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From ILI Project Coordinator Bob Kovar |
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Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Here’s what has been going on in ILI this week-
§ There’s a wonderful new partnership that has taken shape between North Lakeland Elementary and Lac du Flambeau schools. NLES did not have enough students to field a football team and LdF invited them to play on their team! We received an email from a NLES parent that we wanted to share with you: “Are you aware of the fall football team at LdF. Five NLS 8th grade students have joined the Warriors. NLS didn't have enough players to make a team this fall. LdF needed players and offered to have the NLS players join LdF. My son is playing with LdF. It was helpful that the kids knew each other from ILI. They have had practices this week. It is a going great. One extra thing that the coach does is to pair the 8th graders with a younger player for some of the work out. That builds another relationship. They plan to play one game at NLS as a home game too.” Terrific!!
§ On Sunday evening, ILI Intern Jazmyn Deragon gave a wonderful talk about the ILI program to the group assembled for the golf tournament on Monday. We’re so proud of her!
§ On Monday we volunteered at Timber Ridge Golf Course for the annual Lake of the Torches Golf Classic. This was a great event that benefited ILI, Lakeland Sharing Foundation, Lakeland Food Pantry and the Abinoojiyag Youth Center in LdF. It was a beautiful day after early morning thundershowers and everyone seemed to have a great day of golf. Thanks to Russ Sineni and his staff at the Lake of the Torches for their persistent efforts to bring the community together to raise awareness and funds for local programs that serve youth.
§ On Monday evening Bob attended the LUHS school board meeting to explain the Community Meeting process to the board. In a few minutes he tried to explain why we are doing what we are doing and that it is not meant to be negative, in fact, it seems to be a positive process in that it is providing a forum for folks to come together, share their opinions and seek solutions as we find common ground. Later in the meeting, the Board discussed the volleyball issue. It was good to hear that many of the ideas that have been coming up at the Community meetings were also being discussed at this meeting as well-including a “no cut policy” for freshman sports and maybe even JV. Most importantly-all accounts are that the LdF girls are really enjoying playing for the new coach hired by LUHS, a new young teacher. We should honor these girls-they are part of a policy change that will benefit students forever. They are wonderful role models as they have never given up-their love of the game remains their focus. The trick in the future for all of us is to proceed so that we become active in making changes in a proactive mode instead of a reactive mode. We’ll do our best to facilitate this in our meetings.
§ On Tuesday we took a few of our LUHS ILI students who are leaving us out for lunch. Kayla Norris is going to Venezuela for the year as an exchange student and Zach Zenti is off to college down at UW-Marathon. We had a great lunch-both Kayla and Zach are excited about their new adventures and we’re extremely proud of them. We will really miss their great leadership in ILI here this year!
§ On Thursday, ILI staff met with Fred Maulson of the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission and Mike MacKenzie of the Wisconsin DNR to discuss ways we can highlight their partnership and help youth learn about natural resource management from these two perspectives. There is a great opportunity for us to develop curriculum for our ILI sessions that allows youth to learn through experience from the various State and Tribal partnerships that result in the multi-jurisdictional make up of our community. Natural resources, government, law are just some examples of areas we’d like to help ILI students explore. Fred and Mike are terrific role models for kids (and all of us for that matter) to understand how people come together and work to overcome our differences for the betterment of all. Many of our youth do not understand natural resource issues, regulations, enforcement and this leads to uninformed assumptions that can be very damaging. Education is the key to improving this understanding and its really cool that both GLIFWC and the DNR are acutely aware of this and have committed significant resources to help improve this awareness. ILI staff will work out a sequence for one of the ILI grades this year and we’ll pilot this approach this school year.
§ The Annual ILI Evaluation Report is complete and off to the printers. We should have copies to share with you. We’ll attach it as a pdf file next week for you to see it.
§ We received word this week from Wisconsin Public Service that they will award ILI with a $3000 grant for this school year! Thanks to them for their continued support!
§ Article of the Week-here’s a very interesting article that discusses achievement gaps:
SCHOOL TEST GAP: NOT JUST ECONOMIC When the first wave of state achievement test results are released every year, educators have a stock answer for the vexing disparity in achievement between African-American and Latino students and their white and Asian counterparts: poverty. But this year, new data in the Standardized Testing and Reporting program (STAR) shows that even when poverty is not a factor, the performance of black and Latino students still lagged behind. "These are not just economic achievement gaps. They are racial achievement gaps," said Jack O'Connell, state superintendent of public instruction. "We cannot afford to excuse them. We must take notice and take action." Overall, students across California showed slight progress, improving their scores in science and reading, while holding steady in math. And, just as in years past, the results once again underscored the achievement gap, reports Jessie Mangaliman in the San Jose Mercury News. But new data in a recently released STAR report -- the cornerstone of the state's standardized testing program designed to measure the performance of public schools and individual students in math, reading and science -- only deepen the questions about why that gap exists. Statewide results show African-Americans and Latinos who are not poor perform at lower levels in math than white students who are poor.
http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_6636531
§ The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: We are continuing work on our 07-08 membership drive newsletter which we hope to have out soon!
§ We received $350 this week from Friends of ILI membership-thank you!
§ ILI In the Media: nothing to report this week.
§ Upcoming ILI sessions and events: School begins Tuesday across the Lakeland area! Welcome back everyone!
§ ILI/LUHS Transition: We will be showing the ILI dvd at freshman orientation on Tuesday September 4 of the May Transition Day. It’s a great video that was put together by UW-Madison interns.
§ ILI Volunteers: Nothing to report this week.
§ ILI Annual Fundraising: ILI currently runs on a 2-year budget cycle. We have a two-year budget in order to keep our focus on the importance of sustaining our project beyond one year at a time. We currently have raised $288,794 of our $374,055 budget.
§ FOR MORE INFORMATION!! Please check the ILI website at www.ilileadership.org.
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Here’s what has been going on in ILI this week-
§ We hosted the 7th Community Wide meeting on Tuesday night-it was a good meeting and we sent you the minutes yesterday.
§ We met on Monday with Steve Holt, the new AVW school principal to discuss the ILI program and welcome him to his new position. There’s also a number of other folks in new positions around the area that we’d like to welcome: Jeaninne Bruguier is the new Education Director for the Lac du Flambeau Tribe and Karen Baker is the new head of student services at LUHS School. Welcome to you all and we wish you a successful year in your new positions!
§ We met again this week Wednesday with Russ Sineni of the Lake of the Torches to discuss this years Lake of the Torches “Carry the Torch Classic” golf tournament. The tournament benefits 4 area charities (Lakeland Sharing Foundation, Lakeland Food Pantry, LdF Youth Center and ILI) and has been a great source of support over the years for ILI. Sunday August 26 from 5:30-6:30 there will be a Celebrity Autograph signing at the Lake of the Torches Convention Hall so bring your kids and have them get some signatures of past champion football players Bob Long, Marv Fleming and Henry Lawrence. Then bring some friends and enjoy a day of golfing on Monday August 27 at Timber Ridge Country Club in Minocqua (registration from 6:30am-8:15am). Call Russ at Lake of the Torches for more information at 588-4014 or by email at russ@ldfcasino.com . Lots of great prizes to win and you’ll be helping a number of wonderful local programs-including ILI!
