Coming to a close

(apologies for the cheesy song, but it’s applicable)

The semester, like this blog, is drawing to a close. Complacency with final project deadlines is changing to panic, on-campus organizations are meeting for the last time this year, and LIFT-Chicago is making a new schedule for next semester and beginning its Student Advocate End-of-Semester Check-Ins.

Our Americorps leaders established the Check-Ins as both a reflective exercise for us and as a survey of what LIFT does well/could do better. The context of the Check-In is, essentially, a coffee date with either Hannah or Mini, two of our Site Coordinators, which is kind of fun. I know that this blog will help me to answer most of the questions on the Check-In evaluation (i.e. “What do you feel you have contributed to LIFT this semester?” “How has your perception of poverty changed over the course of the last semester? What event specifically was tied to this?”), and I’m thankful that this class has encouraged me to reflect more and, thus, prepare more for my end-of-the-semester reflection process.

Additionally (apparently, this turned into an extension of my previous blog post), I am thankful for this class because it has taught me to humanize my clients even more within the context of service. I’ve had so many more returners this year and it has been a joy to guide each person toward his or her goal pertaining to getting out of poverty.

I hope that they’ll be able to follow me to my newly-scheduled time slot; instead of doing the 9-11 shift, I’ll be doing one 1-3 shift and a 3-5 shift. To be honest, I’m a little worried about the transition for the aforementioned reason and because I’ve never worked a late afternoon shift before, but I look forward to the challenges and rewards of next semester.

Thanks for reading this blog, and I hope that everyone enjoyed the posts 🙂