Last day at FLOC

Today is my last day at my placement, For Love of Children.

I have been deeply inspired by the many workshops and sessions I have had with our students. Several of our students are now on the track to successfully graduate high school and work towards a college or post-secondary degree - in fact 100% of our senior class will be moving onto a post-secondary program this fall!

The last few months have been quiet, as a majority of our students have been working summer jobs through the D.C. Summer Youth Employment Program. Though some of our middle school and high school students have been attending summer camp at FLOC's Outdoor Education Center in West Harper, WV. For the past several weeks the high school-middle school program has merged into a condensed after school program now known as the Scholars program.

My community consisting of Lauren, Andrew, Rachel, Laura and I are ending our year with sincere goodbyes and preparing our JVC house for next years JVC community. We have experienced everything together / uniting as acquaintances together at the beginning of the year / adjusting to life in Washington, DC / taking roadtrips to other JVC houses/retreats/gatherings / Mass at St. Augustine's Catholic Church / meeting each others families / amazing dinners / great converstations / extreme weather/ and an eternity of friendships ahead.

So what's next for us?

Lauren will be staying on a second year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps at her placement, Samaritan Ministries. Rachel is heading back to her ala mater, UNC-Chapel Hill to attend medical school. Laura, also returning to her ala mater, Penn State University, for law school. Andrew will be joining me in Portland in a couple of weeks for a visit, then meeting with his father and uncle for a bike ride through Oregon and California. Andrew will end at home in San Diego. And I am heading back to Portland for a couple of weeks, will be attending my cousin Liz's wedding, then moving to the mid-west to Wausau, Wisconsin where I will be entering my journalism career as a multimedia journalist / reporter at WAOW-TV, an ABC affiliate an hour from Greenbay.

I am very sad to leave JVC, my community, and the greater JVC community. But I am also very excited to take what I learned this year and to put it into my career and in life.

Thank you all for your support to me and the JVC over the past year.