Yesterday I had a meeting with Dana that gave me a lot more direction here. IMPACT, the youth service-learning clubs, has needed an assessment system for years to determine if and what progress the students are actually making in the program. After creating about a million rubrics over my years at Gordon, I feel equipped to take on this task. I will take the research that the Sociology students did during their internships and continue creating benchmarks so that students know where they should be in regards to the aims of the program. (For you ed. friends, think Massachusetts Educational Frameworks- hello Bloom's taxonomy!) After that I will take those standards and create an IMPACT journal that walks students through assesing their own progress. Considering all the different expectations people have at the fundatia, this will take many revisions and drafts. This project could definitely take me all year if I do a good job with it.

My secondary project, and just as exciting, is that my roommate and I are going to design a training workshop for all IMPACT leaders in the valley. The leaders have the heart and the minds to do their jobs well, but not necessarily the education. With Katie's Outdoor Education degree and my psychology and education back ground, we will tag team a crash course in Youth education and management. Katie and I are excited about how we can complement each other and are also excited to give these amazing leaders more tools to become even better at what they already do so well.

This gives me a sense of direction, purpose and challenge. Please pray that attitude continues as I take on these tasks and that I don't do any of it halfheartedly.