Reflection on Saturday's Consultation

This past Saturday, myself and 10 fellow classmates had the opportunity to meet and work with students in the University's College Mentoring Program. This program is similar to an Upward Bound Program and I know that these types of projects have proven tremendous results in there benefit. So that said, I was really glad to be apart of it in someway.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, but right when we entered the conference room where the students were, I along with another 383 student were paired up and we took our "consultee" outside in the hallway for a little more privacy. It was really difficult for find a starting place so we asked to see what she had worked on earlier in the day with Dr. Gale, doing the quick response/free writing questions exercise. (As a little side note: I am also taking Psychology this semester and when Dr. Gale first told us about this drill the students did, I immediately thought of psychoanalytic theory for those of you familiar with Freud haha.) Back on track... we asked our high school student to talk about which ever response she liked the best. Courageously, the one she choose was about her life experiences having to flee Afghanistan because of war. I think I was shocked at first because I was not expecting to hear something that depicted so much struggle and difficultly. Needless to say, it was hard to say things like "Well, thats a GREAT story!" while still offering a lot of encouragement. It was moving that such a young women was able to openly talk about what she had been through. In a way, I think it made the consultation easier then expected by having been paired with a student who was already ready to explore the implications of her story. I also would like to add that I was able to immediately sense that the student we were working with was very open to advice on her ideas and discussing them. She did have a few issues with organization and we often had to urge her to write some things down. Something my partner did which was great, was to write some points down for her so she concentrate on getting her thoughts out and open while not having to simultaneously record them. I noticed myself tending to forget that she was still a high school student and English was not her first (or even second) language. I felt so bad after I asked her about maybe proposing an argument for her paper because I could tell she had not idea what I was talking about. I hope the student we worked with is really able to correlate her incredible story into something that works with what college admissions staff want to hear. Thus, next time I work with the student, I will be keeping that in mind. Oh, and we also learned that she is applying to both UVA and Richmond so hopefully she'll get admitted to both and make the better choice :)