§ We heard this week from Wendy Hull from the Lakeland Kiwanis Club. They approved $500 for ILI this year and possibly the same amount for next year. They felt ILI was a really important project to have here for youth in the Lakeland area. We’re so pleased that they feel so positively about ILI! Thanks for your support!
§ We’re slowly updating the ILI website pages-its been in need of work for awhile. Thanks to Ron Steiner for his continued great management of our website-it looks great Ron!
§ ILI volunteer Audrey Williams is working on bringing Peggy McIntosh, acclaimed author teacher and speaker on the issue of white privilege as a guest speaker for the community over Martin Luther King Jr day in January. It will cost $5000 for her to come and she is willing to split her fee with Ernie who will present his perspective so we can host a really meaningful and balanced event. So far she has raised $2250 and intent to commit an additional $1500 so we might be almost there already! Ms McIntosh would be available for a special workshop for area teachers if our local schools are interested at no extra cost. We’ll be contacting our school partners to see if they are interested in this great opportunity.
§ ILI intern Jazmyn Deragon worked this week on writing up an introduction to ILI for incoming LUHS freshman students to read as they look at our table that will be set up for freshman orientation-here’s what she wrote: ILI also known as Intercultural Leadership Initiative is a great program. It is so much fun. As incoming freshman you are able to enjoy it all. During activity period on Wednesdays will meet twice a month. You can also meet on Wednesdays and Thursdays after school. You meet new people, make new friends and learn all at the same time. You get to be a leader and a role model for the younger kids. It’s a time to hangout with friends and accomplish something while you’re doing it. You learn not to judge a book by its cover. It’s so much fun. I’ve been in ILI for 8 years now and wish they had it in college. That would be awesome. In ILI you have so many choices, so many opportunities. It’s a lot of fun. You won’t regret joining. All you have to do to join is to come to one of our meetings and your in, no certain race, no background, you are more then welcome. Thank You.
§ Article of the Week: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: THE MISSING PIECE OF A WELL-ROUNDED EDUCATION Michael Pritchard is a healer, and a pioneer in the field of social-emotional learning (SEL), the often-neglected missing piece in a well-rounded education. For the past two decades, he has been touring the country, talking and listening to students, teachers, and parents. He has written two books and produced a series of award-winning videos that focus on the critical issues of character and emotional intelligence for middle and high school students. "What I try to teach kids is that we have to be more real about our emotions," explains Pritchard. "Shakespeare said, 'Always give sorrow words. Grief that does not speak whispers to the over-fraught heart and bids it to break.' I'm teaching kids that tears that do not flow will make other organs weep inside us. We get sick if we try to hold all that pain in. And then, the unaddressed grief turns to anger, and the anger to rage. And it has two directions -- out to the community, or inward toward the self, and self-destructiveness." For years, most mainstream educators have marginalized Pritchard and other SEL advocates. Now, their pleas for others who work with youths to "get real" about students' emotions are finally being heard. Late last year, the Illinois State Board of Education distributed the state's new Social and Emotional Learning Standards for K-12 students. Just as standards in language arts and math, for example, require students to achieve certain benchmarks, the SEL guidelines hold them accountable for proficiency in self-awareness, social awareness, and decision making. For Maurice Elias, author of "Raising Emotionally Intelligent Teenagers and Emotionally Intelligent Parenting", this is one school reform effort that just might work. "When you look at the literature on education reform, it's replete with failure," says Elias. "We've been treating students as if they're not people -- as if they're somehow sponges, and not human beings that come in with their emotions in full play." I don't know of anybody that can learn in the absence of a positive re lationship," he adds. "We learn from the people we care about. And yet we somehow pretend that in school, it doesn't matter. So, those who are actually concerned about academics should be concerned about social and emotional learning as well." Numerous studies link emotional well-being to academic success, and stress to failure, writes Ken Ellis in Edutopia. For Pritchard, teaching SEL is a no-brainer. "I say to the principals, 'No matter what we teach kids, love is more important than any knowledge we give them.' Because they can't become the gift that they're supposed to become if they're disconnected from their heart." http://www.edutopia.org/michael-pritchard-cultivating-emotional-intelligence
§ We received $225 this week from Friends of ILI membership-thank you!
§ The Lac du Flambeau budget did not pass this week-we will have to wait at least a few weeks when it is voted on again before we see if our request gets funded this year.
§ The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: We are continuing work on our 07-08 membership drive newsletter which we hope to have out by early September!
§ ILI In the Media: nothing to report this week.
§ Upcoming ILI sessions and events: Nothing next week
§ ILI/LUHS Transition:
Freshman Orientation Day Transition events have been cancelled by LUHS for the beginning of school this year. It just fell through the cracks as there was a personnel change in the transition leadership position at LUHS over the summer. We were disappointed to hear this but will work to make sure that we can continue this wonderful activity next school year. We’re still planning on the spring 8th grade Transition Day in May 2008.
§ ILI Volunteers: Nothing to report this week.
§ ILI Annual Fundraising: ILI currently runs on a 2-year budget cycle. We have a two-year budget in order to keep our focus on the importance of sustaining our project beyond one year at a time. We currently have raised $288,444 of our $374,055 budget.
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Here’s what has been going on in ILI this week-
§ We are ready for the next community meeting to be held at AVW school in Arbor Vitae on Tuesday August 21 5:30pm-8:30pm. We are putting out a press release to many newspapers, radio and TV as suggested at our last meeting to try and increase attendance. Please come and bring a friend-if we are truly going to change things in our community, we need your voice to be a part of the solution-making process!
§ An issue came before us yesterday morning regarding the LUHS freshman volleyball team. Apparently none of the incoming LdF freshman girls going out for volleyball-who won the conference title as 8th graders last year-were chosen for the freshman team. A number of concerned parents contacted us with justifiable concern about how this could have happened. One of the “positive solutions” we have discussed at a number of our community meetings has been to change the policy to “no freshman cuts” in sports. Needless to say this is a real issue-we contacted school officials, as we’re sure a number of others did to express our concern about this and to see how it could be undone. Creating a culture of success in our school is our number one goal and to do this we must take control of the things we can control-this is one of those things. The good news is that once the LUHS administration heard about this, they took immediate action to change their policy to “no cuts”. Apparently this will be brought before the school board asap and in the meantime the girls will be invited to be on the team. While it’s unfortunate that this happened in the first place-at least the right thing will be done now. We all need to help these girls feel strong and good about this because they no doubt feel badly about this-none of this lies on their shoulders, it’s the adults that messed this up. So when you see them, tell them you are proud of them.
§ We heard this week from Teresa Scollon, head of the Wisconsin DNR Diversity Team that visited us here at LUHS last fall. They are searching for ways to bridge cultural divides and create an awareness of cultural differences with regards to natural resources in Wisconsin. Ernie and Bob consulted a bit with Teresa as she moved ahead with a wonderful initiative to bring the Hmong community together with a number of conservation group leaders for a meeting this summer. It sounds like it was a great success and the beginning of more good things to come!
§ On Wednesday, Bob and Ernie were invited to go for a bike ride with Governor Doyle while he was up here on his “Up North” tour. We had a chance to talk to him as well as new DNR Secretary Matt Frank about ILI and our efforts here in the area. It was good fun!
