Blog 21: Independent Component 2

Literal

(a) I, Isaiah Chavez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
(b) I referred to several Afterschool Alliance articles like Afterschool: A High School Dropout Prevention Tool, Recruiting and Retaining Older Youth in Afterschool, and Afterschool: Providing Multiple Benefits to Middle School Students.
(c) On my mentorship log
(d) Over my 30 hours of my second independent component, I helped out with several programs and events. I got more involved in the Teen Action Committee (even got a shirt from it), I helped kids with what a staff member would (homework, setting up games, ect.), I helped make a few fliers for upcoming events, and I made friends with several kids and staff members (part of my third answer).

Interpretive

In my 30 hours I saw first hand how a parks and rec afterschool program best supports community adolescence. I saw all my answers in action. I saw new programs getting made and what thought process was brought up in creating them. I helped make a few fliers for the talent show and march madness (a tournament for the local basketball teams). I even got to pitch a few ideas for programs coming this summer (there's going be a p90x program because of me :D) and I helped a staff member, Guadalupe Saldivar, figure what could be discussed in a youth club she is planning on making. 
My Independent Component 2 Pictures

Applied

My second independent component was great at supporting each of my answers. I saw how different the community kids that aren't involved at the De Anza Center are versus the ones that are. When I went to the park outside the center to play basketball with my dad I noticed that these kids all looked unfamiliar. All of them were using profanities and discussing drug use and other bad things. It shocked me to think that these kids are from the same area and age as the well behaved friendly kids I worked with almost every day. This proved my first answer that parks and rec afterschool programs can support community adolescence by providing a variety of extracurricular programs. These programs can keep the kids away from ones like those at the park.
 I also saw kids getting more and more involved in the health programs headed by staff member and my friend, Richard Romero, he got all the kids excited about health. Kids were looking forward to "summer bodies" and getting so excited from seeing the smallest of results. It was so funny when a small boy Chris came running to me flexing his arm to show his tiny muscle and saying "hey look at this Isaiah!" I was happy to see so many kids with a new interest in health because all the programs offered at the center encourage it.
I even saw how big of a difference the staff building relationships with the kids could be. I noticed that the kids that are friends with the staff came more often. Even with myself, I looked forward to going to the center to hang out with my mentor and other staff. One of the specific examples of this was when I saw a girl (can't recall her name) who always seemed so shy get befriended by my mentor, Jerrica Bonilla. Later on Jerrica convinced her to join the talent show. I was shocked. I was even more shocked when she sang Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men and had an incredible voice. She started off as too shy to talk to anyone to being one of the best performances in the talent show because Jerrica got er out of her comfort zone by befriending her. This shows that parks and rec afterschool programs can support community adolescence by providing staff willing to build relationships with them.