Education: What to Expect

The premise of this program was simple.

1. Form a panel of 5-8 high school juniors and seniors.
2. Acquire an audience of incoming high school freshmen.
3. Take questions from the audience and have the panel answer.

In execution, the program worked almost as well as I had hoped. I was lucky enough to run it two times, both with very different results.

The first time I ran the program, it was at my library. Since it was still summer I had all 35 of my teen volunteers at my disposal so finding the panel was easy. Six signed up and five actually attended, which you know is pretty good odds if you've ever worked with teens. The audience members consisted of two other teen volunteers who were about to enter high school, and one new kid who I had never met before. With an evening teen program two weeks before the beginning of the school year, I considered one brand new patron a major success.

When the participants walked in, there was a pile of paper slips and pens, along with a box to deposit any questions they wanted to ask anonymously. I had also stuffed the box with some questions in case attendance was low.

The "panel" set-up was quickly changed by the teens to a more informal seating arrangement. They decided that since there were only 8 of them, they would rather put their chairs in a circle so everyone could see everyone. They all introduced themselves with their name, school, grade, and whether they were a member of the audience or the panel. Then panel members took turns answering questions from the box, and some that the younger kids asked out loud after the ice was broken and they were feeling less shy. It turned out that most of the kids in the room were students at the closest high school to our branch, so they all had a lot of specifics to talk about: teachers to avoid, which extracurricular activities and clubs were worth the time, dress code, etc. After all the questions were answered the group got some time to mingle with cookies and hot drinks. It was a very small, but overall successful and positively received program.

The second time I did this program, it was entitled "Eductaion: What to Expect." I did it with my One N Ten outreach group, which has kids ages 12-24 and tends to tip the scale toward the older end. Most of those kids are older high school students, or already in community college or the workforce. "What to Expect in High School" wouldn't have kept their interest for very long since most of them have been through that stage in life already, so the group facilitators helped me tweak it to their needs.

The One N Ten group is quite large, usually between 30 and 40 youth, so I took volunteers who thought they'd like to answer questions about the following four subjects:

• High school
• Community college and/or 4-year university
• Straight from high school to the work force
• Trade school as opposed to traditional college

There were several volunteers for each, so we took the panels in shifts. Four at a time, one youth to speak on each subject took a spot in one of the four "hot seats" set up in front of the rest of the group. Each member of the group, whether they were speaking on a panel or not, were asked to write down a question on one of the topics. After collecting all the questions, I sorted them into categories and asked each member of the panel one question on their topic. After each member had answered one question, they switched out and the next four got a turn. We did this four times, with 16 youth getting a chance to speak to the group about their own experiences, before group time was up for the night.

Seeing this program happen twice in two drastically different settings was so rewarding. The smaller program that took place inside the library focused mostly on one particular high school, and it was great to see the younger kids making connections with upperclassmen and watching first-day anxiety melt away as they heard that high school won't be that scary after all.

The large group at One N Ten was a breath of fresh air in terms of people telling their success stories that have nothing at all to do with a traditional college path. As someone who was privileged enough to go to a 4-year college straight out of high school, and then continue on to higher education after than before landing a professional career very quickly, I don't feel qualified to speak on the who, what, where, and how of things like community college, trade school, and working full-time straight out of high school. However, I want to present all of these options as real and valid for the youth that I work with, because college is incredibly expensive and not the right path for everyone, especially depending on what field you want to enter.

I have found that the best teen programs are the ones where I hardly talk at all. I love to ask a question, share some of my own insight if necessary, but mostly let the teens talk among themselves on the given topic. They have so much knowledge and have lived a fair amount themselves, even though they are young. I love letting them talk, because the younger you are, the less frequently you are given that opportunity. In programs like this, my only rule is one I actually borrowed from One N Ten because it perfectly sums up how to give respect to your fellow participants: One Diva, One Mic.