06/13/2016

Today is the first day of my internship in Provost Summer

Mentorship at Penn. Firstly, I met with my boss, Gail, and she told
me the outline of what are we gonna do in the following days, and
She also appreciated my ideas about using flag project to have
students experience and understand culture diversity and integrate
this flag project into the schedule. Then she gave me brief
introduction of the 16 students I will work with in the next July, and
they are all last year high school students who will be the first
generation to go to college in their family. Then, at about 9:30 I met
with one of my coworkers, Einas, and worked with her in the same
office room. She introduced the program and the workplace to me.
Then, I began to brainstorm ideas for some unsettled items in the
schedule, the content of 4 workshops and the destination of the
culture trip. Then at 12 o clock, I met with my partner who will help
me with my internship together with my boss and Einas. We figured
out all the unsettled items on the schedule and discussed the main
responsibilities of my job. People here at SMP are all very nice
people and are willing to offer me helps. But still Im a little bit shy
which partly because English is my second language, and I think I
need to make efforts to be more confident and have more
conversations with people.
06/14/2016
Today, my main work is to brainstorm ideas for the four workshops I
will facilitate in the next July. And I came up with a brief outline for
the first workshop and also found a video clip for the workshop intro.
And when I was designing the outlines for the workshop, I found I
became unfamiliar with the knowledge we learnt in EDUC 593, so I
then referred to the course reading. The book, Workshops (BrooksHarris & Stock-Ward, 1999) is very helpful and provided me many
ideas about different activities I can include in the workshop. And
since I forgot many of what I learnt in class and they are closely
related to my internship, I decide to spend some time to reread the
readings and the handouts of the class. And another thing is I met
four other staff who I will work with in the following days.
06/15/2016
Yesterday, I spent some time on reading the book, Workshops
(Brooks-Harris & Stock-Ward, 1999). And today integrated many
theories and ideas in that book to my workshop design. Not only
each workshop has a full learning cycle, experiencing, publishing,
processing, generalizing and applying, but also the four workshops
also form a large learning cycle. And today, I also worked with Einas
to brainstorm the list of college that we are gonna use in college
newsletter to help students learn about more different colleges in
different places. And she recommended me a great website,

collegeboard, to search and learn different schools all over US. Einas
helps me a lot with my work, as she is an American and knows all
kind of recourses in US very well.
06/16/2016
Today, my main job was to come up with a detailed lesson plan for
the culture diversity workshop. And I spent a lot of time thinking and
recalling my memories of workshops I had had in EDUC 593 class,
and then I brainstormed different activities for different parts and
chose the most suitable one. When writing down the detail lesson
plan, I also need to consider about many tiny things, like the size of
the room, how many tables and chairs are there in the room and so
on. And again, I felt like the experience and knowledge of EDUC 593
class is really practical and useful.
06/17/2016
Today I first discussed with Einas on my lesson plan for the culture
diversity workshop. She gave me appreciation on my work, which
makes me feel quite happy. And at the meanwhile, she also gave me
one suggestion that I could make a list of countries for students to
choose from, as it can avoid the situation where students just
choose the ones they are already familiar with and push them to
learn some new things. I really think her suggestion is reasonable,
so I did some research on the countries all around world and make a
list of country for students to choose from. And then we continued
to work on the list of college for the college newsletter. I really
appreciated Einas s help, as she has more knowledge of American
colleges and provided me a lot of important ideas. Thirdly, I then
searched for the pictures for the gallery exercise. And it is more time
consuming than I supposed, as I need to include as many countries
as possible and also find out the things that are most representative
for the country.
06/20/2016
Today I firstly had the weekly meeting with the boss, Gail and my
colleague, Einas. We talked about the training plan Ive made last
week. Fortunately, they both spoke highly of my plan, and also gave
me some tips. Then we discussed about some details of the flag
projects, the materials students gonna to use when making flags
and posters, the countries they gonna to present in the flag project.
And things went quite well. After returning back to the office, I did
some researches on the mini lecture part of the diversity workshop,
that what am I gonna to show them about the concepts of culture.
06/21/2016
Today, my main job was to do researches on the mini lecture part
and the Chinese culture presentation part. I searched online to find

