Prompt: What did you learn about the problem, about the community, about yourself? How will the work you did in CODES relate to your remaining time at SIUE, to the career you are planning for yourself, and to the person you want to be?
What I took away from our time mentoring was that no matter the circumstances, everyone’s the same. We may all live different lifestyles and do things differently from each other, but we still go through the same type of emotions. We all feel sadness, anger, and happiness because we’re all human. As we worked with the students at the Boys and Girls Club we could tell some were more eager than the others but they all still used the opportunity to learn from us. The research we had read showed us the numbers for dropouts and suspensions/expulsions, but that wasn’t what I saw when meeting with these students every week. Every week these students were driven to learn as much as they could from us, some were even excited about meeting with us every week. What I learned about the community is that even though the numbers say one thing, there are still many who prove those numbers wrong. Seeing these students drove me to reflect on my learning and motivation. Seeing that they could beat the odds with ease showed me that I can also beat any situations that may come up for me. The work I’ve done in CODES will help me in the future by allowing me to use the skills I used. With CODES there was a lot of public speaking as well as meeting new people to discuss work further ahead. I will be able to use these skills in my career as a counselor. As a counselor, I will meet new people nearly every day and have to hold a conversation with them. CODES has taught me communication skills so I will be able to apply those in the future. CODES has taught me many other skills as well, that I’ll probably use with the rest of my time here at SIUE, as well as some outside of school.