For the past month I have been working at CEU as a counselor for the Upward Bound program. The UB program takes first generation college students and gives them a chance to take some condensed college courses to start their higher education, or some extra high school classes to help out with a few more class credits. So we started out with a group of about 56 students, and took them through four weeks of classes. Along with the classes we also provided nightly activities for the students. I was in the program when I was in high school, and I got a very different view of the program being on the employed side of things. It was a lot of fun getting to work with the kids, but at times it was also one of the most frustrating things I have ever done. During the last week of classes we had UB spirit week, which mostly meant having lots of dress up days and competitions. On the last night we had skits, and my group actually won that competition. I was so proud of them. I was really impressed at how they finally pulled together. Go Tiguins! (My group was the tiguins, half tiger, half penguin) Then after all the classes were over we all got to go on a trip to San Diego! We left on Sunday morning and drove to Pheonix. That night we went to a WNBA game. I know they are pros, but it was still girls basketball. On Monday we left Pheonix and headed straight for the beach in San Diego. Tuesday we got to tour the USS Midway which is a decomissioned air craft carrier that is now a museum. We also got to take a city tour and a harbor tour that day. Wednesday we went to the zoo. They had some really cool animals there. After the zoo we went and stood in line for a couple of hours to watch the new transformers movie in IMAX! It was so cool getting to see it with such amazing video and audio quality. The theater we saw it in had just done an upgrade that took it from 50 speakers to 96 speakers. So needless to say, we heard every little detail. Thursday we got a later start and drove back to pheonix. Finally we made our way home on friday. I was really suprised at how fast the program went. Well, here are a few random pictures of the program and the trip.
