MIAA Anti-Bullying Facilitation

Here is a link an article I wrote on the Sport in Society anti-bullying with student athletes at the Mass Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) headquarters. I hope you enjoy! http://www.northeastern.edu/sportinsociety/news/2011/248.html

Global Youth Service Day

Today Caitlin, Lucy, and myself had a meeting with some of Northeastern's Foundation Year students regarding Global Youth Service Day. (Foundation Year is a program run by Northeastern for Boston students who have graduated high school yet want to take a year to improve their credentials and take classes before going on to college.) GYSD is an annual international event, focused on mobilizing youth to improve their community through service. Since all of the Foundation Year students are natives of Boston, they have an increased passion for improving the Boston community. The meeting this morning went very smoothly, with everyone brainstorming their goals for the impact of our project, as well ways in which we can execute the project. I will be sure to give more updates on this exciting project as it develops.

If you or anyone you know is interested in participating in GYSD, you can find out more information at http://gysd.org/

Last full week of March

As April begins to appear on the calendar, I couldn’t help but be amazed at how fast this coop semester is going by. I reported to work last Monday and was immediately greeted at the door by Andrius who is in charge of the Physical Education program at the YMCA which works in collaboration with the Josiah Quincy Upper and high school. Andrius pulled me aside and told me that he had spoken to Karen, the Wang YMCA Executive Director, and they both approved of my presence in PE and felt as though I could handle my own group. Needless to say I was ecstatic; I had been bouncing between groups getting to know the kids before with a goal in mind to someday soon have my own group. I was chosen to take over Albert’s group; Albert is the facilities director and also keeps an active role with the kids in PE. The transition worked out rather smoothly as Albert was also struggling when it came to balancing time in PE with his other duties around the facility. After being introduced to my group, we did a few laps and stretched out a bit before heading into a big game of floor hockey. The kids seem to respond to me very well because I share the same excitement that they have for PE class. When I was their age it was by far my favorite thing about school so improving their overall experience was a goal of mine since the very first day I arrived at the Wang. Before my arrival the kids would normally run around and have “free gym” which obviously they enjoy doing. I felt as though they would benefit from a more structured, organized menu of activities that everyone could participate in. After weeks of floor hockey and kickball the excitement of the kids has grown significantly. One of the main aspects of my approach that separates me from the other instructors is my willingness to participate. I enjoy being active and playing with the kids to encourage them to be more active through my actions rather than words. When they see me on the court playing and making extra passes to my teammates they understand better. We have another class arriving now! See you next week.

Wang YMCA's Strength & Conditioning Program

One big aspect of this past week that was extremely exciting for myself was getting the approval of my supervisor at the YMCA for a new program that I hope to get started in the coming weeks. My very last gym class of the days runs from 130-230pm and consists of a number of 11th and 12th graders. Having been with them for a couple days I’ve noticed that they prefer to work out rather than shoot a basketball or play kickball. Many of the kids participate in after school athletics such as volleyball and wrestling and use their time in gym class to train for these sports. I’ve also noticed that the weight room seems to get packed full of high school aged teens immediately following their release from school. In an effort to appeal both to the YMCA and to these kids, I have developed a new program that will serve as a Strength & Conditioning club that will lift and run together three days a week from 3-5pm. I hope to work in collaboration with Northeastern athletics’ Strength & Conditioning department in developing a curriculum and learning how to best approach the situation. I have noticed how much these kids want to lift and work out but do not have the proper knowledge and utilize very old equipment. I hope to work with them and tailor individualized workouts for each of them to further help them with their lifting techniques. After getting approval, I distributed a bunch of flyers and signup sheets in order to gather the interest of those kids in the weight room. Hopefully I can solidify a set number of kids and get the program off the ground sooner than later. I’m eager to see the response from kids, if they don’t sign up then I will have to be more active in recruiting, time will tell.

Career Fair

Yesterday, the other four co-ops and myself went to the Cabot Center to preside over a booth at the Northeastern Career Fair. This event was an excellent opportunity to spread the word about Sport in Society, and meet potential future interns/co-ops. Similar to the Teen Life Community Service Fair, a lot of people were very interested in our organization, and the other co-ops and myself were more than happy to inform them about all of the excellent components that comprise Sport in Society. The one drawback to the fair was that most of the attendees were looking for full-time work, while we are looking for co-ops and interns. Nonetheless, it was a valuable experience overall.

Out and About

Last Friday, Maddy and myself went to the Boston Teachers Union to conduct evaluations with the Playworks Junior Coaches at the school. The evaluation consisted of a written and an oral component, and the questions related to the Junior Coaches Leadership Convention (see older posts by Frank, Lucy, and myself for more information on this event), as well as general questions related to Playworks. We also gave a written evaluation to coach Brittany, the coach at BTU. While we were doing this, Lucy and Jarrod were out doing the same thing at the Hurley School, while Meghan was at the Everett School. Evaluations are always a very important part of anything we do here at Sport in Society. It is through evaluations that we determine what we are doing well, what needs improvement, and what is not working. We strive to be constantly improving in anything that we are doing, and evaluations are always an important part of this process.

On Monday, I received confirmation that Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan will be the first featured speaker at the MIAA Student-Athlete Citizenship Awards Ceremony. The theme of this year's ceremony is bullying, and Sullivan has done extensive work on, and now presides over the Phoebe Prince case, a landmark bullying case. The case involves Phoebe Prince, who committed suicide at age 15 due to extensive bullying, including cyber-bullying. It has been a wake-up call to many people nationwide on the dangers of cyber-bullying. The registration deadline to nominate winners for the event is April 5, please reference the invitation letter on the MIAA website http://miaa.net/msad-boston-invitation.pdf, or e-mail me at blumberg.b@neu.edu if you have any questions.

