KIPP

The other day in class we watched a video over a program that I had never heard of before called KIPP. KIPP stands for Knowlege Is Power Program. Basically what the program does is set up schools in areas where people think that the kids have no chance of making it through school and doing anything with their lives. This is school is not like most schools though becuase it goes for up to ten hours a day, they have school on Saturday, and part of the summer. Most people would not think that kids would want to go to that type of school, but the leadership instilled in those schools by the programs founders have gotten both the teachers and children willing to dedicate those types of hours to make something out of their lives. I was amazed to see inner city children so motivated to do school work, but the program gives them hope when so many people around them are trying to hold them back in life. The founders of KIPP went out of their way to create this program not for themselves but to help guide the youth in the right direction to have a successful life.

Leadership Workshop

Tonight I attended a leadership workshop that really showed me alot of ways that I could improve myself and my leadership skills. I thought that spending 5 hours of my night listening to a guy talk would just be a boring waste of time, but I could not have been anymore wrong. Some of the quotes that he used that really stuck out in my head were "to inspire growth and development in other people you must grow within yourself", "Motivation is an individual responsibility", and "Stop trying to be perfect and start being remarkable". The things he talked about really made me rethink alot of decisions and events in my life and how they could have been different if I had only known those ideas.

Painful Memories Exercise

Today in CSR309 we did an exercise where we had to write down some painful times in our lives. Before we wrote down ours, the professor opened up first and told the class about things in his life that cause him pain everyday. I think that when someone is able to open up emotionally with people about such personal things it really makes you feel like you can trust that person. I have only had one other teacher or professor in my entire life that I truly feel wanted to connect with the students in their class. It makes me want to work harder for that person becuase I really do feel that he is working to make us better people instead of just showing up everyday to do a job. The exercises that he has provided so far have taught me more about myself as a person than I would have ever guessed I would have learned all year. I wish that all my classes that I have taken here at Purdue could be as useful for my future as this one is.