become legendary.

So I feel like I don't really talk about my life, my work and what being a JV is really like in the blog.  I think sometimes, that is because that can mean opening a whole new can of worms (or bag of apples if you are emily). So I am going to sometimes (rarely) add in a bit more information on the day to day's and a bit more insight into what I do at here. 

As I believe I have described.. my students scamper off to work 5 days a month (one day a week and an extra friday).  They work at awesome companies who have agreed to pay our school for the students services and act as amazing mentors to our students. My students work at companies like the United Way, Deloitte, University of Houston etc.. (here is a full list).  At these companies they do entry level work such as filing, faxing, copying, receptioning (I realize this is probably not a word).

So you are probably thinking cool.... but aren't these kids like in high school (yes, I do work at a high school AND we are only two years old WHICH means we only have freshman and sophomores SO the kids we send out are like 14-16). Reality check... MY STUDENTS WERE BORN IN 1995. So back to my point... so these kids go out and work in the "real world" most do really well. They enjoy their work (actually say it's their favorite part of going to our HS), work hard and have a lot of fun.

But every once and a while the kids make mistakes and mess up (and get fired)... in my time, I find that the students get fired for attitude, aptitude OR a combination of the two... regardless our office hopes that these are "teachable moments." When the students come back into our office they enter what we call a "retraining" program. We work with them to help them hopefully go back into the work force.  It is often a combination of reflections/essay writing AND working to improve their technical skills. 

I had some retraining students write an essay for me based of the "become legendary" videos that Michael Jordan had done a while back for the NBA.  The prompt was simply to relate it to their life, their work and their time at CRJ. 

Below is the video.

One  student wrote the following and it stuck out to me ...


"I am legendary at being who I am. I won't copy anybody and I won't let anybody bring me down. I am me and that's what the best thing about me is. I am original and unique. I don't want to be like the others, I want to make a change. I want to be the leader that is a legend!"

Become Legendary.