Finally on Tuesday, three writers from Baseball Prospectus came to Northeastern to answer questions, and sign copies of the latest edition of Baseball Prospectus Annual. Along with their annual book, Baseball Prospectus publishes a website devoted to using advanced statistics to analyze baseball. I do not want to give away too much information on the BP presentation, as there will be a story up on the Sport in Society website soon. I will say that it was a very informative presentation that I thoroughly enjoyed attending.

BPS Science Fair

On Saturday March 5th Kristen, Ben, Frank and I all participated in The Boston Public School Science Fair, which was put on in part by STEM a great program that is right down the hall from us here in International Village at Northeastern. Both high school and middle school students from all areas of Boston participated in this event. Since judging for the high school participants takes longer, the middle schoolers had a good deal of free time between presenting their projects, being judged and having lunch. Due to the fact that many of the high schoolers tend to be anxious while being judged STEM wanted to provide an alternative activity for the younger students so that they would not be running around in the exhibit area, making the older students even more nervous. This is where my fellow SIS co-ops and I came in.
Our role was to supervise and implement physical activity time for the middle school participants. We were given two racquetball courts in Cabot and free reign over what games to set up. The first kids that joined us were a little hesitant to participate, especially since many of them were in dress clothes, but after we started up a few games they got really into it. One of the racquetball courts turned into a mini indoor soccer field with an intense game of soccer…although I’m not sure everyone knew who was on which team, it was a blast! In the other racquetball court we set up jump rope and four square, both popular choices among the kids. I even got a few tips from some of the students on how to improve my double dutch skills. It was a great experience in implementing sports games and activities as well as to meet more Boston students. In the end had around 75 kids join us to spend some time being active!

STEM Science Fair

This past Saturday, Frank, Kristen, Lucy and myself volunteered at the Boston Public Schools Science Fair/College Awareness day at Northeastern. The fair, which was held in the Cabot Center, was organized by The Center for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education, more commonly referred to as STEM. STEM has a strong connection to Sport in Society due to the fact that their office is literally right next to ours. STEM is a very interesting organization, as it serves as the connecting link between the science, technology, engineering, and math departments at Northeastern. These are all growing fields, making STEM a very important part of Northeastern's future.

The fair itself consisted of kids in grades 6-12, with each one being judged on an experiment that they had conducted. It has been many years since I have participated or even attended a science fair, so it was quite an experience seeing all of the cool projects. Particularly rewarding for myself was running into one of the Junior Coach Leaders that I had worked extensively with at the Playworks event from the week before, and getting to see her project. At this point you are probably wondering what any of this has to do with Sport in Society. Our role at the fair was to help supervise the participants that had already been judged. Since these were primarily middle schoolers chalk-full of energy, we provided them an outlet to release it. In the racquetball courts at Cabot we hosted a variety of games, including soccer, dodge-ball, double-dutch, and four-square. It is amazing how much fun volunteering can be! Overall, it was a very fulfilling experience and I for one look forward to potentially working with STEM in the future.

For more information on STEM, visit their website at http://www.stem.neu.edu/

** White Ribbon Day**

This past Wednesday I was given the opportunity to help out the Men’s Initiative for Jane Doe Inc. at the Boston Celtics game with my fellow co-worker Kristen Blake. As we arrived early to the Garden, we were escorted past the Celtic players’ locker room and through the players’ tunnel onto the court. We got to see many of the players warm up and shoot around from an up close vantage point of roughly ten feet away; it was awesome. We then made our way to the Jane Doe table where we met Craig and his fellow employees. After a warm greeting we were tasked with stopping fans who passed by us, explaining to them our cause and distributing free white ribbon pins which symbolized the effort put forth by Jane Doe and the Boston Celtics to help end domestic violence. It was an incredible experience; I got to meet a ton of new people and got to experience how it feels to be on the opposite end of trying to approach people and getting them interested in our cause. We handed the white ribbon pins out during pregame and at halftime while fans were hustling around to get refreshments. It wasn’t all work and no play as Kristen and I were lucky enough to enjoy the game from the “Halo Level” seats which were on the suite level atop the Garden. The game, the view, the people and the whole experience was an amazing opportunity as we not only got to enjoy a Celtics game but also helped promote a very important cause.

Wang Y After School Program

I began working with the Wang Y after school program this week, and will be continuing to so on Mondays and Tuesdays for the duration of my co-op. The after school program is designed to give students ages 5 to 13 a safe and welcoming environment to go to after school. During the program they receive snack, homework help and are led in physical activities. During the snack and homework portion of the program students are separated by age into two groups, 5-9 years old and 10-13 years old. After the initial day getting to know the kids better on Monday, I was happy to be returning Tuesday afternoon. I helped several students with their homework and enjoyed finding out what they are learning about in school and the types of activities they like. For example, one student told me she loves to read and another suggested that I bring in a food pyramid and teach them about nutrition (a great idea which I hope to implement soon!). The students are very motivated and I have been impressed by how conscientious they are when doing their homework. I even got to learn all about puffins from a student working on a project for the second grade. After homework time the students had free gym and I played some of the fun games with the kids that I had learned during the junior coaches leadership convention last week. Two of the students who go to the Josiah Quincy Elementary school participate in Playworks and they taught some of the other kids Playworks games as well. It was great to see how much Playworks effects students outside of the school environment and to hear how positively the kids who participate in Playworks speak of the program, even when they are not junior coaches. I know that Mondays and Tuesdays will begin to be some of my favorite days as I continue to get to know the after school kids and implement new games and programs for them to try out.