Shadow Cycle #1
For the shadow cycle I shadowed site coordinator Hamza Khan.
Hamza’s site often focuses on helping students get into college and providing high schoolers and college students with skills that they can use for their adult life. One of the most rewarding aspects of MAPS for Hamza is seeing students reach the end of their high school journey and receive acceptance letters into college. Knowing that the program plays a role in these acceptances makes the work fulfilling and impactful.
Despite this, Hamza faces challenges at his site. College applications, usually end after the fall season. Because so much of MAPS’ focus is to help with college applications, attendance often drops after winter when most of the applications are submitted. Because of this, it is hard to find ways to engage students your round and to find a consistent group of students to work with. Additionally, because there are no formal partnerships with colleges, students that graduate from high school may not have continued support.
Personally, I gained the following key insights:
Support Systems Matter: Working with high school seniors, juniors, and community college students highlighted the importance of structured support in the college application process. MAPS plays a vital role in providing resources like essay writing assistance, application guidance, and financial aid workshops, which are crucial for students who might not otherwise have access to such services.
Bridging the Gap Between High School and College is Important: Many high school students are not prepared for the adult life ahead of them, and so it is important to educate them on skills that help them in their adult life. This is not limited to college applications, but includes other things such as financial and social literacy.
My Takeaway: One major lesson learned is that structured, intentional guidance can make the difference between a student feeling lost in the college application process and in college prepardeness vs. a student successfully securing the skills necessary to succeed. MAPS facilitates this by offering critical services, but there’s room to enhance outreach and ensure long-term engagement.
Shadow Cycle Assignment:
To attempt to solve the issue of a lack of engagement and consistency with student attendance, I decided to create an icebreaker activity that entices students to come each week.
Materials Needed:
Pre-made “MAPS Passport” booklets (small folded sheets of paper)
Stickers
Markers
Introduction (5 min): Explains that the MAPS Passport is their way to track progress, meet new people, and collect fun “stamps” (stickers or drawings) as they participate in different activities each week.
Passport Creation (5 min):
Each participant decorates their MAPS Passport cover with their name, a small doodle, or something that represents them.
Inside, students are told to write down a “goal” related to MAPS (improving essay writing, learning about financial aid, meeting new people, etc.).
Speed Connections (5 min):
Participants pair up and answer a quick question fore example “What’s one place you’d love to visit?” or “What’s your dream career?”.
After each answer, they exchange “passport stamps” (stickers or quick doodles in each other’s passport).
Rotate pairs every minute until time is up. They’ve now met five new people mashallah and you can keep this going for a bit more time.
Teaser for Next Session (This is what will entice students to come back the next week):
Tell participants that next time, they’ll get another chance to earn stamps for their passport through a new challenge.
At the end of the quarter whoever has the most stamps will win a small prize.
This way, the MAPS participants will be enticed to come back and collect stamps each week, keeping attendance more conistent.
