Portable Renovation Project...Day One

Ben and Juan demonstrating team work!

Ben taking care of the rocks while Zach poses for the picture!

Hey Ryan go get some dirt and help out Juan, Rane and Ben!

Henry found the good luck horse shoe rock! 
We are set up for a good year now!!

Henry and Mrs. Miller working the rock!

Come on Juan and Mrs. Miller you can do it!

Evaluating their plan!

Get it Ms. Smith!

Rane taking the rock over to the bigger pile of rocks.

Eventually Ryan got the rock out!

Team work at its best!

Zach holding the fort down for us!

Ben's Birthday...

Juan lighting the candles

Ben's birthday "cake"

Birthday Boy

Us and the Community

Our First Day On The Volunteer Job!

We went to the Capital Area Food Bank and assembled 240 boxes!!

Roshay: Rachel, the coordinator appreciated having us around to help out.  She complimented us on maintaining a positive attitude.  She is a great employee too.

Rane: It was a great working experience.

Ben: It made me feel good that I was helping the lower income people.

Ryan: I had fun stacking boxes.

Juan: It was fun and easy to assemble 240 boxes.

Here are some videos and photos taken on the job site:

Straight Business at the busiest time of the day!

Juan putting labels on boxes

Ryan overwhelmed

Ryan stacking boxes

Zari and Juan demostrating team work!

Henry helping Zari hold the flaps down

Zari and Henry builiding boxes

Henry building a box

WOW!  Look at Ryan stack all those boxes!

Ben looking good!

Ben putting tape on the boxes

Rane busy stacking all 240 boxes!

Roshay putting the nutrition information in the boxes

Zach so busy the camera could not capture him!

Team work in action!

County Line and Cannoli Jos Comes to Visit

Zach: They were generous and willing to give us jobs.  They were more than wiling to help us out with our class.  I learned from Skeeter that if you want to succeed you need to work twice as hard!

Henry: Skeeter started off in the same classrooms we were in and he has worked his tail off in every job he had and now he is the owner of successful restaurants.

Ryan: I thought Skeeter knew where we were coming from since he has come from the same situation so he knew how to help us. 

Juan: I like that Skeeter works along side his employees and does not sit in his office and count his money.

Thanks Vanessa!

Straight From the Vine

We were delighted to have Stacey Thompson from Straight From The Vine as our first guest speaker!! 

Henry: I met Stacey in the front office and on the way to the portables we talked about how big Bowie was.  I asked her a few questions about what she did and from that point on, I knew she was going to be a great speaker. 

Roshay: She is a great person and a hard worker.  She taught us a lot about her job and she has a great attitude.  And she was very helpful and passionate about what she does.  She was also very honest and loyal to her business. 

Ben: I learned that sauerkraut could taste good!

Ryan: I thought she was nice and I learned a lot about sauerkraut that I did not know even though I did not eat it.

Rane: She was very helpful with our understanding of nutrition.

Juan: I learned a lot about nutrition and what foods are good for you.

Tyler: She has a lot of responsibilities and PATIENCE!  

Stacey from Straight From the Vine

First Reactions to the First Week of School

Tyler: When I first started and I heard what the whole class was about, I sat down and said "Ok she is helping us get a job. Oh man, she's helping me get a job! Ms. Smith is helping me get the experience I need to get a job. She is giving me her own time to help me get experience with people I don't know. And she will be a good reference."

Ryan: I guess I was confused a little bit at first, I didn't really know what was going on. Later on I kind of found out what was going on and what the class was about and I started to like it.

Henry: I was like oh great, another textbook class, another 3 hours of reading a book and doing worksheets and turning them in for a grade. but then after Ms. Smith went over all the details and all the whats going to happen in this class. and we were actually going to go out and do this. This is just a big idea that will never be put into action. So then after I heard we were going to do the food bank, i thought well this class may be a good class after all.

Juan: I was kind of nervous the first day but then after the two weeks i know what this class is about. I wasn't too excited or disapointed to be in the class.

Zach: The first day of class i was like oh my god i do not want to be in this class. i gave it a chance and even after a couple of weeks i still didnt wanna be in it. ms smith took me out in the hall and said after this semester i will sign the papers to let you out, if you still don't like it. after a couple of weeks i liked the class and started giving it a chance.

Rane: My first thought about the class was i didnt know what we were going to do. i knew i had ms smith but i didnt know what the class was about. i didnt even know why i was in here. ms. smith told me to trust her. i have been with her for four years, so i trust her.

Connor: I didn't want to be in this class, and I still don't want to be in this class.

Ms. Henry: I didnt find out i was going to be in this class, till the very first day of school; the morning of! I didn't want to be in it EITHER! I thought we were going to be sitting in a classroom. Yall have to undertsand, i have been at Bowie for 16 years. This is not my first OJT program. I did not want to sit in a classroom for 3 hours with a group of young men who didn't want to be in the classroom either. But now that we have been doing things it has gotten a lot better. Ms. Smith and I have so many resources we can use for this class. I just want to see yall suceed. I have every confidence in every one of you.

Ms. Smith: I knew from the beginning I was going to meet resistance from the students and it would be a struggle to get them to trust me.  It has been amazing to see the students mature the last couple of weeks and see them step up to the plate.