the useful information and resources. And I found many great

websites that introduce Chinese culture in English, which would be
very useful for my showing of Chinese culture.
06/22/2016
Today, I mainly worked on the social media of SMP. Because I am not
a big fan of the social media and do not even have a Facebook
account, so I spend sometime exploring the social media, Facebook,
Instagram, and Snapshot. And I will help with managing pages on
social media and doing posting to better communicate with my
students. And I also spend some time on making PowerPoint for the
cultural diversity workshop. I searched online to find out some
attracting pictures and materials to make my workshop more
engaging.
06/23/2016
Another responsibility for me is to write college newsletter for
students weekly to help them learn about more college choices
around US. And today, I had a meeting with my supervisor and my
colleague, Einas, on the college newsletter. I got many ideas from
my colleagues on how to do the college newsletter. They had many
ideas on what should be included and how to make it attractive. I
think this discussion is really beneficial for me. And in the last hour
of my work, I continued to work on the PowerPoint for the workshop.
06/24/2016
Instead of working all the time in the office, I attended the
orientation for the students today. I did brief self-intro to the
students and I am excited to work with them. They are all energetic
and happy to attend our summer program. Our teacher team also
introduced some major events and activities we are going to have
during this summer. It is my first time to get in touch with my
students and I look forward to work with them for next month. And
today, I also spent sometime on the workshop notes, the details I
need to pay attention to during the preparation and facilitation. And
I found out there are much more things I need to considerate in
advance than I previously expected, such as the setting of the
classroom and students interests, etc.
06/27/2016
Today, I mainly worked on the developing ideas for college
newsletter and discussed my plans and materials for cultural
diversity workshop with my colleagues. I created a profile for
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania for the college newsletter. I
learnt a lot about American college through my work on college
newsletter. And my colleagues can always gave me some great
advice which helps me fulfill my work. And then in the weekly
meeting with my boss, I showed my PowerPoint for the workshop
and the first profile I created for the college newsletter. My

colleagues and my boss quite liked my plan and material I prepared

for the cultural workshop and spoke highly of them, which
encouraged me a lot. And for the college newsletter, they also gave
their honest advice to me, and hope me to devote more writing to it.
06/28/2016
After yesterdays meeting on college newsletter, we decided to
change the idea of how to do the college newsletter. Instead of
making the profile, we decided to create the newspaper page and
tried to get some ideas from the newsletter people did last year. I
also learnt a lot about college life of American students. So we first
searched online to find out some colleges that are more suitable for
our students and also created our template for the weekly
newsletter. Finally, we came up with a list of colleges we decided to
include in the college newsletter, and then I spent about one and
half hour on doing research on Franklin & Marshall college and did
some writing on introducing the college.
06/29/2016
Today, I spent the most of the time on reviewing the materials I
prepared for the cultural workshop and writing the workshop notes
(what I am going to say and to do during the facilitation). I find there
are still many things I need to consider. And writing notes is really
helpful for me to think about all the things in advance, although I
quite hated to write this when taking the course. And I also did some
changed to the PowerPoint to make it easier to read.
06/30/2016
Similar with yesterday, I also worked in the office and did the
preparation work for the workshop. I continued to write notes for the
workshop and discussed ideas on college newsletter with my
colleagues.
07/01/2016
Today, I mainly worked on the college newsletter and social media. I
discussed ideas on college newsletter and made the newsletter for
Franklin & Marshall college. I got many great ideas from my
colleagues. They brainstormed the things we can include in the
newspaper letter, which helped my work a lot. I also spend
sometime on social media, that I set up SMP page on twitter. And I
hope to have better interaction with my students on the social
media.
07/05/2016
Today is the first day of the summer program and students all
attended all kinds of activities excitedly. I first met with 16 SMP
students I will work with during July. We did brief self-intro to each
other. I am very happy to finally meet them. And then I spent most
of the time on the first college newsletter of Franklin & Marshall
College, and started to do research on the second college, Towson

University. In writing college newsletters, my colleagues contributed

a lot of valuable ideas and Einas also helped me to edit on the texts,
which is really helpful. And at the end of my work, I posted our first
SMP photo with all students in on the social media and show our
welcoming.
07/06/2016
Today was a busy, tiring but meaningful day. I chaperoned SMP
students to the Temple University and Drexel University for their
college tour. Because it was the second day I met with these
students, I was kind of worried about doing the organizing work. But
with the help of another colleague, the college tour went very well,
and I learnt a lot about these two colleges and also got to know
more about the students.
07/07/2016
Today, I worked in office in the morning to do the preparation work,
and facilitated the cultural diversity workshop in the afternoon. In
the morning, I finalized the second newsletter for Towson University,
and Einas helped me to revise it. And in the afternoon, I gave the
students workshop on cultural diversity. I have spent a lot of time
preparing for this work, and I am very happy that it went very well,
and student did learn something from my workshop. Conducting
workshops for the SMP students is really a valuable experience for
me, as I honed my facilitation skills and got closer to the SMP
students.
07/08/2016
Today, I also worked in the office in the morning and worked with
students in the afternoon. In the morning, I did some researched on
the Delaware State University, and did some writing. And in the
afternoon, I helped the students with their Flag Project. It is a project
that students can do by themselves to learn more about different
culture, which obey the theory of experiential learning that learning
through doing and experiencing. The kids are quite energetic and
talented, and I think I got closer to them after yesterdays workshop.
07/11/2016
Similar with the previous days, I spent half of my day working
individually and other time with my students. I have already written
four college newsletters for students and also distributed first two to
students. I asked my students whether they like the newsletters or
not and what kind of information they want to know about the
colleges. I got some positive answers from them. And in the
afternoon, I helped with students on their preparation on Flag
Project. The kids are enthusiastic about making poster boards and
practicing performance. And I was happy to be there helping them.
07/12/2016

