jordan muck

Last Monday night, I had the honor of sitting on the youth forum panel at the middle school. The panel included the following people; Andy Carmitchel - Former Highland CUSD superintendent, Sherry Thomas - Highland Middle School Counselor, Malinda Bernal - Science teacher at the Highland Middle School, Joe Michaelis - Mayor of Highland, Randy Riggs - Highland School Rescue Officer, Myself, Sarah Wright - Prevention Specialist at Chestnut Mental Health Center, and Donna Munie - Active Parent and Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent. The goal of the night was to discuss issues and give some solutions that are surrounding our youth at the middle school and high school. I wrote early about these events earlier here.

This was a great opportunity and I was honored to have the ability to sit with such great people to discuss such topics. I wanted to give a recap of the night and discuss my thoughts.

This is how the night went…

• 3:30-3:45 - Students came to sign in, got their nametags, and received their folders with information about the night.
• 3:45-4:05 - Students were given instructions about their expectations for the night and given their topics to present. (Each group had two or three high school students that were “mentors” for the night and helped the junior high groups present their topics to the panel and prepare a powerpoint.)
• 4:05-4:15 - Students made the transition to their groups to get started.
• 4:15-5:45 - Junior high students then met with their “mentors” to agree on recommendations to present to the panel about the group’s issue (issues included; cyber bullying, healthy relationships and dating violence, cliques, peer pressure, and accessibility to drugs and alcohol). The groups designated two junior high students to be speakers for their group to present the issue to the panelists.
• 5:45-6:00 - Student practiced their presentations and had a dry run of the evening while the panelists were briefed.
• 6:00-6:30 - Dinner was served to both the students and panel members.
• 6:30-7:45 - This is when the actual panel took place. They had a welcome to the evening (the community was invited) and had the students present to the panel their topic and their ideas to “fix” the problems. The panel then had about ten minutes to respond to each group. After the panel session the community had the opportunity to ask questions as well.
• 7:45-7:55 - Community discussion.
• 7:55-8:00 - Closing of the evening and everyone went home.

This is what I thought after the night was over and I had a few days to evaluate what happened.

• For once I felt like what we were doing at the church was a step ahead of what the world was doing. For example, we are already in the process of trying to get the high school students to mentor the junior high students. The solutions that the junior high students came up with were great ideas but we have such a good relationship with our young people that we have already discussed solutions for these problems presented individually and in groups. We listen to our students when they talk and do something about problems when they come up. We strive to put programs, events, and teachings in place to help them with life’s problems. I felt like my students who were there already had a firm grasp on how to overcome the problems presented instead of just talking about them. I was proud our students are have bite and not just bark.
• The community was represented poorly. I wish more parents, people from the church, and towns people would have showed up.
• Somewhere along the line of life parents and educators “talk down” to young people. I don’t know if they do it on purpose or by accident but it bothers me. If I ever get to the point in my life where a student looks at me and says I’m fake I need to question what I’m doing. Students can smell insincerity a mile away. You could tell the people who were having an impact on the students and those who were just “there”. If you don’t love what you do 100% get out now, especially in youth work.
• The church and the school are completely different.
• Sometimes I think people talk just to hear the sound of their own voice. Not only is this immature and annoying but junior high students hate standing up while someone can’t stop talking.
• The church was represented in a secular setting properly and was well received. Amen, praise the Lord, Hallelujah!
• My students are amazing. Not only did they represented the church well but they showed pride in their church and group.

The evening went well and I hope I have the privilege of participating again next year. If I could change one thing I think the panelists should get together later and discuss the topics further. I don’t feel there was enough time to talk about the issues and provide ways of ironing out details presented by the students.  We need more events like this!

How is your community embracing the youth?

-Jordan