§ We met on Thursday with Russ Sineni of the Lake of the Torches to discuss this years Lake of the Torches “Carry the Torch Classic” golf tournament. The tournament benefits 4 area charities (Lakeland Sharing Foundation, Lakeland Food Pantry, LdF Youth Center and ILI) and has been a great source of support over the years for ILI. Sunday August 26 from 5:30-6:30 there will be a Celebrity Autograph signing at the Lake of the Torches Convention Hall so bring your kids and have them get some signatures of past champion football players Bob Long, Marv Fleming and Henry Lawrence. Then bring some friends and enjoy a day of golfing at Timber Ridge Country Club in Minocqua (registration from 6:30am-8:15am). Call Russ at Lake of the Torches for more information at 588-4014 or by email at russ@ldfcasino.com . Lots of great prizes to win and you’ll be helping a number of wonderful local programs-including ILI! Hope to see you there!
§ We met Thursday afternoon with Ronda Kopelke from the Community Outreach director for the Northwoods Coalition of the Marshfield Clinic to discuss possible synergies between ILI and her group. We discussed some grant writing opportunities that sounded really exciting. We’ll be working on these opportunities as the year progresses.
§ We were contacted this week by Jolene Aleck from the Chicago Public School Office of Language and Cultural Education who is working with Tribal students in Chicago and seeking ways to connect them to the rural experiences of Tribes in the Great Lakes region. She is looking for some creative ways to link youth and we realized while talking that we were very like minded in our approaches and advocacy efforts. We have invited her to come up sometime this fall and experience ILI firsthand to see what we’re all about. We’re really looking forward to where this might go!
§ ILI intern Jazmyn Deragon has been keeping a log of her experiences so far and we’ll catch you up here and then each week you’ll hear from her. She’s simply fantastic! Here’s her account of the UW-LaCrosse Camp she helped facilitate: “I first heard about the camp from Alice and Craig a while ago. They told me about it and what we would be doing so I decided to go. The first day went a little easier when I found out two of my friends from camp heartland came to camp lacrosse. It was pretty cool. The best thing about this camp was, I was one of the boss’s. HA HA! I liked the fact that the other kids came up to me when they had question or they wanted to know something. I was happy to let them know. I loved the diversity. And was amazed at how everybody got along so well. I had so much fun. It was interesting too, when you would hear the Mong’s talk their language. It was different and sounded difficult to learn! Everybody was so outgoing and funny it made the camp go by easier. My family was great too. We rocked the school forest. I had a lot of fun when we went up to Presque Isle. The beach at the park was sweet. I swam up river and down and up and down and up then I walked back my third time. LOL! I couldn’t swim no more. I also jumped off the cliffs, something else I thought I would never, do but I did. It helped seeing others do it and hearing them encourage me. Then I closed my eyes and I jumped. It was a lot of fun. I’m so happy I went, I had fun camping, and riding to and from wherever we were going. Camp Lacrosse was worth it, I plan to go again next year!”
§ We received $10,200 this week from the Ministry Health Care Foundation! We’re really excited to have been awarded this grant and are especially thankful to Christine Caz and John Lund at Howard Young Health Care Foundation for their advocacy and help in getting this-thanks so much!!
§ We received $125 this week from Friends of ILI membership-thank you!
§ We completed our 6month report due this week to the Wisconsin Community Fund.
§ The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: We are continuing work on our 07-08 membership drive newsletter which we hope to have out by the end of August or early September!
§ ILI In the Media: nothing to report this week.
§ Upcoming ILI sessions and events: Nothing next week
§ ILI/LUHS Transition: Nothing new to report this week.
§ ILI Volunteers: Nothing to report this week.
§ ILI Annual Fundraising: ILI currently runs on a 2-year budget cycle. We have a two-year budget in order to keep our focus on the importance of sustaining our project beyond one year at a time. We currently have raised $288,444 of our $374,055 budget.
§ FOR MORE INFORMATION!! Please check the ILI website at www.ilileadership.org.
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
ILI Staff: Ernie St. Germaine, Lori St. Germaine, Stephany St. Geramine, Alice McFarlane, Matt White, Craig Kerr, Bob Kovar
ILI Student Intern: Jazmyn Deragon
On Sunday evening the bus pulled into the parking lot of the multi-purpose building in Lac du Flambeau. When the bus door opened a diverse group of students made their way out onto the black top. We all made a circle and Ned (UW-La Crosse faculty) talked with the students and turned it over to Ernie who welcomed the students.
We went into the multi-purpose building and had a wonderful spaghetti feast prepared by the St. Germaines. Everyone ate their fill and we headed out to the parking lot for some activities. Matt, Alice, Craig, and Jazmyn took turns leading activities for the students so that they could get to know one another and begin their camp on a good note. Once the activities were over and after the laughter and smiles were winding down the students loaded the bus and headed to the Powwow Grounds for the night.
Monday morning we had a light breakfast after the students had packed up all of their stuff and headed up to Lake Superior. When we arrived we were ready to eat and Dan Reuland provided a wonder lunch. After everyone was done eating the students received a puzzle piece. The 4 puzzles were baby pictures of Alice, Craig, Matt, and Stephany. The students had to not only put the picture together, they also had to figure out which facilitator’s picture they had. This was a great activity. The students did a great job! The facilitators had their groups learn each other’s names and moved into the next activity. The students wrote 3 things about themselves on a piece of paper, folded it up, and put inside a balloon and blew it up. Then we all threw up our balloons up in the air and tried to keep them up in the air for 5 seconds. It seems easy but when the wind is blowing it is pretty difficult. Then, we popped the balloons, picked up the pieces and the piece of paper. We got into a circle and read out pieces of paper and tried to guess who the person was by what was written on the paper. The students were good with some and completely off on others. They really enjoyed this activity.
When each group was done they headed down to the lake.
The students had free time on the lake and they truly enjoyed the beautiful day we were given. Some of the students jumped of rocks into the water, others tried to catch crayfish, others walked up to see the falls, and others just played in the water of Lake Superior. We water was so warm that many of the students stayed in the water for over an hour. The lake was also way down from last year. The students fully enjoyed their time at the lake.
When we were all done swimming and exploring we headed to the Union Bay group campsite. South Boundary Trail was closed for construction so it took us a bit longer than it usually did, but it didn’t affect the attitudes of the students. When we arrived they set up their tents and headed right for the water to continue their water filled day. Matt and Alice prepared a wonderful meal over the campfire for dinner. Everyone came in for dinner and we began with an “attitude of gratitude”, and had a wonderful meal. We loaded up the bus after everyone was finished up and headed to lake of the clouds. We arrived and the sun was just beneath the trees. The students explored the path of the escarpment trail, were enjoying the scenery, and taking a lot of pictures. The sun went down and the wind started to calm. The students enjoyed each other’s company as we waited for the moonrise. When the moon came up it was a wonderful sight! The students were transfixed as they watched it rise. We headed back to the bus and headed back to the camp for some fun around the campfire.
Tuesday morning was a relaxed morning. Students woke and headed to the lake for some morning swimming and breakfast was set out for everyone to enjoy. After everyone had breakfast we took all the tents down and loaded our stuff into the bus and headed out to Lake Gogebic. The day was really hot and the students headed to the water when they arrived at the community picnic area and they also played on the volleyball court, merry-go-round, soccer, basketball, and soccer. We had a wonderful time playing and enjoying our surroundings and each other.
