I met with Juliet today to talk about some new ideas I’ve been having about the direction our project could go in. I think that tutoring is a positive activity and has the ability to help students, but I think we could expand our ultimate goal.

One thing I feel very passionately about is increasing opportunities for students to express themselves using the arts. Most students who are not in enrichment programs do not get to take advantage of arts. Juliet and I talked about the perception of the arts as “intellectual” and the aversion that many people have to all things in this realm, which are seen as “Extras,” not as necessities for personal or academic growth. Poetry, writing (both creative and non-creative), and communication are all really important to me and are things that I know a lot about.

I’d like to propose that in addition to our tutoring component, that I could research and attempt to implement a component of our program that would get students involved in writing and speaking, esp. via poetry. All of our research is still very relevant, and everyone could continue to pursue the academic interests they have--mostly I would just be moving forward with the goal of creating a program that celebrates writing. If others are interested they can help in researching this...i.e. someone could maybe read a little bit about the benefits of enriching experiences (like creative writing clubs), we could see what's available at schools and in the community currently, and find students from UR to get involved and sustain it.

The idea does not have to be limited to this focus, but this is just one idea that I have. Another idea would be to create a program that acts as a hub--connecting students with the things that they are passionate about, but may not have the cultural or social capital to enact in their lives. Often students who come from families who are working several jobs, or don’t value intellectualism may not seek out opportunities for their students to be involved in things. These students are not challenged to be creative at school, or give the enriching opportunities that students labeled “smart” are. We don’t have to limit our program to “middle of the road” students, but I think that should be our target. It could be all ages. In this way, we would act as a hub to connect students to opportunities for art, music, and hobbies that they might be interested in.

I will begin researching what is out there, but I just wanted to present this idea to you all.

What do you think about this? Let’s meet and discuss.