Becky Pink

Mr. Scanlan
Senior Prclject
26 Jan. 2015

Reflection Paper
Have you ever been in church and noticed how many kids are there? Have you ever
thought ahout what others could do to get more children involved? Well, for my Senior Exit
Project I chose to organize and lead Vacation Bible School at Ss. Anthony and Fhilip Parish. I
found adults to help me u,ith the stations and middle school kids to help me lead the groups from
site to site. I also tound t]re crafts that I was going to do and r:rderetl the nraterials lbr them. This

progranl is tbr ctritdren ages five to eleven r,vho can come ancl enjoy bible stories, sing fun songs,
eat festive snacks to match the theme of the program. create crafts, and play awesome, energetic
games.

To help me rvith rny project, Delores Eggels wils m,v lnertor. She has heen in charg* of
Yacation Bilrle School ever since it startetl. She knows what to do ancl horv to get it
accomplishecl. Any questions

I had, she u'as able to answer ancl help me. Ginger Halverson was

the garnes leader and helped me decorate the church tbr this event. We firade the clecr:rations on
the Thursday befi:re the lveel< r:f the event. Next. u,e decorated the Ciatherine Space of tlre churclr

an Sunday aftemoon. I wanted to decorate the church befbre the masses the weckend lrelbre so
that the kids u,'ould be excited, but my mentor warrtecl it to be a surprise. Mrs. McCarthy was the

music leader and had tlie kids sing the songs they learned at the closing program on the last

niglrt. ltenee Bergeron tvas iu charge of the snacks. She did not want any help choosing what to

do. She also read shr:rter bible stories to the kids rvhile they u,ere eating their snacks. Jen Tarrell
helped me

witli the crafts. I had everything ready for her, all

she had to do was supervise the

kids. Sage Shemak, Lauren Linscheid, Jadyn and Owyn Flalverson" f)onald Laufenberg, fuIegan
Mueller, and Grace Pustina \.vere the srnall group leaclers. They led the kids fiom one station to
the next. I.,-vnn

Tarell

rvas there on the first night taking individual pictures for the kids trt put in

their picture &ames they were rnaking. I took pictures every night of the kids at each station.

also gave the site leaders rvhat they needed every night.

I leamed more than I thr:ught I r,r,ould lvhile doing this project.

Snme things

I leamed

include how to organize and lead a group of children ranging in age frorn five to eleven, holl, tt:
make lesson plans and deal rvith younger children- and hou, to go lvith the
be so ordered
anal.vsis,

flolv and not have to

all the tirne. Some tu,enty-first cenftrry skills I leamed are critical thinking,

llexibility, and productivity. I realized that if

,vou rless something up, -vou are going to

fix it the next tirne. If there is no next time, you learn &om.vour

mistakes.

Overall, rny project u/as a success. The kids had a great time and the people who helpe<l
me did, too. I receivecl many cornpliments for several weeks after

it ended fi'om parents,

grandparents, and the community. Many people were surprised that a high school kid did this for
her project.

I lefl

positive irnpact on rnany people. I am glad that I was able to do rny proiect

over the sunrrler.

I did not have many problems that occurred during the tirne of my project. Some things I
*lid stnrggle with rvere finding crafts that children ages fir,e and eleven coulcl do rvith not a lot

difficult-v. I

alsr:r had k:r

Sitce lVlother Nature

of

make sure I had an example of every cral1 that the kids r.voulcl be rnaking.

dcles nr:t

like to cooperate all of the tirne, I had to tnake sure there w;rs

room ill the church basement itt case it started raining and the kicls had t6 come inside
to play

their games' Yes, it did rain near the end on our first night, but I grade it work so that

tle kids

could still play games and have fun at the sarne time.

I don't really know how I

t'eel about the Senior

Exit P1oject. 1.lgrveyer, I think that it is a

good idea that students are able to do a fwenty five hour project on topics that they are
interested
in. This rvill make the sttrdents happier and they u,ill not feel forced to do things that they
do not
necessarily like. The fact that sfudents have to go somewhere and interuiew sr;meone with
knowledge in their topic area is a good idea because this will help kids get a feel of
what an

interview feels like and how one lnay carry out in the future. I also likecl hor.v the class r.vas split
into tr'vo secticlns. I am not really a f'an of the paper porlion. If stuclents are forced to clo a big
project and record everything they do rvith it. they should not have to take the time to
research
tnore about their topic and sum up rvhat they learned in ten pages. Some papers do 1ot
even deal

with the exact same topic information as they do with their project. For example, my project was
vacation bible school and rny paper rvas about creating a strong connecrion in the community

throughout the church. Yes, they both tleal ivith a church background, but one goes more into
depth with rvorking with young children and the other leans more torvard adults. The Senior Exit

Project has helped me become rnore flexible ancl becorne more cledicated toward the church.