We gathered for lunch and got into a circle and Craig talked about the importance of the circle and the importance of everyone in the circle. We began our attitude of gratitude and Ernie ended with a talk about the importance of this particular area to the Ojibwe people.
After lunch the games continued for another hour and we had to head back to Lac du Flambeau to set up camp and hit the showers!
In the evening Robin Careful and Ernie presented a wonderful program on the “American Indian” from their perspective. The presentation was powerful. It incorporated much of Robin’s personal history and stories as well as traditional dancing and drumming. The student’s enjoyed joining in dancing, laughing, and having the time of their life! The activities continued well into the night and the students did not want it to end; they were having so much fun!!!
Wednesday morning we ate breakfast at Dan Reuland’s place. It was a wonderful breakfast. He had provided most of the meals for the camp. After breakfast it was off to the school forest. We gathered and began with diminishing islands. The group took a few tries to get it, but they achieved it and were very excited to do so. Ernie then debriefed the activity. Craig added some difficulty and had them try it again. They were not able to do it, and Craig transitioned them into their small groups.
The small groups did a name activity so that everyone was sure to know each other’s name. Then, the groups did several different activities. The groups worked on the “Human Knot”, “Bog Balance”, “Grape Vine”, and “14 Foot Wall”. The groups connected in a real way during these activities and you could see that as the groups returned.
Ernie had 4 representatives from each group race on the “trolleys”. This was a great activity as everyone cheered for their teams and enjoyed the whole experience.
We circled up and began to talk about what each person had gotten out of the camp so far. The students were sharing deeply about how they had been impacted by different parts of the camp. We had to push the pause button because we needed to be to lunch at a certain time. But we will continue talking about what was important to us so far at a later time.
We headed to Cathedral Pines on Trout Lake for lunch. Lori brought up pizzas and everyone had plenty of food and headed to the lake to play. It was a wonderful day to be at the lake.
We loaded up the bus and headed back to Lac du Flambeau to clean up for the evening’s festivities. Dinner was at the multi-purpose building. Before dinner, we fished sharing what we been impacted by so far during the camp. The students and staff continued to share deeply about how they had been changed or how they had been reminded of something important. Then Ernie talked about how he had put out a request for someone to ask the blessing at tonight’s dinner and asked for a volunteer. One of the college mentors got up and asked a blessing in Hmong. It was a wonderful blessing and we all appreciated what he said. Dinner was followed by theatrical presentations that everyone had worked on during the week. Some had practiced a while and others put it together at the last minute, but everyone performed and it was incredible! Laughter filled the building. When all the performances were done we cleaned up and headed back to camp.
Thursday morning we had breakfast at the Casino and went out and sat on the lawn for our closing circle. When we went out there were several eagles fishing. Everyone enjoyed sitting and watching as the eagle swooped down to try to catch their fish. One immature eagle was mimicking and older eagle. What an incredible sight and metaphor.
Craig began by talking about the importance of taking what they had shared in the circle about what they had learned and put it in a safe place to lean on it when the time came. Matt thanked everyone and let them know that he really liked them. Alice thanked everyone for letting us be apart of their camp. Ernie talked about taking what they had learned and teaching it to someone like the eagles were teaching their younger ones. He also talked and thanked them for the gift they had brought to the community and that he would talk about this group for a long time. Ned ended the time in a circle with gifts for the ILI staff and talked about the opportunity to right any wrongs or misunderstandings. We ended with a group handshake, hug, t-shirt signing, and a group picture.
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2006-2007
Here’s what has been going on in ILI this week-our last report for 2 weeks as next week we’ll be on vacation!!
§ We’d like to start this update off with a wonderful email we received from Cathy Kurtyka: “HI, my name is Cathy Kurtyka. I work with Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Northwoods, Inc. running a mentoring program at the LdF grade school. I just wanted to let you know the effectiveness of your ILI program. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has a program called the PEOPLE program that was instituted at LUHS the winter of 2006. To summarize, successful completion of the program (it's for the Native American students) makes them eligible for admittance to UW-Madison with a full 5-year academic scholarship. I've been working with the middle school LdF students preparing them to qualify for the program when they enter high school. This summer UW-Madison offered full scholarships to the University's 8th grade Engineering Camp to seven LdF students. There were three week long sessions and we transported the kids down and back, 2-3 to a session. The LdF students were amazing. They fit right into the camps (which drew of course from white, middle class, ambitious college-educated families) and the LdF students credited their ILI experiences with enabling them to know how to make friends, have self-confidence in themselves and adapt to a new environment comfortably. All of the LdF students have been invited back to the UW 8th grade Engineering Academy next year (and are eager to return) and I was told by one of the deans of the UW College of Engineering, "Send us more kids just like them!" Well, I thought, the kids I took down are very typical of a lot of the LdF kids and all the time and effort that's been put into working with them and helping them (in particular the work that you've done with ILI) is really starting to show up. Thank you for your persistance and dedication!” We’re very proud of these students! Thanks Cathy for keeping us in the loop on their success in Madison!
§ We’ve nearly finished the year-end Eval Report: some really wonderful news to share-of the 60 seniors in our various ILI programs at LUHS, 58 of them graduated! We feel this is a significant measure of ILI. Look for the Annual Eval Report to be done soon!
§ We had a wonderful week with the UW LaCrosse/ILI Summer Camp-perfect weather, wonderful students and staff! ILI Intern Jazmyn Deragon played a huge role in helping facilitate the week and did an amazing job-we’re proud of you Jazzy! We’ll send you a summary of the week in detail in a day or so when we catch our breath J We received $1500 from the Association of American Indian Affairs to help underwrite the camp-thank you to them for their continued support!
§ Bob met with longtime ILI volunteer Audrey Williams on Monday to discuss her idea of bringing Peggy McIntosh, a highly respected and well-known author and speaker on the subject of white privilege, to the Lakeland area over the Martin Luther King holiday in January. We talked about finding an American Indian speaker to provide a balanced program and that this would fit really nicely with our Community Meeting series. We’ll keep you posted!
§ On Wednesday morning ILI staff attended the early Rotary Breakfast Club meeting to support ILI students who are going to be exchange students. Kayla Norris, Chelsea Nehm and Sammy Anderson are all going to be leaving in a week or so to host countries around the world. We’re incredibly proud of these students, following in the footsteps of former ILI student Anne Johnson who inspired them when she came back to share her experiences in Croatia. Good luck everyone!
§ Some preschools are using a special program to teach their students, before prejudices take hold, to respect cultural, racial and religious diversity, reports Carla Rivera in the Los Angeles Times. Sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League's Miller Early Childhood Initiative, "A World of Difference Institute", is one of the few anti-bias programs specifically for preschoolers, drawing on research showing that children begin to perceive differences and attach negative or positive values to them as early as age 3. Now operating in 14 cities, the program trains teachers in strategies to confront prejudice and uses specially designed materials developed with the characters from "Sesame Street." The goal is to teach tolerance, respect and inclusion in a way that is geared to young minds. "We really wanted to focus on building the right foundations," said Lindsay Friedman of A World of Difference Institute. "We know that biases and stereotyping are seeping in even at this age, but this is meant to be a preventive approach, not as much countering negative messages as building positive ones." One of the strongest aspects of the program is the outreach to parents, who also are encouraged to attend workshops and use the curriculum at home. Studies have shown that children learn social cues at an early age from their environment, the media, and especially from the behavior and words of caregivers and family members. About 85 percent of the brain develops during ages three to five, and impressions formed after age two are lasting, said Linda A. Santora of the Anti-Defamation League. One study found that 50 percent of children formed racial biases by age six, she said. http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-bias16jul16,1,5597092.story?coll=la-news-learning
§ The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: We are beginning to work on our 07-08 membership drive newsletter which we hope to have out by the end of August or early September!
