ASP Summer Program -- My Job (Part 2)

(The RC Staff: Melissa, Alla, Albert, Me, Nicole and Dominique)

Now onto where I fit into all of this crazy administrative work. Being an RC is just another way of saying: RA + Tutor + Rule Enforcer + Counselor + Escort + Parent + Friend (well for me towards the last 3 weeks of the program it was really important for me to get to know some of the students because I had really cared about them and wanted to know who they really were) It was not the hardest job, however it just required a lot of energy. It was pretty much a 24 hour job and the only main breaks we would have were when the students were in class, from 9-11:40 and 1:25-4:05 haha. which during those times I would youtube, catch up on downloading music, bs on the phone, escape for a quick hangout (that didn't happen much though lol) or nap! We would have to wake up around 7-7:30 and would go to sleep... at some time very late at night. I can only speak for me and Albert, my late sleeping was a result of talking to students or helping them out with some problem and Albert's was just because he played computer games or would argue on the phone (oh the drama) until the hours of 3am to 5am. Alas, at the end of the week we would have little events for them to go out and explore the city and such. Oh man i remember the first weekend when I took like 13 of them to central park/5th ave/Rockefeller center/bryant park/times square/giant toys r' us. Only two of the 13 were from new york and the rest were all new to the NYC subway system, I was so afraid one of them was going to get left behind because the trains were so crowded that day. (And Albert, being the brilliant child he is.. straight up deaded me) I kept doing headcounts to make sure everyone was around haha. But after the train situation when we got to central park, it was all good then and I had so much fun being a semi tour guide. Then we went to a crapload of stores, which some of the guys did not too much care for, but one girl, Tanea she was just aimed on cleaning out stores haha. I took some to Magnolia and the Nintendo store (so fun!) but it was such a tiring day because i hadn't eaten since breakfast at like.. 9 and I did not eat dinner until 10pm aha! Anyways that's the type of thing i did with most of the students, I wanted to take them to places around NYC that are often missed by New Yorkers that have been living here for a long time. Because wouldn't it be nice to throw it in someone's face to all the places you've gone to haha! Soo we explored Union Square, East and West Village, 86th Street to 72nd street area, Soho/Noho Area, Brooklyn Bridge area (on both sides), and other places i can't remember at this point in time. This is how I feel about it, I didn't about anything in Manahttan really until the middle of my freshman year, I know that sounds a bt sad, but hey.. I really didn't start even hanging out with friends until the summer of junior year of high school, and then then we would hang out in Queens and stuff. I'm going off topic.



(Some of my favorite people right here! Vince, Jose, Bryan, Jessica and Jorge)

Okay last paragraph on this program. The students. I was in charge of 14 SEAS students. However I still take pride in being the first RC to know everyone's name! (hell... the first member out of the entire staff of the program to know everyone's name ;] ) Well I'd like to call some or most of them my friends because, well I can't speak for any of the other RC's but after a while they grew on me and I really cared about them and would share stuff with them and whatnot. I probably scared most of them at first with 1)the Asian music, 2) the constant changing of my clothes and 3) me just being..me. After a while instead of them coming to my room to talk, OH MAN THEY WOULD INVADE MY ROOM!!! because I had a double, to myself and I put the 2 beds together thus making a full size bed and making a baller room. and like anywhere from 3-8 people would be in my time at random times just chatting, for the most part I really liked it because...well who doesn't like chatting with people..and I do get lonely very easily lol. But back to what I was saying: I would go to their rooms and sit around and ask what they are doing and such. You know, high school seems like SUCH a long time ago and it was so interesting and refreshing meeting people who just came out of highschool and have different mentalities than the regular college student, given that also means some of them are not the most mature, it helps you regain some of the perspectives you had on life a bit before high school. I told my guys that they did more for me than they could ever imagine because, just meeting them changed me in some ways. I hope I was able to help them in some way because that was my goal, to help out and be the most honest I could be with them about Columbia (because no one really told me many important things to be aware about while attending Columbia (especially if you are an engineering student.) Ugh that's why it was so hard for me when all of them moved out.. such a sad time, because I had a small group in which I got really close to during the time. Okay whatever I'm going to seem them soon anyway. They were all good people and I had a great time those five weeks (awesome coworkers too!!!) and some students were oh so scandalous (crazy sex things going around and truth or dare games haha) but yeah the students and the coworkers were more than amazing.


(Me and a whole lot of the students!)

ALSO! i went to some baller parties and had some rather.. interesting things happened during my escape time and my days off...la..la..laaaa lol

ASP Program -- My Job (Part 1)

First of all, I am back, after... a somewhat long hiatus!

Well since the last entry, and consequently the "temporary shutdown" of this blog, many many things have happened. So, let's start with my wonderful (honestly) job as a residential counselor (RC) at Columbia University for the ASP Summer Bridge program. Well, first of all, I;m going to explain what the program was all about. The students of the program were chosen for usually one or both of the following reasons: That they came from schools that did not offer many higher level classes such as Calculus, Chemistry, Physics or intensive writing classes. Or that they area minority and come from a lower income family thus qualifying them for HEOP or NOP. It's mostly the latter but for some, these people are just well off but have never taken higher level class. The whole point of the program was to try to give them a head start or in some case help them to be on the level as other incoming freshman. So they have to take 4 classes, different depending on is they are in the engineering or liberal arts school, they get homework, have midterms, have to take finals, and have mandatory tutoring sessions. As a side note, th students will not be receiving credit for the classes they are taking during this 5 week period, and th grades they receive technically do not matter. So when the students found that out, some instantly started to become indifferent with the program, which is understandable. The program also tries to introduce the kids to the various resources of Columbia by giving, a ridiculous amount of workshops, which in my opinion, most of the students will really not remember until the time comes for them or actually utilize these offices and stuff. But I guess the staff thinks otherwise. But it came to a point when many of the students barely had time to do anything they wanted because all of these mandatory events. But i suppose all these events help out when the office creates the proposal that is sent to the government to ask for the funding for the program. In my opinion though, the program does somewhat help them academically, but doesn't really give them a taste of Columbia and what they will be doing freshman, because honestly you are alone and YOU get to dictate what you want to do and when YOU feel like doing it. Over here, me and the other RC's would get on the students to do stuff on time and what not but during the year, you won't have anyone to tell you that you should doing work. Lastly, before I get to describing what I did during the past few weeks, let's describing the whole "boundaries" issue that the program enforces. Well, the students are not supposed to go past 110th Street and 120th Street between Riverside Drive and Morningside Drive (plus or minus like 5 streets around), just for the reason that around half of the people in the program were not from New York and could easily get lost or something could happen to them (or some of the New Yorkers who haven't been around NYC much as well) and technically speaking the program is responsible for these students and stuff.. and no one wants a law suit on their hands. And if the students would want anywhere significantly away from campus, then an RC would have to be with them. Honestly, it's not really as if anyone was posted on the corners of the streets to watch, we pretty much just had to hope they didn't go beyond these "boundaries."