Legacy Class XXXVI Project Team 6 - Presentation

Name of Team Captain: Cristy Andrews

Team Member Names: Cristy Andrews, Lynn Bius, Nick Hamilton, Dee Jones, Gena Richardson, Benjamin Schlemmer, Denise Vaughn

Agency Assisted: YMCA

Project’s Thematic Area: Empowering Youth through Higher Education

Project Location: Bell Road YMCA & Baptist Resource Center Auditorium

Date(s) of Implementation: October 10, 2019 to April 23, 2020

Duration of Project: 7 months

Who was served by the project?

High school youth with a special focus on first-generation college attendees

How many people benefited from this project?

The Y-Achievers program serves over 150 low income, minority high school students.  The marketing for the above mentioned event will target a diverse population of students. The team hosted 24 participants for the event scheduled on January 23, 2020. 

Final Project Description:

Delivered a college preparation seminar for high school students with diverse backgrounds.  The targeted population was first-generation college students who were interested in attending college.

Special focus of session 1: Career Planning, Paying for College, FAFSA 10, and Personal Brand Awareness.

What is the vision for the future of the project:

This project will expose parents and students located within the YMCA Montgomery County region, who have a desire to pursue continued education at the collegiate level, to resources that increase awareness of college financial support, career opportunities and academic testing preparation.  The project team and our YMCA partner originally planned to attend one to two monthly Y-Achiever Sessions.  Our objective was to educate/expose the Y-Achievers to several career opportunities, as well as, ACT Preparation. After our original proposal, we encountered several challenges with the below plan:

1.      Conflicting school priorities/schedules amongst the Y-Achievers participants
2.      Lack of transportation for Y-Achievers to attend each event
3.      Limitation with YMCA location capacity
4.      Scheduling conflicts between YMCA and Project Team
5.      Montgomery school closures to mitigate COVID challenges

Our team’s vision for the future of the project would include additional collaboration and participation with all parties involved (YMCA Director, Y-Achievers and the Project Team).  Our original proposal would have ultimately accomplished this vision. 

Original Proposed Action Plan (October – April)

Dates	Action	Owner	Status
9/28	Tuskegee Open House	Project Team
10/10	One-hour Q&A with AUM	Project Team
10/24	Career Day - Finance Career Discussion	Project Team
11/14	ACT Review (Math)	Speaker/Project Team
1/9	ACT Review (Science)	Speaker/Project Team
1/23	Career Day - Nurse/Doctor Career Discussion	Speaker/Project Team
2/13	ACT Review-Reading/English	Speaker/Project Team
2/27	Career Day – Engineering Career Discussion	Speaker/Project Team
3/12	ACT Review – Reading/English	Speaker/Project Team
3/26	Career Day- Banking/Legal Career Discussion	Speaker/Project Team
4/9	Career Day – Military Recruiter	Speaker/Project Team
4/23	YMCA Achievers Banquet	Speaker/Project Team

Describe exactly how your project was implemented.

After careful consideration and deliberation, the team along with YMCA Representatives decided to revamp the abovementioned project plan.  The project team decided to organize two separate events scheduled for January 25, 2020(9:00am-2:00pm) and March 28, 2020 (8:00am-3:00pm):

Session 1

• Understanding College Financial Guidelines
• Review of the Admission’s Process
• Understanding the importance of choosing the right Major
• Personal Brand Awareness

Session 2 – Cancelled to limit exposure to COVID

• ACT Science Preparation (2 hours)
• ACT Math Preparation (2 hours) 
• ACT English/Reading Preparation (2 hours)

Implementation Action Plan (Session 1)

Action	Owner	Status
Solidify Event(s) Location	Project Team
Determine time and dates	YMCA/ Project
Identify speakers	Project Team
Create communication literature	YMCA Team
Promote participation of scheduled events  (Media & YMCA Website) WAKA on Wednesday 22, 2020 at noon and WSFA on Thursday 23, 2020 at 11:00	YMCA/Project
Provide materials and resources for day of events	Project Team
Measure project success through parent/student  participation rate	YMCA/Project
Create list of volunteers and speakers for future events	Project Team

How many volunteer hours were devoted to this project?

Approximately 40 hours total