week 13
1080 words by gonayiga
In all sincerity, I really think that my project has made the world a better place. The implementation of my project has allowed me to have a positive impact on the youth that attend St. Augustine High School. I feel that after being able to be a mentor and a positive role model to the students that I worked with, I was able to influence the students that were responsive and took heed to my advice and guidance. In week 6, I mentioned one particular student that I saw a lot of myself at that age. Since then I have matured and I am able to look back on those experiences and growing pains when I was his age. While meeting with him after school, I was not only able to help him study, I also was able to let him know that I had to deal with the same problems in school. We developed a bond and now he appears to be doing very well in school. While working with the junior high school students, I was not able to have the same influence on all the students I talked to. Some of them just were not able to realize what they were doing wrong or see the path that they were going down. It was disheartening to see that some of the students were not as responsive as the others but it came with the territory. When looking back on my project, I felt more comfortable working with the high school students. The grades that we worked with for the majority of the time were ninth and tenth graders. It felt easier to work with these students because for the most part, they were more mature and focused, most of the time. I spent most of the project tutoring a tenth grader named Mike. Mike was the easiest to work with because he was not only a smart kid, but he also was able to stay focused on the matter at hand. His only problem was that he was not a good test taker and his study skills were not where they should have been. When I first met him, he came off as quiet and kept to himself most of the time. After meeting him and having small talk, I could tell that he really did not need extra help but he just needed someone to show him how to study and how to take tests and quizzes. I was told by his teacher that his homework was good and he was able to learn the material very well, he just had problems when the pressure is on, such as when it is time to take a test. I asked him what he thought about his test taking skills and he told me just gets nervous. So I gave him tips on how to get better at taking tests. He showed me his tests and for the most part, they were made up of mostly multiple choice and short answer questions. The biggest things I told him to do while taking multiple choice problems is to eliminate the answers he knows are not right and the right answer most of the time is the one with the most information in it. For the short essay questions, I told him while he was studying, try to anticipate what short essay questions could be asked on the quiz and to listen to hints that the teacher gives on what to expect. Another thing I told him was to never leave a question blank and if he does not know the answer he should wait until everything else is done and come back to answer that question last. In case he needed more tips on test taking, I gave him a website that I used to go to that helped with test taking strategies. Over time, he started to get more and more comfortable taking tests and his scores improved. It was a gratifying feeling that I could have had an impact on his life. Another positive thing about volunteering and mentoring is that the students that I helped are now in a position to give back and become a mentor and role model to someone else that looks up to them. The statistics show that the youth are better off in life if they have positive role models that can influence them to strive to do their best in everything they want to do in life. A lot of the time, the youth that have trouble in school are the ones who lack the necessary attention or the feeling that someone cares about their welfare. Mentoring gives them what they are not getting from home. Working with Men on the Move has made the world a better place for that reason. After seeing college students take time out of their day to come tutor and talk to them, they are more inclined to do the same and carry on the tradition of going to college and giving back to the community.
Jesus was crucified because
The two main reasons why Jesus was crucified are because he claimed to be the son of God which the Jewish officials did not like and he caught the wrong attention when he flipped the tables of money changers in the temple. Jesus was angered by there being a money changer system that made them exchange the money with Nero’s face on them. At this time Nero was the enemy of the Jews so the money changers took advantage of this. The Romans had Jesus crucified because they suspected him of starting a revolution. Jesus was sent to Pontius Pilate but Pontius Pilate could not find him guilty or any crimes that were against the Romans. Pilate left it up to the crowd who eventually wanted to see him executed and Pontius was his hands of the situation because Jesus was innnocent. For the Paul versus James Faith/Works arguement, Paul is arguing that works play no part in getting salvation and all you will ever need is to have faith in God. James argues that salvation is attained by having faith and works. I find myself agreeing with James in this arguement because just having faith doesn’t seem to be enough. You actually have to put what you believe in motion to show your faith.