§ ILI In the Media: nothing to report this week.
§ Upcoming ILI sessions and events: Nothing next week
§ ILI/LUHS Transition: Nothing new to report this week.
§ ILI Volunteers: Nothing to report this week.
§ ILI Annual Fundraising: ILI currently runs on a 2-year budget cycle. We have a two-year budget in order to keep our focus on the importance of sustaining our project beyond one year at a time. We currently have raised $276,519 of our $374,055 budget.
§
FOR
MORE
INFORMATION!! Please
check the ILI
website at www.ilileadership.org.2007-2008
Weekly
UpdateFriday
August 31, 2007
Here’s what has been going on in ILI this week-
§ There’s a wonderful new partnership that has taken shape between North Lakeland Elementary and Lac du Flambeau schools. NLES did not have enough students to field a football team and LdF invited them to play on their team! We received an email from a NLES parent that we wanted to share with you: “Are you aware of the fall football team at LdF. Five NLS 8th grade students have joined the Warriors. NLS didn't have enough players to make a team this fall. LdF needed players and offered to have the NLS players join LdF. My son is playing with LdF. It was helpful that the kids knew each other from ILI. They have had practices this week. It is a going great. One extra thing that the coach does is to pair the 8th graders with a younger player for some of the work out. That builds another relationship. They plan to play one game at NLS as a home game too.” Terrific!!
§ On Sunday evening, ILI Intern Jazmyn Deragon gave a wonderful talk about the ILI program to the group assembled for the golf tournament on Monday. We’re so proud of her!
§ On Monday we volunteered at Timber Ridge Golf Course for the annual Lake of the Torches Golf Classic. This was a great event that benefited ILI, Lakeland Sharing Foundation, Lakeland Food Pantry and the Abinoojiyag Youth Center in LdF. It was a beautiful day after early morning thundershowers and everyone seemed to have a great day of golf. Thanks to Russ Sineni and his staff at the Lake of the Torches for their persistent efforts to bring the community together to raise awareness and funds for local programs that serve youth.
§ On Monday evening Bob attended the LUHS school board meeting to explain the Community Meeting process to the board. In a few minutes he tried to explain why we are doing what we are doing and that it is not meant to be negative, in fact, it seems to be a positive process in that it is providing a forum for folks to come together, share their opinions and seek solutions as we find common ground. Later in the meeting, the Board discussed the volleyball issue. It was good to hear that many of the ideas that have been coming up at the Community meetings were also being discussed at this meeting as well-including a “no cut policy” for freshman sports and maybe even JV. Most importantly-all accounts are that the LdF girls are really enjoying playing for the new coach hired by LUHS, a new young teacher. We should honor these girls-they are part of a policy change that will benefit students forever. They are wonderful role models as they have never given up-their love of the game remains their focus. The trick in the future for all of us is to proceed so that we become active in making changes in a proactive mode instead of a reactive mode. We’ll do our best to facilitate this in our meetings.
§ On Tuesday we took a few of our LUHS ILI students who are leaving us out for lunch. Kayla Norris is going to Venezuela for the year as an exchange student and Zach Zenti is off to college down at UW-Marathon. We had a great lunch-both Kayla and Zach are excited about their new adventures and we’re extremely proud of them. We will really miss their great leadership in ILI here this year!
§ On Thursday, ILI staff met with Fred Maulson of the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission and Mike MacKenzie of the Wisconsin DNR to discuss ways we can highlight their partnership and help youth learn about natural resource management from these two perspectives. There is a great opportunity for us to develop curriculum for our ILI sessions that allows youth to learn through experience from the various State and Tribal partnerships that result in the multi-jurisdictional make up of our community. Natural resources, government, law are just some examples of areas we’d like to help ILI students explore. Fred and Mike are terrific role models for kids (and all of us for that matter) to understand how people come together and work to overcome our differences for the betterment of all. Many of our youth do not understand natural resource issues, regulations, enforcement and this leads to uninformed assumptions that can be very damaging. Education is the key to improving this understanding and its really cool that both GLIFWC and the DNR are acutely aware of this and have committed significant resources to help improve this awareness. ILI staff will work out a sequence for one of the ILI grades this year and we’ll pilot this approach this school year.
§ The Annual ILI Evaluation Report is complete and off to the printers. We should have copies to share with you. We’ll attach it as a pdf file next week for you to see it.
§ We received word this week from Wisconsin Public Service that they will award ILI with a $3000 grant for this school year! Thanks to them for their continued support!
§ Article of the Week-here’s a very interesting article that discusses achievement gaps:
SCHOOL TEST GAP: NOT JUST ECONOMIC When the first wave of state achievement test results are released every year, educators have a stock answer for the vexing disparity in achievement between African-American and Latino students and their white and Asian counterparts: poverty. But this year, new data in the Standardized Testing and Reporting program (STAR) shows that even when poverty is not a factor, the performance of black and Latino students still lagged behind. "These are not just economic achievement gaps. They are racial achievement gaps," said Jack O'Connell, state superintendent of public instruction. "We cannot afford to excuse them. We must take notice and take action." Overall, students across California showed slight progress, improving their scores in science and reading, while holding steady in math. And, just as in years past, the results once again underscored the achievement gap, reports Jessie Mangaliman in the San Jose Mercury News. But new data in a recently released STAR report -- the cornerstone of the state's standardized testing program designed to measure the performance of public schools and individual students in math, reading and science -- only deepen the questions about why that gap exists. Statewide results show African-Americans and Latinos who are not poor perform at lower levels in math than white students who are poor.
http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_6636531
§ The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: We are continuing work on our 07-08 membership drive newsletter which we hope to have out soon!
§ We received $350 this week from Friends of ILI membership-thank you!
§ ILI In the Media: nothing to report this week.
§ Upcoming ILI sessions and events: School begins Tuesday across the Lakeland area! Welcome back everyone!
§ ILI/LUHS Transition: We will be showing the ILI dvd at freshman orientation on Tuesday September 4 of the May Transition Day. It’s a great video that was put together by UW-Madison interns.
§ ILI Volunteers: Nothing to report this week.
§ ILI Annual Fundraising: ILI currently runs on a 2-year budget cycle. We have a two-year budget in order to keep our focus on the importance of sustaining our project beyond one year at a time. We currently have raised $288,794 of our $374,055 budget.
§ FOR MORE INFORMATION!! Please check the ILI website at www.ilileadership.org.
Bob Kovar, Project
Director
Intercultural Leadership
Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
Weekly
Update Friday
August 24, 2007
Here’s what has been going on in ILI this week-
§ We hosted the 7th Community Wide meeting on Tuesday night-it was a good meeting and we sent you the minutes yesterday.
