During the past two weeks, I am reminded of the simplistic pleasure of a home-cooked meal while deep in planning at the dining table from sun up to sun down. This is what has inspired me the past few days with my team as we plan and look at programming for the year.

Also, this past weekend was the celebration of the Hmong New Year at one of our local schools, McDaniel. This is one of the biggest visibility events celebrating and honoring the Hmong culture and history with traditional clothes, music, and food. It was such a blessing to see people show up from near and far.

Warmly,

Jennie

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The quote for this week to leave folks inspired is from the 2021-22 Teacher Interviews.

“My students, before they’ve even graduated, [they’re] talking about how they want to come back and be a [mentor].”

Mentors Britney and Jenny lead a feedback circle in their SRINQ classes at McDaniel where they sought feedback from students on how classes are going, what they wish to see more, what is working, and what they recommend. This feedback session also provided mentors and their teachers with information on what else they'd like from the mentors, especially around topics after high school i.e. what is college life like?

• Here's a resource for community-building circles.

Mentor Song participated in co-leading a workshop around self-care with his freshmen students in the AVID classes alongside his teacher Ms. Wolff-Myren. Students learned about healthy and unhealthy processed foods, the concept of stress, and the idea of taking care of oneself. Especially this time of year with the changing seasons, it is important to understand your body when it's going through stress, how to cope, and how to take care of yourself and others around you.

A few weeks ago, Parent Teacher Home Visit Program Manager Mary Evans, GEAR UP TOSA Steve Smith, and I got to share about our practices of parent engagement, holistic teacher and student practices through the near-peer mentors, and TOSA coaching. It was invigorating and small actions like this allow us to reach a larger audience. During this time, we were able to seek out teachers who wanted to be trained on building authentic parent engagement through parent visits at home which is just in time for conferences. And, we got to see the many partner teachers who host and collaborate with our college mentors. One of the partner teachers shared that it's been great to have another person in the room who they could bounce ideas from and who connects with students in a different way.

Savanna Vest (she/her) comes from Louisville, Kentucky originally, but also spent some time in North Carolina and is now in Portland! She studied Digital & Computational Studies in college with a minor in Gender & Sexuality Studies and comes with a ton of experience working behind the scenes with schools/colleges to improve programs and systems. She has a heart for equity and a mind for qualitative evaluation!

Savanna dived into her first day at the November training hosted for Near Peer Mentors where she immersed herself amongst mentors, heard from them about their experiences with facilitation, and gained insights about their day-to-day experiences. We're excited to have her onboard with us.

1. Conferences & Fall Break: Coming up next week, there are conferences and fall breaks. Mentors who are not explicitly supporting conferences with the guidance of their college coordinators should take that week off.

2. Mentor Shadowing: we'll be reaching out to mentors to review schedules and shadowing protocols.

3. Welcome the new GEAR UP TOSA for Jefferson! Noel Tamez is coming to us from Roosevelt HS after several years as Leadership and Activities Director, she's joining the Jefferson team and is excited to immerse herself into the mentor work and partner teachers.

4. Rakiyah Perry, our AmeriCorps member has returned from her delayed start after having her baby. She's currently working remotely but is excited to join the team.

AmeriCorps Simone - for stepping in to lead the mentors' training in October and November. Your support and leadership on this have been a tremendous help!

Mentor Sam - your positivity and kind energy have been a blessing to be around.

College Coordinator Niki - your honesty and extension of grace for our mentors as they navigate new professional settings have been deeply appreciated.

Chief Clerk Pauline - thank you for taking care of the scribe services, payroll, hiring, and other tasks for the team, your work doesn't go unnoticed.

Mentors Sam, Song, James & Gypsy - thank you for creating and facilitating your respective team-building activity and energizer. We all enjoyed seeing you lead and sharing your ideas!

Our special feature is dedicated to the story of Jonathan (left) and his two colleagues Jovanni (middle) and Carlos (right) who, before they were fellow mentors, were his own students.

Jonathan Perez is in his fifth year as a mentor serving in an Engineering classroom since 2017 with teacher Randy Scott at Roosevelt High School. Jonathan has supported several hundred students during his time as a mentor from the Beginning Engineering to Robotics classes.

Jonathan was Jovanni Ortiz's Engineering mentor when he was a sophomore and junior and Carlos Gonzalez-Vargas when he was a senior. Now in 2022, Jovanni is serving his second year as a mentor with Randy and working alongside Jonathan and Carlos as a first-year mentor supporting the ELD department with ELL and Newcomer students.

It has been a pleasure watching mentors work alongside their previous students. Jovanni shared that as a student, Jonathan would always encourage and push him to do his best and to consider his future. Jovanni shared, "[he] had high expectations for me and I thought, wow someone cares, mind as well meet those expectations.”

Wednesday, November 28-December 16 - Student Survey Administration period

Monday, November 21 & 22 - Parent Teacher Conferences

Wednesday, November 23-25 - Fall Break | No School/Work

Wednesday, November 30-Dec. 2 - IST (AmeriCorps member out)

December TBD - Britney and Jenny's Career Exposure Activity & College Panel

*TBD: NPM Fall Performance Assessment week of December 5 - December 9

All Mentors

NPM Public Folder 2022-23

NPM Policy & Procedure Manual

NPM Personal Folders (mentor work plan in their individual folders)

***General Resources***

• Essential Understanding of Native Americans in Oregon: the district is implementing Tribal History-Shared History districtwide and is focusing on prioritizing these nine Essential Understanding of Native Americans in Oregon. Take a read at this resource.
• 6 P's Critical Orientations for Indigenous Studies
• Apply for Federal Student Loan Debt Relief: click on this link to determine if you qualify for loan debt relief.
• Feedback Circles: a tool on how to provide feedback to your peers and colleagues

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Picture Credits:

1. Breakfast spread (credit: JC)

2. Mentor Song posing with thumbs up, photo taken at previous training (credit: JC)

3. Parent Teacher Home Visit Program Manager Mary & TOSA Steve (credit: JC)

4. Photo of Savanna Vest (credit: SV)

5. Mentors Jonathan, Jovanni and Carlos (credit: JC)

Jennie Cha

Program Supervisor | PPS | HS Academics

Monday Office Hours 1-2pm: meeting link

Thursday Office Hours 11-12pm: meeting link

AmeriCorps Members

• Simone Frison | sifrison@pps.net
• Maria Felix-Pedro | mafelixpedro@pps.net
• Rakiyah Perry | rperry2@pps.net

Email: jcha@pps.net
Website: https://www.pps.net/Page/14862
Location: 501 North Dixon Street, Portland, OR, USA
Phone: 971-678-9577
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009266612916
Twitter: @GearUpPPS