Bridges 2010 Kick-Off

Written by:

Aleen Sepulveda & Jarrod Hall

Bridges Interns

So far Bridges has had an AWESOME start! Everybody is pumped up and ready for all of our activities we are doing. The Xi class kicked off the summer by breaking through their odstacles in life to reach their goals with Justin Boudreau.

The Mus and Mus reconnected with each other by doing many activities that involved being able to remember things about each other's lives and interests. After all of the ice breakers, the classes began.

In English they have been learning how to give positive and negative feedback on films. The Math teachers have been teaching about how to make a car payment and the value of owning a car. In science they have been learning about the enviroment. About recycling, natural resources and their values and limitation on them. In social studies they learned how to manage a budget on monthly payments and other economic uses. In college planning the Mus have been learning how to fill out a college application and practicing the SATs while the Nus and Xis also learn about the SATs and how not to waste your time on anything.

All of our students are having a real fun time with all of their electives and evening activities that hey signed up like photography, mock trail. Girology, Fitness Center, E-field, Step Team and so much more.

In addition to having great teachers, our counselors are phenomenal! Many of them are doing more than their job description requires. They are teaching afternoon electives and evening activities.

The field trips are also a blast in both the Xi class and the Mu and Nu class. While the Xis all have fun by going to field trips around Greenville like in the Upcountry History Museum, BMW, the Children Museum and even a Scavenger Hunt, the Mus and Nus were off touring around different colleges like Winthrop, USC Upstate, Erskine, and Presbyterian College. Even on the weekends they are all busy as well. The Xis built trust and communication with each other in activites like the Rope Course. The Mus and Nus performed community service with local non-profits. They cleared Kudzu in the Sterling community, cleaned yards with Central Community Ministries, renovated North Greenville Food Crisis Ministries, and planted trees with Trees Greenville. Eric Bonini, a volunteer coordinating the efforts in the Sterling community stated the following about the Bridges students, "please accept my resounding THANK YOU for the amazing work your students did on Saturday morning. They were fun, unbeat, enthusiastic, hard-working, motivated... the list goes on and on! They really were a pleasure to work with, and I'd love to have any student associated with the Bridges program join us in future activites at the Sterling community site."

As a reward for all of their hard work on the ropes course and in community service, the students were rewarded with dinner at Hibachi Grill and a trip to Pump it UP! Everybody had a great time and they all also really starting to connect with one another for what ever they need.

Bridges is such an amazing program for everybody here that I can not wait for the next two weeks; it will be amazing and unforgetable.