YESS Breakfast & Emo Trolls

Breann and I at the breakfast.

We had a hectic week last week, but it sure was a great one! I am so proud of the amazing YESS Road to Success annual breakfast that we hosted last week. We had a wonderful turnout, and hearing from both middle and high school YESS students was so powerful.

Breann, Aileen, and Selene deliver their speech to over 150 guests!

I am particularly proud of the three speakers we had from Shaw Heights--Breann, Aileen, and Selene--and the fantastic speech they delivered. These young ladies worked for weeks on their speech, staying after school-- even during testing weeks--to ensure they were properly prepared. Breann's father, Nick McCoy, was kind enough to also share a few words at the breakfast. His speech moved me to tears (and I have a feeling I was not the only one!)

Special thanks to Dr. Diane Basset for all of her help prepping our Shaw speakers.

Aileen and I at the breakfast.

Last week, we also began our discussion on Emo Trolls-- those little emotional monsters we can sometimes morph into when we are very angry and/or stressed. Our scholars loved learning about the Emo Trolls, and many were having "ah-ha!" moments in assessing either their own behavior or the behaviors of their close family members and friends.

We ended our week with a dance celebrating the end of state testing. Next week, we will continue talking more about Emo Trolls!

Hanging out with Sergio at the dance!

Some of our sweet mentee girls!