§ We met on Monday with Steve Holt, the new AVW school principal to discuss the ILI program and welcome him to his new position. There’s also a number of other folks in new positions around the area that we’d like to welcome: Jeaninne Bruguier is the new Education Director for the Lac du Flambeau Tribe and Karen Baker is the new head of student services at LUHS School. Welcome to you all and we wish you a successful year in your new positions!
§ We met again this week Wednesday with Russ Sineni of the Lake of the Torches to discuss this years Lake of the Torches “Carry the Torch Classic” golf tournament. The tournament benefits 4 area charities (Lakeland Sharing Foundation, Lakeland Food Pantry, LdF Youth Center and ILI) and has been a great source of support over the years for ILI. Sunday August 26 from 5:30-6:30 there will be a Celebrity Autograph signing at the Lake of the Torches Convention Hall so bring your kids and have them get some signatures of past champion football players Bob Long, Marv Fleming and Henry Lawrence. Then bring some friends and enjoy a day of golfing on Monday August 27 at Timber Ridge Country Club in Minocqua (registration from 6:30am-8:15am). Call Russ at Lake of the Torches for more information at 588-4014 or by email at russ@ldfcasino.com . Lots of great prizes to win and you’ll be helping a number of wonderful local programs-including ILI!
§ We heard this week from Wendy Hull from the Lakeland Kiwanis Club. They approved $500 for ILI this year and possibly the same amount for next year. They felt ILI was a really important project to have here for youth in the Lakeland area. We’re so pleased that they feel so positively about ILI! Thanks for your support!
§ We’re slowly updating the ILI website pages-its been in need of work for awhile. Thanks to Ron Steiner for his continued great management of our website-it looks great Ron!
§ ILI volunteer Audrey Williams is working on bringing Peggy McIntosh, acclaimed author teacher and speaker on the issue of white privilege as a guest speaker for the community over Martin Luther King Jr day in January. It will cost $5000 for her to come and she is willing to split her fee with Ernie who will present his perspective so we can host a really meaningful and balanced event. So far she has raised $2250 and intent to commit an additional $1500 so we might be almost there already! Ms McIntosh would be available for a special workshop for area teachers if our local schools are interested at no extra cost. We’ll be contacting our school partners to see if they are interested in this great opportunity.
§ ILI intern Jazmyn Deragon worked this week on writing up an introduction to ILI for incoming LUHS freshman students to read as they look at our table that will be set up for freshman orientation-here’s what she wrote: ILI also known as Intercultural Leadership Initiative is a great program. It is so much fun. As incoming freshman you are able to enjoy it all. During activity period on Wednesdays will meet twice a month. You can also meet on Wednesdays and Thursdays after school. You meet new people, make new friends and learn all at the same time. You get to be a leader and a role model for the younger kids. It’s a time to hangout with friends and accomplish something while you’re doing it. You learn not to judge a book by its cover. It’s so much fun. I’ve been in ILI for 8 years now and wish they had it in college. That would be awesome. In ILI you have so many choices, so many opportunities. It’s a lot of fun. You won’t regret joining. All you have to do to join is to come to one of our meetings and your in, no certain race, no background, you are more then welcome. Thank You.
§ Article of the Week: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: THE MISSING PIECE OF A WELL-ROUNDED EDUCATION Michael Pritchard is a healer, and a pioneer in the field of social-emotional learning (SEL), the often-neglected missing piece in a well-rounded education. For the past two decades, he has been touring the country, talking and listening to students, teachers, and parents. He has written two books and produced a series of award-winning videos that focus on the critical issues of character and emotional intelligence for middle and high school students. "What I try to teach kids is that we have to be more real about our emotions," explains Pritchard. "Shakespeare said, 'Always give sorrow words. Grief that does not speak whispers to the over-fraught heart and bids it to break.' I'm teaching kids that tears that do not flow will make other organs weep inside us. We get sick if we try to hold all that pain in. And then, the unaddressed grief turns to anger, and the anger to rage. And it has two directions -- out to the community, or inward toward the self, and self-destructiveness." For years, most mainstream educators have marginalized Pritchard and other SEL advocates. Now, their pleas for others who work with youths to "get real" about students' emotions are finally being heard. Late last year, the Illinois State Board of Education distributed the state's new Social and Emotional Learning Standards for K-12 students. Just as standards in language arts and math, for example, require students to achieve certain benchmarks, the SEL guidelines hold them accountable for proficiency in self-awareness, social awareness, and decision making. For Maurice Elias, author of "Raising Emotionally Intelligent Teenagers and Emotionally Intelligent Parenting", this is one school reform effort that just might work. "When you look at the literature on education reform, it's replete with failure," says Elias. "We've been treating students as if they're not people -- as if they're somehow sponges, and not human beings that come in with their emotions in full play." I don't know of anybody that can learn in the absence of a positive re lationship," he adds. "We learn from the people we care about. And yet we somehow pretend that in school, it doesn't matter. So, those who are actually concerned about academics should be concerned about social and emotional learning as well." Numerous studies link emotional well-being to academic success, and stress to failure, writes Ken Ellis in Edutopia. For Pritchard, teaching SEL is a no-brainer. "I say to the principals, 'No matter what we teach kids, love is more important than any knowledge we give them.' Because they can't become the gift that they're supposed to become if they're disconnected from their heart." http://www.edutopia.org/michael-pritchard-cultivating-emotional-intelligence
§ We received $225 this week from Friends of ILI membership-thank you!
§ The Lac du Flambeau budget did not pass this week-we will have to wait at least a few weeks when it is voted on again before we see if our request gets funded this year.
§ The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: We are continuing work on our 07-08 membership drive newsletter which we hope to have out by early September!
§ ILI In the Media: nothing to report this week.
§ Upcoming ILI sessions and events: Nothing next week
§ ILI/LUHS Transition:
Freshman Orientation Day Transition events have been cancelled by LUHS for the beginning of school this year. It just fell through the cracks as there was a personnel change in the transition leadership position at LUHS over the summer. We were disappointed to hear this but will work to make sure that we can continue this wonderful activity next school year. We’re still planning on the spring 8th grade Transition Day in May 2008.
§ ILI Volunteers: Nothing to report this week.
§ ILI Annual Fundraising: ILI currently runs on a 2-year budget cycle. We have a two-year budget in order to keep our focus on the importance of sustaining our project beyond one year at a time. We currently have raised $288,444 of our $374,055 budget.
Bob Kovar, Project
Director
Intercultural Leadership
Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
Weekly
Update
Friday August 17, 2007
Friday August 17, 2007
Here’s what has been going on in ILI this week-
§ We are ready for the next community meeting to be held at AVW school in Arbor Vitae on Tuesday August 21 5:30pm-8:30pm. We are putting out a press release to many newspapers, radio and TV as suggested at our last meeting to try and increase attendance. Please come and bring a friend-if we are truly going to change things in our community, we need your voice to be a part of the solution-making process!
