Teacher Appreciation Dinner

Students of TEAM organized a teacher appreciation dinner where they served soup, salad, and dessert at Logan High School.

The dinner was to thank teachers for all the hard work they apply each semester. It was also a great opportunity for TEAM members, mentors, and coordinators to inform teachers about the organization in order to get more students involved.  Information on meeting times, places, types of activities, and basic goals and values of TEAM were made aware to all teachers through greetings and pamphlets.

TEAM is an excellent way for students to get involved in their school and community! There is so many different experiences to be had through the organization.

We hope all teachers who attended were pleased with their experience and hope to recruit some more members to help strengthen our organization because "Together Everyone Achieves More!"

Why and How USU students should get involved

TEAM mentoring is a great opportunity for USU students for numerous reasons. The mentoring program gives wonderful experience that becomes an asset to any resume. Especially for USU students looking to get into education, counseling, or a number of related fields, TEAM provides firsthand knowledge about what certain future careers may entail. Furthermore, TEAM allows USU students to become a part of the community and serve. The atmosphere of working with the high school students to ease their troubles regarding high school and college preparation is so rewarding. Seeing the difference one can make in others lives with a bit of extra listening and effort enhance self-worth and outlook on life. Additionally, by signing up through a group known as AmeriCorps, USU students can earn a scholarship by being a part of TEAM that can help them further their own education. AmeriCorps members sign up for certain hourly commitments to be completed within a years time. Getting involved in TEAM mentoring is easy! By contacting the program coordinators, anyone can start the simple online application process today!

Health and Nutrition

Part of the TEAM’s goals are to create a healthy and physical environment in order to form good lifelong habits within its members. There is no doubt that living a healthy lifestyle is very important in helping to relieve stress, become physically fit, and reduce the risk of certain diseases.

Every meeting, there are a variety of healthy snacks provided for the students and a portion of our time together dedicated to physical activity of some sort. Since I have become a mentor I’ve had the opportunity to participate in Yoga, basketball, missionary tag, dodge ball, and capture the flag. 

There are so many options when it comes to physical activity, many that don’t even make you feel like you’re exercising! TEAM coordinators and mentors are open to any ideas students can bring to meetings that involve physicality. This portion of our time together really is the most enjoyable, in my opinion. Not only are the students getting their exercise with fun activities, but they are also learning about teamwork and leadership!

STEM

 Science, Technology, Engineering, Math

  

      Once a week our lesson or activity for the day will be focused on STEM. As an important part of the TEAM curriculum, STEM provides students with valuable information about an area so important in school, society, and in everyday life. Science, technology, engineering, and math are growing fields of study that continue to improve lifestyles around the globe.

      One STEM activity involved students from USU coming to teach the Logan High students about the brain. They brought a sheep's brain and taught about the structure and uses of each part. They then dissected it to really give the students an idea of what the inside of a brain looks like.

                                                      For another activity the students learned how to make lava lamps using canola oil, water, Alka-Seltzer tablets, and food coloring. By combining these ingredients in a plastic bottle, they were able to see how the elements reacted together to form what resembled a lava lamp.

     Activities such as these provide a great learning atmosphere while also proving a lot of fun for the students!

Scholarships

Although college is expensive, there are many ways around the financial discouragement of having the opportunity to attend. One of these ways (and the ideal way for most) is through scholarships.  Scholarships are academic allowances given by certain companies or organizations, either local or national, to students of outstanding achievement. There are many different types of scholarships, all of different amounts and requirements. Some require a high GPA while others look more at the extracurricular activities one participated in. Some are based on ethnic race and others look at writing ability or even strange talents! The options are truly limitless when it comes to finding a scholarship right for you.

Here is a website to search for a scholarship match for you personally:
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/scholarship-search

Here at TEAM, we do our best to make sure all our students are prepared for their future education by helping with scholarship applications. If needed, we advise through every step of the process to make sure these kids stand out amongst the crowd of applicants. We really gain satisfaction in seeing all students succeed in obtaining their dreams! We are keen to listen and advise with anything we can while being certain we are giving the students their own voice throughout the process.

FAFSA and Financial Aid

Paying for college is often the biggest barrier separating people from a degree. At TEAM we teach the students about the various forms of aid available to them so they know that college is attainable for all. Through FAFSA and financial aid, the US government, states, and colleges themselves  make college affordable for students from every background.

 

FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The application can be found and completed easily online.  It is the form that students must submit to determine need analysis based on their family’s financial information. Through this application, examined by federal processors and sent to the student’s chosen colleges, the colleges will then determine eligibility for state, federal, and college financial aid.

 

Financial aid comes in a number of forms:

·         Grants and Scholarships: The preferred form of aid would be grants and scholarships because they do not have to be paid back. Grants are awarded solely on the basis of financial need. Scholarships on the other hand can be awarded based on need, academics, interests, service, area of study, and various other measures. In each case, an institution simply gives the student money to finance their schooling.

·         Loans: Another form of aid that allows students to earn college degrees is student loans. These loans can be either federal or private, but regardless, must be paid back, and often with interest. Loans require the individual to enter into a binding contract in which he or she promises to repay the borrowed money after a specified amount of time, generally in the years following graduation.

·         Work Study: The final form of aid available through the FAFSA application is known as work-study. This program provides part-time employment for a student at their college to help them finance their education.

College is expensive, there is no denying that. It is important that high school students learn that through scholarships, grants, loans, and work-study, financing such an endeavor is possible for all. The education one gains at the college level will create opportunities that make obtaining a degree worth every penny.

What I gained from Tutoring

When I signed up for TEAM Mentoring in March, one of the first things I learned I’d be doing was tutoring. This made me extremely excited because I felt the opportunity to help younger students with subjects I had previously been through was one of the best ways I could give back to my community.

School was always kind of fun for me, although I struggled in technical subjects like Math and Science, I felt I could contribute to most other subjects. Little did I know, however, that a lot of the mentors were strong suited in the same subjects as well so sometimes I was partnered up with a student who needed help in Geometry or Algebra. Now, I wasn’t terrible at these subjects in high school, it sometimes just took me longer to figure out the problems. This refresher was really good for me and made me think a little harder than if I were to have always helped students in English or History.

Thus far, TEAM has pushed me to want to be better in certain areas in order to help others succeed. It really is such a satisfying feeling to sit down with a student, tutor them on a concept at hand, and seeing their faces light up with excitement when they understand. I definitely now understand why teachers do what they do and why many of them try to push their students to the limit. I think sometimes as students we think our teachers gain satisfaction in killing us with a what-seems-impossible workload.  But really, they are simply preparing us for the big professional world!