Francie Huebner
Jun 26 8:30-3:00
Mr. Victoria
rvictoria@menloschool.org

Peninsula Bridge is an organization that conducts a summer school for highly motivated low income students. As this is my third year helping out, I knew the expectations I was held to and how the program worked. The reason I kept coming back to Bridge was because I could see the impact that the program makes on its students. This past summer I was the Lead TA which required me to organize the daily activities that took place after class. In order to organize these activities, which we called enrichment, I had to make sure there were enough variety in the classes so that all ninety students enjoyed what they were doing. Each of my fellow TA’s helped by each leading a class -- the topics ranging from a basketball practice to a coding class. Because we wanted each student to want to be in the enrichment they participated in, we wanted them to choose which class they would be in. This proved to be more difficult than expected because we had to collect the top three choices from each student and then organize them into equally sized classes. The first week, if we gave each student their top choice, there would have been thirty six students playing soccer and only four in the drama class. Ultimately, the distribution was accomplished by creating a list of the classes on a slip of paper that we distributed during lunch to each student. In order to hand out the papers and make sure every student got one, I had to make lunchtime announcements to the entire group. During this process, I realized I have a strong, commanding voice and I am confident with my public speaking skills.