§ An issue came before us yesterday morning regarding the LUHS freshman volleyball team. Apparently none of the incoming LdF freshman girls going out for volleyball-who won the conference title as 8th graders last year-were chosen for the freshman team. A number of concerned parents contacted us with justifiable concern about how this could have happened. One of the “positive solutions” we have discussed at a number of our community meetings has been to change the policy to “no freshman cuts” in sports. Needless to say this is a real issue-we contacted school officials, as we’re sure a number of others did to express our concern about this and to see how it could be undone. Creating a culture of success in our school is our number one goal and to do this we must take control of the things we can control-this is one of those things. The good news is that once the LUHS administration heard about this, they took immediate action to change their policy to “no cuts”. Apparently this will be brought before the school board asap and in the meantime the girls will be invited to be on the team. While it’s unfortunate that this happened in the first place-at least the right thing will be done now. We all need to help these girls feel strong and good about this because they no doubt feel badly about this-none of this lies on their shoulders, it’s the adults that messed this up. So when you see them, tell them you are proud of them.
§ We heard this week from Teresa Scollon, head of the Wisconsin DNR Diversity Team that visited us here at LUHS last fall. They are searching for ways to bridge cultural divides and create an awareness of cultural differences with regards to natural resources in Wisconsin. Ernie and Bob consulted a bit with Teresa as she moved ahead with a wonderful initiative to bring the Hmong community together with a number of conservation group leaders for a meeting this summer. It sounds like it was a great success and the beginning of more good things to come!
§ On Wednesday, Bob and Ernie were invited to go for a bike ride with Governor Doyle while he was up here on his “Up North” tour. We had a chance to talk to him as well as new DNR Secretary Matt Frank about ILI and our efforts here in the area. It was good fun!
§ We met on Thursday with Russ Sineni of the Lake of the Torches to discuss this years Lake of the Torches “Carry the Torch Classic” golf tournament. The tournament benefits 4 area charities (Lakeland Sharing Foundation, Lakeland Food Pantry, LdF Youth Center and ILI) and has been a great source of support over the years for ILI. Sunday August 26 from 5:30-6:30 there will be a Celebrity Autograph signing at the Lake of the Torches Convention Hall so bring your kids and have them get some signatures of past champion football players Bob Long, Marv Fleming and Henry Lawrence. Then bring some friends and enjoy a day of golfing at Timber Ridge Country Club in Minocqua (registration from 6:30am-8:15am). Call Russ at Lake of the Torches for more information at 588-4014 or by email at russ@ldfcasino.com . Lots of great prizes to win and you’ll be helping a number of wonderful local programs-including ILI! Hope to see you there!
§ We met Thursday afternoon with Ronda Kopelke from the Community Outreach director for the Northwoods Coalition of the Marshfield Clinic to discuss possible synergies between ILI and her group. We discussed some grant writing opportunities that sounded really exciting. We’ll be working on these opportunities as the year progresses.
§ We were contacted this week by Jolene Aleck from the Chicago Public School Office of Language and Cultural Education who is working with Tribal students in Chicago and seeking ways to connect them to the rural experiences of Tribes in the Great Lakes region. She is looking for some creative ways to link youth and we realized while talking that we were very like minded in our approaches and advocacy efforts. We have invited her to come up sometime this fall and experience ILI firsthand to see what we’re all about. We’re really looking forward to where this might go!
§ ILI intern Jazmyn Deragon has been keeping a log of her experiences so far and we’ll catch you up here and then each week you’ll hear from her. She’s simply fantastic! Here’s her account of the UW-LaCrosse Camp she helped facilitate: “I first heard about the camp from Alice and Craig a while ago. They told me about it and what we would be doing so I decided to go. The first day went a little easier when I found out two of my friends from camp heartland came to camp lacrosse. It was pretty cool. The best thing about this camp was, I was one of the boss’s. HA HA! I liked the fact that the other kids came up to me when they had question or they wanted to know something. I was happy to let them know. I loved the diversity. And was amazed at how everybody got along so well. I had so much fun. It was interesting too, when you would hear the Mong’s talk their language. It was different and sounded difficult to learn! Everybody was so outgoing and funny it made the camp go by easier. My family was great too. We rocked the school forest. I had a lot of fun when we went up to Presque Isle. The beach at the park was sweet. I swam up river and down and up and down and up then I walked back my third time. LOL! I couldn’t swim no more. I also jumped off the cliffs, something else I thought I would never, do but I did. It helped seeing others do it and hearing them encourage me. Then I closed my eyes and I jumped. It was a lot of fun. I’m so happy I went, I had fun camping, and riding to and from wherever we were going. Camp Lacrosse was worth it, I plan to go again next year!”
§ We received $10,200 this week from the Ministry Health Care Foundation! We’re really excited to have been awarded this grant and are especially thankful to Christine Caz and John Lund at Howard Young Health Care Foundation for their advocacy and help in getting this-thanks so much!!
§ We received $125 this week from Friends of ILI membership-thank you!
§ We completed our 6month report due this week to the Wisconsin Community Fund.
§ The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: We are continuing work on our 07-08 membership drive newsletter which we hope to have out by the end of August or early September!
§ ILI In the Media: nothing to report this week.
§ Upcoming ILI sessions and events: Nothing next week
§ ILI/LUHS Transition: Nothing new to report this week.
§ ILI Volunteers: Nothing to report this week.
§ ILI Annual Fundraising: ILI currently runs on a 2-year budget cycle. We have a two-year budget in order to keep our focus on the importance of sustaining our project beyond one year at a time. We currently have raised $288,444 of our $374,055 budget.
§ FOR MORE INFORMATION!! Please check the ILI website at www.ilileadership.org.
Bob Kovar, Project
Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
UW-La
Crosse Camp
July 29 – August 2, 2007
July 29 – August 2, 2007
ILI Staff: Ernie St. Germaine, Lori St. Germaine, Stephany St. Geramine, Alice McFarlane, Matt White, Craig Kerr, Bob Kovar
ILI Student Intern: Jazmyn Deragon
On Sunday evening the bus pulled into the parking lot of the multi-purpose building in Lac du Flambeau. When the bus door opened a diverse group of students made their way out onto the black top. We all made a circle and Ned (UW-La Crosse faculty) talked with the students and turned it over to Ernie who welcomed the students.
We went into the multi-purpose building and had a wonderful spaghetti feast prepared by the St. Germaines. Everyone ate their fill and we headed out to the parking lot for some activities. Matt, Alice, Craig, and Jazmyn took turns leading activities for the students so that they could get to know one another and begin their camp on a good note. Once the activities were over and after the laughter and smiles were winding down the students loaded the bus and headed to the Powwow Grounds for the night.
Monday morning we had a light breakfast after the students had packed up all of their stuff and headed up to Lake Superior. When we arrived we were ready to eat and Dan Reuland provided a wonder lunch. After everyone was done eating the students received a puzzle piece. The 4 puzzles were baby pictures of Alice, Craig, Matt, and Stephany. The students had to not only put the picture together, they also had to figure out which facilitator’s picture they had. This was a great activity. The students did a great job! The facilitators had their groups learn each other’s names and moved into the next activity. The students wrote 3 things about themselves on a piece of paper, folded it up, and put inside a balloon and blew it up. Then we all threw up our balloons up in the air and tried to keep them up in the air for 5 seconds. It seems easy but when the wind is blowing it is pretty difficult. Then, we popped the balloons, picked up the pieces and the piece of paper. We got into a circle and read out pieces of paper and tried to guess who the person was by what was written on the paper. The students were good with some and completely off on others. They really enjoyed this activity.
