“Thailand like a small room, it is dark, there is no air.”

I teach RISE students at Haywood who are all special to me and have come to hold a dear place in my heart. Picking one special moment to highlight from this fall is very difficult. A moment that brought tears to my eyes occurred when we had our enhancement Partner, Southern Word, come and teach all of the kids to write down what life was like for them in Thailand and present it in poetry form. The poems were touching. One student was not able to get as much help from me as he would have liked and complained that his poem would not be good so he was not as confident about reading it. He felt his one sentence would not be enough. Well as it turned out, his one sentence was enough to bring my heart to feel the sadness and despair he experienced in Thailand. It went something like this…”Thailand like a small room, it is dark, there is no air.” The child that wrote this is only in fifth grade. He is very special and I am fortunate to be able to help.  I want to bring light into all the lives of each child that walks through the doors at Haywood RISE. I am honored.

RISE at Haywood site coordinator, Qena Armstrong, works with students during academic time.

Our RISE site is at Haywood Lane Apartments. Most of our students are originally from Burma, and they are Karen. They are all wonderful children! They are so eager and happy to first have a healthy snack and then share about their day; they especially enjoy homework help. Time goes by so fast and when our enhancement partners arrive, time goes by even faster. Last week, we had a four-day drawing workshop. All of the kids drew so many pictures. I imagine we created more than 30 pieces of art. I can’t wait to see them in the end-of-semester showcase.  

This week we have gotten to know each other better through our service learning planning. It is amazing how high they have set the expectations for their project. We look forward to planning and implementing our service project. All but one of our students likes soccer. Can you guess the focus of our service project? More coming soon! I love that they like coming and continue to come. Today another child from the neighborhood joined us in playing soccer. One of our students has already recruited him to join RISE!

I love working with RISE — this is my first year, and I am looking forward to many more exciting days.