THE TRIP TO UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

UrbanPromise Wilmington organized a field trip to the University of Delaware to give an opportunity to kids for them to learn more about college so that this can encourage them to work hard at school and develop an interest of going to college one day.  The kids who went on this trip came from all the five UrbanPromise Ministry sites and school.

There were a lot of things we did on this trip.  We took a tour of the college campus, played different games, learning about life at college, art and craft, and ice skating.

One thing I learned from this trip is that kids have a lot of good things to teach me when they are given the opportunity to do so.  On this trip, one of the things we did was ice skating.  It was my first time to do ice skating, and I didn’t know how to do it.  I was struggling to skate on the ice, and as a result, I was skating moving slowly along the wall. I fell down twice.  But when kids saw this, they motivated me to be courageous to skate without holding on the walks. They came to me several times to see how I am doing.  One of the kids, Maya of Camp Hope held my hand to help me to skate.  Zhavier encouraged me with words.  He said, “Come on Mr. John, you can do it, don’t give up!.”  This made me feel that I am loved cared for by the kids than I thought.  It also made me to realize that not only do I have something to offer or teach them, but also kids have a lot to teach me.  Some days later, when we met again at the camp, kids individually asked me about my ice skating experience.  I had to thank them, and let them know that what they did to me meant a lot.  What surprised me is that it was not only the kids who I work with helped me, but also kids of other camps were concerned and helped a lot. 

Not only did I saw love, concern and care in kids, but also in fellow staff members.  Joel, the co-director of Camp Hope encouraged me to skate.  I remember him saying, “You better take a risk if you want to learn how to skate.”  This motivated me to gather courage.  Jacque gave me free lessons which helped me to learn how o skate. She was so consistent.  She never gave up on me despite my struggles until I learned how to skate on my own.  It was a wonderful experience.  Because of the love and effort of these people in my life, I am proud to say that I now know how to skate on ice now.

During the college tour, kids asked the student tour guiders meaningful questions.  Kel, one of the kids asked one of them saying, “What qualifications do I need for me to go to college? When was this college built?”  And Jamar asked, “Shall I be staying here or at home when I come to college?”  Jamir asked, “What do you learn/study here?”  Another child asked, “How can I get a place here?”  Yes, there were a lot of meaningful questions kids asked.  The questions kids asked shows that they had interest to learn about college.  I believe this inspired many of the kids to work hard and know what they want to be when they finish school.  I can tell by their interests—wanting to know more about college.  Some kids shared with us of what they would like to be when they grow up.  It ranges from doctors, nurses, pilots, administrator, artists, teachers, and many more.  Our guiders encouraged kids that it is possible to achieve the dreams kids have.  Kids just need to work hard and be focused on what they would like to achieve.

By looking on the faces of the kids, I could tell that they were so excited about the trip to the University of Delaware.  I could see happy faces and smiles right away from the beginning of the trip to the finishing point.  When we came back home, college experience talks were talks of the day.  I could see them in groups talking about their experiences on this trip to each other.