Greetings from RISE at Haywood

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.