Week 7

Updates from the past week:

In our College Knowledge session this week, Jakara and Miguel stayed after Monday for our workshop on paying for college and financial aid. I was impressed by how many questions they asked! They should feel prepared to continue their college search with a financial context in mind and navigate their college choices based on affordability.
Monday evening, we had a wonderful parent dinner at EBHS. We enjoyed pasta, meatballs, bread, salad, and cookies while learning more about the SEAD program and what type of support families can expect from SEAD in the upcoming months and years. Did you know when the SEAD scholars return home from SEAD III this summer, they will already have a college essay (a.k.a. their personal statement) ready to go for college applications?! It was truly wonderful to see so many of the SEAD scholars and their family members at the dinner, and I hope they enjoyed getting to see Jay, Jenni, Danise and Katy from the leadership team up at Dartmouth, who were able to visit for the evening from Hanover. Thank you to everyone who ceame and thank you for a great evening!
Our college visits to Worcester on Friday went really well! Jakara, Ronaldo, Miguel, and Ke'Andre were able to join a total of 73 Eastie students who went to visit colleges in Worcester today. They either attended Clark, WPI (Ke'Andre and Miguel) or Worcester State (Jakara and Ronaldo).
Our trip to SkyZone was so much fun! I hope the students enjoyed it as much as I did. We even got a surprise visit from Sawyer, the Winter 2014 intern!!! The students were so shocked and happy to see her. Be sure to check out the wonderful pictures from the trip included in this blog. Afterwards, a few of us enjoyed dinner at Dough, one of my favorite sandwich shops in East Boston. Yum!

Check out the video of our SkyZone Trip below!

TOMORROW 11/8

Read all the details here: http://seadebhs.blogspot.com/2014/11/this-saturday.html

On the horizon:

Next week's College Knowledge will be on after school on Monday 11/10. We will be filling out a formal college list profile and planning ahead to fill out their junior year "Roadmap to College". This is a great workshop to attend to be in a good spot to do some continued college searching on their own and be ready to start off next term's College Knowledge curriculum with the Winter Intern, Mrynna.

SEAD will be going on a College Visit to Boston University on Tuesday 11/11 (Veteran's Day, No School for Boston Public Schools). We will be meeting at Airport station at 9:45am, and leaving promptly right after - don't be late! If you are not coming from East Boston, you can meet us at 10:10am at Park Street Station on the Green Line B train platform towards Boston College. We will be taking the T to the Boston University - East stop. We will be going on a campus tour at 11am, eating lunch on campus (paid for by SEAD), and then returning to Eastie around 2:30pm. Stay tuned for an information sheet about BU!

On Thursday evening, SEAD will be visiting the Institute of Contemporary Art. We will be meeting somewhere in East Boston for a quick dinner at 5pm (Subway, Burger King, etc.) and then heading to the museum. We should return to East Boston by 8pm. Dinner will be paid for by SEAD and admission to the museum is free on Thursday evenings!

My schedule for the upcoming week: 11/10-11/14

Monday: College Knowledge after school
Tuesday: no school, BU trip (9:45am-2:30pm)
Wednesday: available after school until 3:30
Thursday: available after school until 3, meeting at 5pm for dinner in East Boston (location TBD)
Friday: I have to leave early (by 11:45am), don't forget to show me your Aspen before I leave!

For parents and guardians

Thank you so much to everyone who came to the Family Dinner on Monday. I have enjoyed getting to put faces to names and meet all of you! I hope you had a good time and learned more about your student's experience in SEAD.
Always feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like to talk with me!

This week's SEAD shoutout is Miguel! Miguel has been very dedicated to College Knowledge these past few weeks! He's attended the past two workshops in a row, been very engaged, done college and financial aid research on his own, attended the college visit to WPI on Friday, and asked great questions in order to increase his knowledge about college! This will be a huge benefit in the college application process in the fall and SEAD is so proud of him for his dedication to his future! Great job, Miguel, keep it up!

Photos from Week 7:

East Boston SEAD students, their families, and Katy, Jenni, Danise, and Jay from the SEAD leadership team at Dartmouth came together on Monday evening for our SEAD Family Dinner. We enjoyed wonderful food and good company. I am so happy I got to meet so many of the scholars' family members. I hope the students felt loved to see so many of their supporters in one room!

On Tuesday night, I enjoyed dinner with Shirley Spence, a Dartmouth alum and the Class of '77 liaison to the SEAD program. We chatted over great seafood in North Cambridge and I enjoyed getting to connect with yet another member of the SEAD family!

On Wednesday, Ronaldo's Biotech class was joined by 8th grade students from Umana Academy, Eastie's middle school. The students spent the morning exploring high school science activities. I got to watch the Biotech students work with the middle schoolers to extract DNA from strawberries. Yum!

On Thursday Night, I attended the 2014 College Access and Success Briefing at the Federal Reserve Bank. It was amazing to see all of the people, organizations, and resources out there that are dedicated to increasing college access and success for underrepresented students. It really helped put SEAD's mission in a larger context. I also got to connect with a Dartmouth professor who does research in college access - awesome!

Friday, 73 Eastie students traveled to Worcester to visit either WPI, Worcester State, or Clark. I chaperoned the WPI visit (which Miguel and Ke'Andre went on). I learned so much about all of the things WPI has to offer and hope that our students that may be interested consider applying!

It's finally here....SkyZone!!! Here are some pictures from our trip!

I had a blast and I hope that Jakara, Ke'Andre, Alex, Juan, and Ronaldo had just as much fun as I did!