the students on the final class options.

Second-Year Students:  Will be enrolling soon…

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 the 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:   Will be enrolling soon…

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  

This week we talked about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and how it relates to drama in students' lives. Keeping them from learning and understanding objectives. Students were asked to create their own to-do lists and share them with Mrs. Southard. Thursday was a test on Chapter 4 students could take the test twice on the computer to help improve their score. Friday we switched books. In the next part of the semester, students will be working on improving their writing skills. 

Individual Relationships and Health:  Joni Shelton

We are continuing our Healthy Relationships discussions with the decision a couple will make to have a baby. We discussed pregnancy; stages of the prenatal development and what it is like for the pregnant woman. This included a pregnancy simulation by putting on backpacks backward and doing various tasks (see pictures below). We also are discussing labor and delivery and care for the newborn. This will include stages and development, physical care, financial considerations, and the emotions that tend to go along with early parenthood.

Technology Literacy:  Victoria O’Reilly

In Tech Literacy this week students have started working on grammar and writing skills with an online website called Quill. We hope these short lessons will assist students with their writing assignments over the next few weeks and months. They also completed a Google Scavenger Hunt where they had to maneuver throughout the internet to complete various tasks ranging from locating places in Warrensburg to purchase a slushie to browsing TED Talks for some motivation. I think it’s safe to say that this class knows how to search the web!

Career Exploration: Gary Manning

This week the students will look at their past volunteer or job experiences.  I will ask them to have a printout of any past resumes and if not, talk to parents over the weekend to get information on what experiences they have had, starting dates, ending dates, and others.  It will be important to talk to your student during this week to help them get information in an email about what they have done so they can work on this during the next week. 

 Second-Year Students:

Transition Planning I: Gary Manning

We are talking about listening to each other and what type of listening skills we need to utilize when listening. Further, we are discussing body language and how your body language can tell another person a lot about you.  

Internship I: Gary Manning

The students continue to work on resumes.  The resumes have good information on them but the students need to fine-tune the resumes.  We will work on that during class time and weekly meetings.  The students will start working on mock interviews in the next week.  We are also discussing interviewing skills.  We did a mock interview in class on Thursday.

Personal Finance I: Lisa Garnier

This week’s topic included types of expenses (Fixed, Recurring, & Emergency) and different types of budgeting. We learned about 50/30/20 budgeting, paying yourself first (savings first), zero-based budgeting, and envelope budgeting. Each budget emphasis is on saving first, paying for needs/expenses next, and paying for wants last. 

Third-Year Students:

Transition Planning III: Lisa Garnier

With the election coming up, we spent time discussing absentee ballots, voter registration, and where to find information on ballot issues and candidates. We reviewed a couple of ballot issues and how to read them as well as looked at a couple of candidate bios on Ballotpedia. I encouraged students to talk to parents about absentee voting and whether or not the student is currently registered to vote or if they care to be. 

Internship III: Lisa Garnier

We’ve spent time discussing possible internships for next semester, and I’m in the process of setting those up.

Foods and Nutrition: Debra Southard

Monday students made homemade biscuits. They did pretty well. Wednesday's class focused on evaluating what they did on Monday and discussing making pull-apart bread (monkey bread). Friday students made the bread. They are doing great and learning to work together in a kitchen setting. 

Plato: Debra Southard:

Students were given some choices of topics. All students still complete reading, writing, and math but get to pick two new subjects. That seems to be going well. The students that do not complete plato seems to be the same ones every week. 

THRIVE Activities: 

Mentor Activities: This last weekend Lucas planned a campfire with smores but with the no-burn order he had to make some changes… The students watched Top Gun at the UCM Theaters.  

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 Paige has a cooking activity planned.  We look forward to seeing the students.

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."