The power of…
…AWARENESS
We bring closure to each program day with, what our students know as, “Appreciation Circle”. In Appreciation Circle, we practice giving and receiving positive feedback. We take turns sharing who, specifically, in the group we appreciate for what, specifically, during our time together that day. We believe feedback is a Gift of Awareness. You can take it or leave it. Awareness is the point.
The ability to give and receive feedback is a leadership skill we value and practice in our Youth Leadership Program. Because at Cypress, Experience is the Teacher.
When we are running low on time, it never fails that a student will come up to me and say, “Aimee, are we going to have time for Appreciation Circle?”
It’s one of the many ways they help me with my own time management skills. A gentle nudge in the direction of Awareness of Time.
It also shows how much they value the opportunity to have closure and share gratitude.
Every now and then, I’m gifted with the memory of a time we were in Appreciation Circle with high school students in a summer Upward Bound program at Horry Georgetown Technical College, and a student said, “I appreciate Aimee for showing me what I don’t know.” That feedback hit me straight in my heart as tears of gratitude flooded my cheeks. I’m sensitive like that.
The feedback hit me so hard because it validated Why I do what I do. I wish someone had shown me what Ididn’t know when I was in secondary school. It happened again last night. It was day one of a two-day lesson on Awareness, Focus and Attention for Nervous System Regulation, AKA, Mindfulness. A high school female student said, “I appreciate Aimee for showing me what I need.”
Yes, my precious jewels. AWARENESS is what we need.
My grandmother, Frances Melton Cox, used to call me her “precious jewel”.
I now understand what she meant by that because I consider each and every adolescent who is willing to play with me at Cypress, my “precious jewel”.
Each one is unique and so extremely precious in their own individual way.
If I had to sum up in one word what we are teaching through our free, after-school Youth Leadership Program for middle and high school ages, I would say “AWARENESS”. We are planting seeds of Awareness. The watering, and sunlight exposure, feeding, and nurturing of those seeds is up to the student.
It’s the Gift of Awareness that we offer. You can take it or leave it. Awareness is the point.
It’s sometimes not so gentle of a nudge in the direction of Awareness. Sometimes it’s more of a metaphorical slap in the face. Like carrying a 40lb backpack 6 miles in one day. The Awareness of “That Which We Are Capable” is one of my favorites.
If you would like to increase your Awareness of What is Positive Youth Development, continue reading for updates about what we are doing in the three courses that make up our Youth Leadership Program.
The Power of Play = Leadership 101
The Power of Play is all about Relationships. Everything in life is about Relationships. How well you do in school is directly related to the Relationships you have with your teachers. What happens when you make a mistake, is directly related to the relationship you have with the administration, your family, friends, Self.
The most important relationship is the one we have with our Self. Every other relationship in our lives is a direct reflection of the relationship we have with our Self. So, in the Power of Play course, we spend a significant amount of time (4 weeks to be exact) diving deep in exploration of our own personal values, to identify the values we share in common, and ultimately to establish a full value contract as an agreement for how we will be together…as a group. I think it is experiences like the first four weeks of the course that lead a student to report things like this to our program evaluators (it’s my favorite student quote and I use it a lot to explain the value of our curriculum in the lives of adolescents):
“I never thought about who I am or who I want to be until Cypress.”
This is the Gift of Awareness that we know at least one middle school aged male took from his time at Cypress.
Here’s a video offering a sneak peek into our current Leadership 101’s full value contract.
The Power of Curiosity = Leadership 201
Meanwhile in The Power of Curiosity course, our students are diving deep into the exploration of community; what it takes to build community and what it takes to sustain community. Because ultimately, our entire organization is a community that they have been, and will hopefully continue to build and grow and sustain long after I am gone.
In The Power of Curiosity, we explore the natural resources we have on our 5-acre campus and learn how to be stewards of the land. We learn about financial resources and how to earn, manage and spend in a way that will sustain our goals. We learn about food and nutrition and what it takes to be Well and to sustain our bodies so we have the energy to achieve our goals. We also deconstruct the media we consume and the media we create to become Aware of the impact of these value messages.
Everything we do in Leadership 201 is intended to inspire and empower students to create a vision for the life they want to create for themselves as adults with AWARENESS of the resources that will be necessary in order to create and sustain that vision.
Here’s a video offering a sneak peek into the week we played The Watershed Game. This game is my favorite way to introduce the Interconnectedness of All Things. They get to see firsthand how the Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental aspects of a community are all interconnected. It also introduces them to a variety of different careers that may (or may not) be of interest to them.
It marks the beginning of a 14-week journey to discovering the Gift of Awareness of the Infinite Possibilities awaiting their adult selves.
The Power of Creativity = Youth Council
In The Power of Creativity course, we get to see what our students do with the Gift of Expanding Awareness. Once they have completed Leadership 101 & 201, they are invited to keep coming back, semester after semester, and throughout the summer. They are accepting ownership and leadership of the direction our organization takes. They have been establishing a social enterprise, making and growing things to sell, to help financially sustain the organization. They have been diligently working to create the permaculture farm that students designed in 2022.
Coordinated by our fearless Mary Cline McKnight and generous volunteer Edward Fort, the Youth Council is gearing up to showcase their product offering at the upcoming Hartsville Farmers Market AND the Earth Day Festival at Kalmia Gardens. They are preparing for their 3rd Annual Dodgeball Tournament and are excited to announce the Roots & Rhythm music festival to celebrate 10 years of positive youth development in Darlington County.
Dodgeball Tournament is May 17. Purchase sponsorships or enter a team by clicking here.
Youth Council will showcase their product offering at two events on April 12.
SAVE THE DATE : 11.01.2025. Roots and Rhythm music and arts festival to celebrate our 10 year anniversary!
It’s going to be a blast y’all. Save the dates.
Let their contributions to our community be your Gift of Awareness of The Power of Positive Youth Development.
Here’s a video offering a sneak peek into what the Youth Council has been up to…