Cajun State of Mind

WOW! I just finished Induction week into Teach For America here in Baton Rouge and I can honestly say it was one of the best weeks of my life. As I write this, I'm sitting in a dorm room of West Hall on the LSU campus. I am already totally in love with Baton Rouge and all the people I have met so far.

Arriving here on Tuesday was scary, exciting, hot hot hot (90s), and amazing. Teach For America hosted a dinner for us at the Louisiana State Museum in downtown Baton Rouge to welcome us to the city. We got to hear from some very talented students in the South Louisiana school systems - very inspiring. I also got to meet a TON of new people that night, including my amazing small group for the week: Leigh Phillips (a fellow Delta Gamma!), Stephanie Marino, and Donovan Propst. I met people from Washington, New Jersey, California, Italy, Mexico, and anywhere else you can think of! From the first night, I felt totally welcome here.

On Wednesday we got to go out into the town and do some community service. My group went to Thrive Baton Rouge, a charter boarding school in East Baton Rouge founded by TFA Alumna Sarah Broome. It was completely amazing to see how she has literally built a school from the ground up where at-risk kids are succeeding in multiple capacities. We helped paint, move mattresses, and get our hands dirty in all kinds of stuff at Thrive.

I got to take a visit down to Donaldsonville and visit the school I will be teaching at, Lowery Elementary! This week, I discovered that there is a huge portion of our corps teaching in Donaldsonville, and several at my school, and even in my grade. We made a trip down there and got to roam the halls, talk to employees, peak our heads in the summer school classes, and get a feel for the school. We also drove around many parts of Donaldsonville. The striking differences between the huge mansions on acreage and the tiny houses squished together just blocks away confirmed why I was brought to the community. Donaldsonville is a place where there is poverty lurking behind every corner, including the corners of large nice houses. We also got the chance to eat at First and Last Chance Cafe in Downtown Donaldsonville and I enjoyed an awesome shrimp po-boy.

Future teachers of Lowery Elementary and Middle Schools

Last night was our closing dinner at Boudreax's, an awesome restaurant in Baton Rouge. I got to be a speaker at the dinner, along with two other amazing corps members, Kim and Aaron, along with other inspirational people, including Sarah Broome, founder of Thrive, who I mentioned earlier. This closing dinner was especially inspirational to me, getting to hear the voices of fellow corps members, chat with community members and supporters of Teach For America, and overall feeling the South Louisiana love of everyone around me. It's amazing how the week brought us so close together in such a short amount of time. I KNOW we are going to do great things in this region and ultimately reach our goal of giving EVERY kid the chance at an amazing education. After meeting everyone and seeing how great this community is, I am certain this is a goal we can achieve.

Leigh, me, and Julianne celebrating the end of Induction

Tomorrow, we head to Cleveland, Mississippi for Institute, where we will be teaching at summer schools throughout the Mississippi Delta. I can't wait to see what that is like since I honestly have no idea what to expect. The only thing I can hope for is an equally amazing experience to the one I just had in Baton Rouge!