The End is Near!!!!

Hey fellow summiteers!!!

This semester has been one of great success for The Beacon Project.  We have had many fun experiences, and accomplished a lot. We began the semester with planning for the Fall Festival. After a couple of date changes, this ended up taking place on November 6th. Many families from the center attended.  The children seemed to enjoy the crafts and activities a lot. It was a great success in bringing these families closer together. The next project for this semester, is the Symphony Christmas concert. This will take place on December 11th. We organized tickets for the Lighthouse families that wanted to attend, and have put together goodie bags to hand out at the event. There will be an ice cream social to follow, which we hope will continue to build on the relationship between the Lighthouse families.

The best experience this semester was the success of the fall festival. It was wonderful to see the children having so much fun. I am glad we got to bring them to the Drury Campus, so that the children and the parents could be exposed to the hope of further education. The biggest challenge we faced was one of communication and responsibility. It was often quite hard to get a hold of Lighthouse. We were able to work around this issue, but it was a challenge in the beginning. In respects to responsibility, Lighthouse set unfair expectations of us. We paid for the entire Fall Festival, and did the majority of the planning. We were expecting much more assistance that what we received from Lighthouse.

The biggest issue shaping our plans for next semester is our budget. Becuase of the fact that we had to pay for the Fall Festival, much of our budget is depleted. We are going to have to plan very efficiently for our projects next year. We are also planning to start our volunteering a lot earlier in the semester.

I think this semester has taught me even better time management skills. We have had a lot of planning and preparation to do, which has made me use all of my time extremely efficiently. I have also enjoyed working with the children. I hope that this will help me in my future as a teacher.

The Stress Free Now program was an interesting experience. On the one hand I was able to experiment with things I would have never tried on my own. This gave me additional understanding of an area had no previous experience with. I did not, however, enjoy it. I do not feel as though this program benefitted me in any noticeable way. I feel as though, while different and providing a new experience, it was not something I would want to do again.

As the semester is coming to an end, I am excited about going home more than anything else. I have not seen my family since the beginning of the semester, which has been a huge challenge for me. Over winter break I will be relishing in home cooked food, my own bed, and being surrounded by my family.

Tiffany

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Hey everybody!  Things are looking quite jolly in Summit 1315 this month.  We have definitely been spreading the Christmas cheer around our apartment, and all of us are super excited to get to go home soon.  This month has marked the end of our volunteer hours at Lighthouse, and we will be hosting our last Lighthouse/Drury partnership event of the semester this Saturday.  We invited the kids and their families to the Springfield Symphony Christmas concert on Saturday at 2 in the O’Reilly Center and are planning on having some sort of holiday refreshments afterward, so that should be a great end to the semester.

                The best experience I had with Lighthouse this semester was definitely the Fall Festival.  It was so rewarding to see our event become a success and to see how much fun the kids were having.  I really feel like we were able to offer them a unique opportunity and help the Drury community become closer to the Springfield community.  The toughest experiences with the agency this semester have been communication issues.  There have been some instances of miscommunication that have had to be straightened out.  I think in the spring semester we will be doing a lot of organizing, since Lighthouse is moving locations over Christmas break.  They will probably use our help to get settled into their new building and also to simply help out in the classrooms again.  We want to have one more event for the kids in the spring, such as an Easter celebration. 

                Due to the Summit Leadership Experience, I have definitely improved my skills in working in a group.  I have learned to address conflicts as they arise and how to communicate better with the members of my group.  Additionally, I have learned the myriad of things involved in coordinating an event and also the importance of communication when planning something on a large scale.  I have also improved my time management skills due to the number of things I have to complete for this class, such as volunteering and Stress Free Now.

                For me, the highlights of the Wellness program were definitely yoga and the massages.  I enjoyed learning different relaxation techniques, and it broadened my perspective on things.  The lowlights of the programs were the amount of time they required.  Stress Free Now was actually very stressful, because our grade was based on the completion of the relaxation exercises, and honestly, I didn’t always have time to complete them.  I would suggest not requiring students to complete five exercises a week.  I think two or three times of trying a particular technique would have been sufficient.

                Well, that’s all until next year!  I’m so excited to go home for Christmas break and to take our swim team training trip to Hawaii at the beginning of January!  Merry Christmas! :)
Molly Brown

Last Week of Semester

Yay!
It's the last week! I hope everyone is as relieved as I am! I still have so much to do, but I can at least see a faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Also, I hope everyone is Summit is doing very well. I know I am and I think the girls are too. We are a little stressed about this ten page paper that is due Friday (Andrew!!!), but I think we will definitely be able to manage.

The girls and I have now finished up our hours for this semester at Lighthouse and I believe each of us came out at more than fifteen. Let's just say the Fall Festival really helped us out with that. But all of our hard work was worth it because we had so much fun at the event! Working at the Lighthouse has been great too, getting to know all of the workers who employ the different aged rooms in the church and of course, getting to hang with all the awesome kids!

On Saturday, the Drury Singers are singing with the Springfield Symphony at 2:30 in the O'Reilly Center. We have invited the kids and their families to come watch us sing and so far the RSVP has been wonderful! We will just have to get the tickets sorted out so they can all show up to the event in style. Personally, I am so excited about getting to show the kids a wonderful time at the Symphony!

And lastly, the Stress Free Now has been really relaxing. I have truly been enjoying every aspect of the program. I have learned so many new things about relaxation techniques and how to focus my thinking differently. My favorite part of the whole program will be Wednesday at 8:00 for me when I get my massage! I've been looking forward to it for the past seven weeks. It's going to feel so good!

So I hope everyone else is doing just as well as I am. Those of you who are overwhelmed, keep your head up! It will get better! In two weeks, maybe less, you will all be home sitting by your holiday decorations listening to bad holiday music wishing you were back in your own apartment instead of being nagged at by mom and dad, so cherish it!!

Love you all and Happy Holidays!
Deanna