Shadow Cycle #2
During my second shadow cycle, I got to shadow Syaal, the Internal Student Success Coordinator for MAPS. Throughout this experience, I learned more about his role in handling funding, bookings, reservations, and the logistics behind planning MAPS events. While much of his work happens behind the scenes, it’s crucial in ensuring everything runs smoothly for both students and volunteers.
The difficulties MAPS has obtaining funds were one of the subjects he and I talked about in our interview. All funding submissions must go through MSA because MAPS isn't SOLE registered, which restricts direct access to resources like SOLE financing. MAPS's capacity to increase community engagement is also impacted by this, especially in terms of establishing relationships with site communities and parents. One area he wishes to enhance going forward is communication and outreach at MAPS sites.
"What is your most effective way of keeping students motivated?" was the first interview question I asked him during our interview. He told me that what he thought were the most important steps were directly interacting with kids, meeting them where they are, and adapting to their needs. He talked about how he frequently struck up a conversation with the kids he volunteered with at Islah Academy to keep them interested in learning, especially after a long day at school. He discovered that the kids were less likely to feel overwhelmed when completing worksheets when they were divided into smaller, easier-to-manage portions, which is important because it also made the assignments and concepts easier to understand. His advice reaffirmed the fact that fostering a flexible and encouraging learning environment is more important for motivation than merely academic success.
"What is your best way of retaining volunteers?" was the second question I asked him. In terms of retaining volunteers, Syaal talked about how this year has been significantly better. He emphasized the importance of establishing clear guidelines for site visits, making new volunteers feel accepted, and giving them a sense of belonging. One of the main things that he mentioned for making them feel at home is the post-site activities that we have with volunteers. This allows the volunteers and staff to bond and form friendships outside of the classroom. He also said it was important to make sure volunteers are included and not doing nothing on the side so they know they are leaving an impact on those they are working with.
Shadowing Syaal gave me a deeper understanding of the behind-the-scenes work that keeps MAPS running and how essential community-building is for both students and volunteers. His insights on motivation and retention were incredibly valuable, and I look forward to applying what I’ve learned in my own work with MAPS.
Shadow Cycle Assignment:
To build on these ideas, it is important to educate all those who interact with the children, especially volunteers, on how to engage kids at site. For this reason, I have come up with an event that would help educate volunteers on how to do this. The event would start with a fun icebreaker activity to get the volunteers relaxed and comfortable and also so they can introduce themselves to each other. Then, I would have a team-building relay race to encourage collaboration between the volunteers and so they are more comfortable sharing ideas with one another because this is important for the next activity. I really want to get the volunteers as comfortable as possible around each other. Next, I would have a student engagement discussion where volunteers would learn how to keep students motivated and adapt to different learning needs. I would also hold a brainstorming session of ideas between the volunteers on how to engage the kids. This will help them get and give ideas and will help all of them increase the ways in which they know how to engage kids. Finally, I will use role-play scenarios and discussions to make it engaging. By the end of the workshop, volunteers will have improved their teamwork skills, a stronger connection to the MAPS community, and a better understanding of how to support students at the site because they will have so many ideas and lots of guidance to do so.
