Tuesday, November 04, 2008

St. Cloud State University visits Cabrini Connections

One of the big pushes this fall and throughout the entire year will be to get our students interested and exposed to the college experience. On October 29th Admissions Representative, Cortez Evans, visited the Cabrini Connections program and provided our students the opportunity to learn a little more about St. Cloud State University. Mr. Evans not only talked about special programs, opportunities, and resources that the University offers, he also discussed what our students can be doing currently to ensure a enrollment at the University.
During the presentation and video clip that Mr. Evans provided, he asked a lot of questions that directly applied to many our students which sparked further interest of those students. He discussed their Nursing program that interested LaFaye Garth and Terrisha Brownlow, he discussed athletics and the football program that interested returning student Raheem Muhammad, and he discussed their study abroad program that interested many of the students who attended the presentation.
Following the official presentation, Mr. Evans continued to meet and greet other volunteers and students in the program in an effort to educate everybody on the resources that could be obtained by becoming a student at St. Cloud State University. Cabrini Connections would like to thank Mr. Cortez Evans for not only visiting the our program and sharing information with our students, but for assisting us with getting our students interested in attending a college in the future and successful career following college!

Cabrini Connections' Student and Volunteer Spotlight

Student/Volunteer Spotlights
Angelene Hemphill is this week’s Student in the Cabrini Connections' Spotlight:
http://chrispip.blogspot.com/2008/11/student-spotlight-angelene-hemphill.html
Zak Kustok is this week's Volunteer in the Cabrini Connections' Spotlight:

Monday, November 03, 2008

Cabrini Connections' Celebrate the Halloween Holiday


For the 2008 Halloween season the Cabrini Connections students had the opportunity to take part in an essay contest. The students were asked to write a 1-page essay on the true history of the holiday and to share their most memorable Halloween experience. There were several students in the program who took on this challenge in an effort to earn the right to go to the field trip to Navy Pier's Haunted House on Halloween night.

In relations to the overall tutor/mentor program this essay was much more than just an essay with a reward for the winners. The Halloween essay contest provided numerous teaching and learning moments for the mentees and also the mentors. Because of this essay the students had the opportunity to use the Internet and other forms of technology to do research on the topic. The students worked on their organizational, writing, and grammar skills as they put their research on paper. The students then had the opportunity work on their presentation skills as they presented their essay to the all of the mentors and mentees who attended the sessions last week. Technology use, research enhancement, organizational, writing, and grammar skills along with presentation skills are all necessary for each and every student within the program no matter what career choice they have for the future. Because of this essay contest, mentors had the opportunity to teach the students these valuable skills.

Looking back the reader can see that besides earning a fun filled night at Navy Pier's Haunted House Halloween night, the four students who won the contest (De'Sean Hale, Eboni Rivera, Charles Hill, and Yolanda Hyles) learned and/or enhanced valuable skills that are and will be necessary for any career choice they may have for the future!!!