Having a Great Time at Umoja

I've enjoyed reading about everyone else's fellowship experiences so far! At the end of the work day tomorrow, I will have completed three weeks with Umoja Student Development Corporation in Chicago.

I've been having such a great time! The move from New York City was not stressful at all. I'm living with another PP55 fellow. I flew here with my mom about a month ago. We packed three big suitcases (clothes, shoes, toiletries, etc.) and bought everything else in Chicago. We did some touristy things like the Architecture River Cruise by Navy Pier. We also did some more important things like food shopping. Chicago is a great city. It has been fairly easy to navigate, the weather has been good, and the people I've met so far have been really friendly.

I'm enjoying my fellowship with Umoja. I've had three very different weeks so far. My first week was spent at Umoja University which is a week long professional development conference for staff and teachers from schools and community organizations from across the city of Chicago. They participate in Umoja-led workshops which help them "build a positive, youth-centered school culture." During that week, my boss would pick me up around 6/6:30AM to go to Dominican University where the conference was held. After helping out with setup, I got to spend mornings and some afternoons attending/participating in workshops. My favorite workshop was "Creative Expression" where we got to look at the poetry in rap lyrics and then we wrote our poems which we later shared with the group. The facilitators were so engaging and I got some great ideas for the Writing Workshop I might help run this year with Umoja. On the first day, I met my PP55 mentor since she is President of the Umoja board and came to the opening address. It was nice to put a face to the name/emails.

My second week was spent at Peace Circle training. A big part of my job will be in restorative justice. I will explain that at a later date! The training was great. Some of the participants were around my age and we've made plans to hang out.

My third week has mainly been at Manley (the high school where Umoja's main office is located). This has been a week full of meetings! - from orientation meetings (HR, technology, supervision) to meetings about what Writing Workshop will look like this year. My supervisor is really nice and has been great at making sure I'm not overwhelmed with too much information but also not bored from lack of work. This week has been my favorite because I got a chance to interact with some of the highschool students Umoja works with. I spent yesterday at The Museum of Science and Industry with students from ACE highschool. I definitely want to go back to the museum on my own since our time was so limited during the trip. I went back to ACE highschool this afternoon and the highlight of my day/week/summer came during the afternoon debrief with the students. The students were each asked to "give a shoutout" to someone in the group who they thought did something great for the day. The students' answers were so thoughtful. I was genuinely surprised when one of the students gave me a shoutout for "being so cool."

While I've had a great week, I'm really looking forward to the weekend!