In the morning, my students gave out their presentations of their

Flag Project. The SMP students had a really great presentation and
amazing performance. I was impressed they could do it in such a
short time. And in the afternoon, I had a great trip with the kids to
the Penn Museum. I also saw and learnt a lot of things in the
museum. I began to get familiar with my students, and more and
more students are willing to talk to me and ask questions about
culture and college.
07/13/2016
Today, I mainly helped other colleagues in facilitating college panel
and the relay race activity with other younger students. I had a good
time with the kids today although it was quite exhausting. In the
relay race, all of them were energetic. And although, my colleague
and I had a hard time to keep them quiet, but eventually things
went well. And one of the coordinator also gave the feedback that
we may count down to five to make them keep order. It is really
hard to make more than 60 high school students quite.
07/14/2016
Compared with yesterday, today was much easier. After greeting all
the students here, I came back to the office to do the paperwork.
And I also discussed some ideas of the newsletter with my
colleagues. And I began to work on the fifth newsletter for Seton
Hall University. Their words are always enlightening and
encouraging. Now, I quite enjoyed here at SMP with my colleagues
and students.
07/15/2016
I only worked half of the day today. And nothing special happened
today. My colleagues and I just did some revising work on the fifth
newsletter. And then I searched online for more information about
Boston University and started work on the newsletter for Boston
University.
07/18/2016
Today, I was just in the office and worked on the newsletters. I spent
a lot of time searching online to learn more about Boston University
and found out the things might be attractive to students. And my
colleagues also helped me to develop ideas and edit on my
language. And I also discussed with Einas about tomorrows trip to
aquarium.
07/19/2016
In the morning, I worked in the office on the newsletter, finding
materials for the new one and editing on the old. And in the
afternoon, I went to trip to the aquarium with my colleagues and
students. Weve got great fun there.

07/20/2016
Today, I just worked in the office on the newsletters. I searched
online a lot to find out information and things attractive to students.
And then I began to write the 7th newsletter for Virginia Union
University. Nothing special happened. And I felt a little bit bored to
work in office. Working with students brings more fun to me.
07/22/2016
Like last few days, I worked in the office today, without too much
interaction with students. But in the morning, on my way to the
office, I met one SMP student and we talked a lot about our program
and things about China. It seems she like the program a lot and is
interested in Chinese culture.
07/25/2016
Today, I first worked on the newsletter and finalized it and printed it
out. And then, I had a meeting with Gail and Einas on the potluck
tomorrow. We decided to order delivery from different restaurants
and to show students with different cuisines from different
countries. And I also planned to find some music and performance
online, so that students can taste different foods and appreciate arts
from different cultures at the same time.
07/26/2016
In the morning, I worked in the office on the newsletter. And at noon,
Einas and I went to restaurants to get different foods from different
country. Weve got Korean foods, Thai foods, Greek foods, and
Ethiopian foods. And we listened to different traditional music from
different cultures. Kids and faculty had a great time at the potluck.
07/27/2016
Today, I worked in the office with my colleagues. We discussed our
ideas and cooperated on the yearbook. Although it seemed to be
easy to gather the pictures and some texts together, it is more
complicated and time-consuming in practice. We people have
worked on this yearbook for about one week.
07/28/2016
Salvation Army is the organization our students do volunteer work
in. And today is their last day there and they had a final
presentation with the kids there. It was my first time to the Salvation
Army, and the kids were very energetic, and our students kept a
good relationship with them. And in the afternoon, after returning
back, I helped the students to brainstorm ideas for tomorrows final
presentation and make the PowerPoint. I was happy to be with the
students here.
07/29/2016
Today, we had the final ceremony. We saw the presentations of each

group and gave them the certification and gifts. I have had great
time with the kids, and it is so sad to say goodbye. I even burst into
tears at the end. Ive build up good relationships with the staff and
students in SMP. And Im willing to work there again if I have chance.