a nice break

This past week at NNH, I had it really easy.  It was a week with no kids, which was strange, but a needed break.  Because NNH was done with the first session of the summer academic program, we had a week that allowed time to transition before the second session began.  Throughout the week, I mostly helped with reorganizing things, writing out visuals for the centers, cleaning, making copies of worksheets, etc.  But beyond the hands-on work I did to help prepare for the second session, I was able to interview Chelsea before she left the Northside Neighborhood House to begin a different job.  She has been my supervisor since the beginning of my internship and she's been wonderful to work with.  I'm going to miss her a lot during the second session, but I'm so thankful for the time I was able to spend with her.  She was able to give me some insight not only into the educational program, but also the adult program, since she's also been head over the GED program at NNH.  I learned some amazing stories about how people's lives have been changed as well as the struggles that come with working at NNH.  I hope that from our conversation, she was able to fondly look back at the memories she's had at NNH.

As far as how my research is going, I'm still working on tweaking the information I gathered from the focus groups.  I've been coding as well as trying to summarize the major findings from the focus groups.  This week, I also plan to start writing up some interview question for some of the kids and their parents as well as looking at some PLA activities I could use to learn more about the kids' experiences at NNH and with the staff.  Please be praying that as I begin the second session, I would have wisdom in research more about the mentors and participants at NNH.  I'm excited to be working with the kids again this week and I'm excited about the ways God will stretch me and teach me new things about NNH and Himself.