Thursday and Friday blended into one day because my cousin came to visit from Minnesota. She is a junior and high school, so she is starting the college search! After a two hour drive to Logan Airport due to traffic, I was excited to finally see her, but we had a long drive back to campus thanks to rush hour traffic.

We thankfully got back to campus just in time for my Student Programs for Urban Development (SPUD) intern reflection. Since Campion was closed, we were able to have the reflection in the chapel. It was the perfect, quiet place to have our reflection and could not have come at a better time for all of us. We definitely needed those thirty minutes to focus on relaxation and centering.

Part of why I love being an intern for SPUD is getting to know the other interns. We all share a common passion for service and social justice. The responsibility of overseeing sites and planning events on campus can make it feel more business-like, but it is the reflections that we have every other week that bring us back to why we do SPUD.

The reflections give us time to reflect upon the injustices we see in Worcester as well as the wealth of knowledge, growth, and potential we see in the community. We all work with different populations, so it is helpful to come together so that we can find the commonalities between our work. Then, we are able to work with our lead community organizer to see what we can do to further engage our community in the hopes of enacting change.

Today, after an early morning of working out and classes,  my cousin and I got lunch at the Pub and then went on a tour of campus. The main attraction was of course the Holy Cross Bookstore. After visiting Dinand Library and the academic buildings, we made our way to St. Joseph Chapel to finish the tour.

After our day of exploring campus, we went into Worcester for dinner at in the Canal District. As if we weren’t full from dinner, we went to the Queen’s Cups for cupcakes for dessert.

We went back to campus quickly so we could catch the volleyball game in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. They invited the organization, the Pink Hippy, to campus for the game and honored the women who are currently fighting breast cancer.

Today, I started my morning with observations at Doherty Memorial High School with my two supervising practitioners, Mrs. O’Leary and Mrs. Razzaq. I will be taking over Mrs. O’Leary’s Honors Pre-Calculus class and Mrs. Razzaq’s English Language Learner (ELL) Geometry and College Prep Geometry classes.

Mrs. O’Leary is starting to implement more technology into her classroom, so we focused on helping students set up online accounts so that they could then complete assignments online and receive instant results. Although we were running around a lot, helping different students, I enjoyed it because I finally got to get to know my future students better by working with them one-on-one.

Since I have been working with Mrs. Razzaq since last year, I have taken a more active role this year in the classroom. I am constantly walking around, helping students who are struggling with concepts. I’m happy to say I think I have finally learned all of the students’ names in her ELL Geometry class, but I still need to work on learning the names of her College Prep Geometry class of thirty students.

I am so excited to be at Doherty in the Spring and am so lucky to have such amazing and supportive supervising practitioners.

After observations, I went straight to class and then office hours for help on my problem set with Ally. She is at Sullivan Middle School this year and knew as soon as she saw me that today was my day for observations thanks to my work outfit!

After my busy day of observations and school, I was excited to get off campus to tutor my Montserrat professor’s daughter. I love being able to get off campus and to feel like I’m at home when home is so far away in Florida. We always make sure to get homework done while also having a good time. I also love getting to catch up with my professor each week. Our Montserrat class became a tight-knit group that is still friends today.

After tutoring, I went straight to the gym to work out, so I was excited when I got back to campus to make a quick dinner: pasta and brussel sprouts.

Jailene’s second blog!

Hey guys! So I just wanna clear up any misconceptions about college. Some people think (myself included freshmen year), that you cannot have a life outside of school, going to classes, doing homework, etc. If you manage your time correctly, you can have time to do so many things, here are some of my favorites!

Gym! Gym! GYM!

If you read my previous blog, you may realize that going to the gym is my passion. This is something that I genuinely enjoy and make time for every single day. I love going in the mornings because that is when I feel like I get in the best workout. When I started at Holy Cross, I stopped going to the gym because I convinced myself that I did not have time for it (such a mistake!). If you plan out your day and do not procrastinate (this is hard, I know), I promise you will have time for anything that you enjoy doing!

Cooking!

So, I love food. I love watching people make food, I love making food, I love eating food, and the list goes on. When I have free time, I love to make food for my family, my friends and myself. This year I am living with three of my good friends, we occasionally have roommate dinners and I make the food!

Friends and Family <3

I am so lucky to have such amazing people in my life. Making time to talk to my friends and family makes my day easier and happier.

My point of all this is, if you are a college student or working professional, you have time to do the things that make you happy! One thing that I learned over the past three years is that life does not have to be as serious as you think. If you like to draw, then draw! If you like to dance, then dance! Always make time for things that will make you happy 🙂