Friday, February 3, 2012

You've got a way to keep me on your side. You give me cause for love that I can't hide. For you I know I'd even try to turn the tide. Because you're mine, I walk the line


Last week’s class was really interesting and interactive. We had a guest speaker, who spoke to us about Working with Diverse groups and making connections. This discussion led to “walking across the line” which seemed amusing in the beginning but became rather serious and thoughtful towards the end. Even though I have had classes with my fellow summit residents for the past semester, I didn’t really feel like I knew anything about them, until the class on the 27th of January.  The “walking across the line” activity showed me what common things I have and don’t with the others. It drew us closer as in, we got to know a little more about each other and I thought that, that was a successful class as the one of the class topic was “making connections.”
I am looking forward to many such interactive and fun classes.
            -Pema

As sure as night is dark and day is light. I keep you on my mind both day and night. And happiness I've known proves that it's right. Because you're mine, I walk the line


                Our first Summit class began with a lot of us discovering that we aren’t so different after all. The activity where we “walked across the line” opened the eyes to a lot of us in class. What I mean by this is that, even though we couldn't explain why we did or did not cross the line, we all might have had our own predictions on what we thought people would or would not cross the line for. We really became closer by learning a little more about each other. What really struck me was when I walked across the line, when it was asked whether we had lost a parent, and I felt like people were looking at me with sympathy and genuinely felt bad that I had crossed the line for that. I guess I just wasn't expecting anyone to feel bad for me because of it. Everyone seemed to be taking the activity seriously, however we were still able to have a few laughs and have a good time during the activity. In the end we were able to appreciate the point of the activity, which was reminding us that we don’t know what everyone is going through and how important it is for us as leaders to not just lead people, but to listen to them, notice changes in their behavior, and then be able to react based on what we’ve seen or heard. This is especially important when working with children in the Special Olympics because you have to know how to react to a child that gets upset easily, and remember to listen to them instead of just talking at them/telling them what to do.
            -Suzy
Our community partner’s website is:
Mission Statement:
The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community. “
Interested in getting involved? You can go to the website below or ask one of us!

I find it very, very easy to be true. I find myself alone when each day is through. Yes, I'll admit I'm a fool for you. Because you're mine, I walk the line


 Our first Summit class meeting for the new semester dealt with making connections with those who are seemingly different from ourselves. The key point that I took away from this discussion was that the differences that we see in others are minuscule compared to the things that we have in common. For instance, when we “walked across the line”, we could see that we all had many things in common. There were many differences that we had with one another but ultimately those things are not important or prevalent to how we are as a person. It is okay to have differences as long as we are able to understand the points of views of others and respect each individual despite our differences because in the end our similarities out way the differences.
This will be very beneficial and helpful in working with our community partner, the Special Olympics. We will be able to better relate to the individuals we will be working with. Making and maintaining relationships with others is extremely important in working with our community partner and is an important quality to posses in general. 
                   -Shelby

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine. I keep my eyes wide open all the time. I keep the ends out for the tie that binds. Because you're mine, I walk the line


From the Making Connections and Diversity presentation from our last class, I took away many things. Of all of our discussion points and activities we did, the biggest thing that I took away from it was really thinking about things from others’ perspective. This is something that I have always thought was very important. I felt like it was really reiterated in this presentation. The activity where we “walked across the line” was one that really highlighted this. It showed us the different things that others have experienced and how their view of the world is different because of this. Just because they don’t agree with you doesn’t mean that their reasoning is wrong. In their shoes, I might think the same way they do. This lesson will definitely help me with working with our community partner. We all have different schedules and different agendas. This also applies in working in my group. We all have different things that we need to accomplish during the day. Sometimes, we need to think about what is going on with the other members of the group and learn to be flexible. I thought this was a great presentation that will hopefully continue to help me and my group for the rest of the semester.  
                   -Emily