As the semester is coming to an end, so is one of our community involvement programs known as Honor Roll. Honor Roll is a program where scholars give their time out of the week to visit a local school to teach life lessons and skills to prepare them for life. What’s an engaging program without a variety of sports and games? Now all of the pics below are shown in the gym/sports hall but we spent valuable time in the classroom with the kids beforehand. We spent 8 weeks with the school next door to Carlow IT and it was a fun and insightful 8 weeks. The first week we introduced ourselves, told them how we got here, and our purpose over the next 2 months. The first visit they were quite shy but by the 3rd visit, they were practically very comfortable with us. They were definitely an energetic bunch. Throughout the 8 weeks, we gave lessons on hopes and fears, nutrition, staying safe online, peer pressure, what victory is, goal setting, and ended the last week with a celebration with snacks and of course, sports and games.
Throughout the 8 weeks, we noticed many different changes within the kids. Some started off with little manners to showing the utmost respect every visit. It was interesting to hear the kids’ hopes, dreams, and goals. They’ve got big plans. The sports and games happened after lessons in the classroom but it surely served its purpose due to the simple fact that kids need to exert all of their energy into some physical activity. Just as we taught the kids new games, they taught us Olympic handball. It’s a pretty intense game.The kids were very bright. Each and every one of them is destined for greatness. We wanted to make sure they knew that and encouraged them to stay on that right path that will take them where they wanna go.The sad part is that we will never fully know how much of an impact we have made while we are here. Though, there is a sense of satisfaction knowing that they were exposed to lessons that will prepare them for success in the future.