When each group was done they headed down to the lake.
The students had free time on the lake and they truly enjoyed the beautiful day we were given. Some of the students jumped of rocks into the water, others tried to catch crayfish, others walked up to see the falls, and others just played in the water of Lake Superior. We water was so warm that many of the students stayed in the water for over an hour. The lake was also way down from last year. The students fully enjoyed their time at the lake.
When we were all done swimming and exploring we headed to the Union Bay group campsite. South Boundary Trail was closed for construction so it took us a bit longer than it usually did, but it didn’t affect the attitudes of the students. When we arrived they set up their tents and headed right for the water to continue their water filled day. Matt and Alice prepared a wonderful meal over the campfire for dinner. Everyone came in for dinner and we began with an “attitude of gratitude”, and had a wonderful meal. We loaded up the bus after everyone was finished up and headed to lake of the clouds. We arrived and the sun was just beneath the trees. The students explored the path of the escarpment trail, were enjoying the scenery, and taking a lot of pictures. The sun went down and the wind started to calm. The students enjoyed each other’s company as we waited for the moonrise. When the moon came up it was a wonderful sight! The students were transfixed as they watched it rise. We headed back to the bus and headed back to the camp for some fun around the campfire.
Tuesday morning was a relaxed morning. Students woke and headed to the lake for some morning swimming and breakfast was set out for everyone to enjoy. After everyone had breakfast we took all the tents down and loaded our stuff into the bus and headed out to Lake Gogebic. The day was really hot and the students headed to the water when they arrived at the community picnic area and they also played on the volleyball court, merry-go-round, soccer, basketball, and soccer. We had a wonderful time playing and enjoying our surroundings and each other.
We gathered for lunch and got into a circle and Craig talked about the importance of the circle and the importance of everyone in the circle. We began our attitude of gratitude and Ernie ended with a talk about the importance of this particular area to the Ojibwe people.
After lunch the games continued for another hour and we had to head back to Lac du Flambeau to set up camp and hit the showers!
In the evening Robin Careful and Ernie presented a wonderful program on the “American Indian” from their perspective. The presentation was powerful. It incorporated much of Robin’s personal history and stories as well as traditional dancing and drumming. The student’s enjoyed joining in dancing, laughing, and having the time of their life! The activities continued well into the night and the students did not want it to end; they were having so much fun!!!
Wednesday morning we ate breakfast at Dan Reuland’s place. It was a wonderful breakfast. He had provided most of the meals for the camp. After breakfast it was off to the school forest. We gathered and began with diminishing islands. The group took a few tries to get it, but they achieved it and were very excited to do so. Ernie then debriefed the activity. Craig added some difficulty and had them try it again. They were not able to do it, and Craig transitioned them into their small groups.
The small groups did a name activity so that everyone was sure to know each other’s name. Then, the groups did several different activities. The groups worked on the “Human Knot”, “Bog Balance”, “Grape Vine”, and “14 Foot Wall”. The groups connected in a real way during these activities and you could see that as the groups returned.
Ernie had 4 representatives from each group race on the “trolleys”. This was a great activity as everyone cheered for their teams and enjoyed the whole experience.
We circled up and began to talk about what each person had gotten out of the camp so far. The students were sharing deeply about how they had been impacted by different parts of the camp. We had to push the pause button because we needed to be to lunch at a certain time. But we will continue talking about what was important to us so far at a later time.
We headed to Cathedral Pines on Trout Lake for lunch. Lori brought up pizzas and everyone had plenty of food and headed to the lake to play. It was a wonderful day to be at the lake.
We loaded up the bus and headed back to Lac du Flambeau to clean up for the evening’s festivities. Dinner was at the multi-purpose building. Before dinner, we fished sharing what we been impacted by so far during the camp. The students and staff continued to share deeply about how they had been changed or how they had been reminded of something important. Then Ernie talked about how he had put out a request for someone to ask the blessing at tonight’s dinner and asked for a volunteer. One of the college mentors got up and asked a blessing in Hmong. It was a wonderful blessing and we all appreciated what he said. Dinner was followed by theatrical presentations that everyone had worked on during the week. Some had practiced a while and others put it together at the last minute, but everyone performed and it was incredible! Laughter filled the building. When all the performances were done we cleaned up and headed back to camp.
Thursday morning we had breakfast at the Casino and went out and sat on the lawn for our closing circle. When we went out there were several eagles fishing. Everyone enjoyed sitting and watching as the eagle swooped down to try to catch their fish. One immature eagle was mimicking and older eagle. What an incredible sight and metaphor.
Craig began by talking about the importance of taking what they had shared in the circle about what they had learned and put it in a safe place to lean on it when the time came. Matt thanked everyone and let them know that he really liked them. Alice thanked everyone for letting us be apart of their camp. Ernie talked about taking what they had learned and teaching it to someone like the eagles were teaching their younger ones. He also talked and thanked them for the gift they had brought to the community and that he would talk about this group for a long time. Ned ended the time in a circle with gifts for the ILI staff and talked about the opportunity to right any wrongs or misunderstandings. We ended with a group handshake, hug, t-shirt signing, and a group picture.
Bob Kovar, Project
Director
Intercultural Leadership
Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2006-2007
Weekly
Update
Friday
August 3, 2007
Here’s what has been going on in ILI this week-our last report for 2 weeks as next week we’ll be on vacation!!
§ We’d like to start this update off with a wonderful email we received from Cathy Kurtyka: “HI, my name is Cathy Kurtyka. I work with Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Northwoods, Inc. running a mentoring program at the LdF grade school. I just wanted to let you know the effectiveness of your ILI program. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has a program called the PEOPLE program that was instituted at LUHS the winter of 2006. To summarize, successful completion of the program (it's for the Native American students) makes them eligible for admittance to UW-Madison with a full 5-year academic scholarship. I've been working with the middle school LdF students preparing them to qualify for the program when they enter high school. This summer UW-Madison offered full scholarships to the University's 8th grade Engineering Camp to seven LdF students. There were three week long sessions and we transported the kids down and back, 2-3 to a session. The LdF students were amazing. They fit right into the camps (which drew of course from white, middle class, ambitious college-educated families) and the LdF students credited their ILI experiences with enabling them to know how to make friends, have self-confidence in themselves and adapt to a new environment comfortably. All of the LdF students have been invited back to the UW 8th grade Engineering Academy next year (and are eager to return) and I was told by one of the deans of the UW College of Engineering, "Send us more kids just like them!" Well, I thought, the kids I took down are very typical of a lot of the LdF kids and all the time and effort that's been put into working with them and helping them (in particular the work that you've done with ILI) is really starting to show up. Thank you for your persistance and dedication!” We’re very proud of these students! Thanks Cathy for keeping us in the loop on their success in Madison!
§ We’ve nearly finished the year-end Eval Report: some really wonderful news to share-of the 60 seniors in our various ILI programs at LUHS, 58 of them graduated! We feel this is a significant measure of ILI. Look for the Annual Eval Report to be done soon!
§ We had a wonderful week with the UW LaCrosse/ILI Summer Camp-perfect weather, wonderful students and staff! ILI Intern Jazmyn Deragon played a huge role in helping facilitate the week and did an amazing job-we’re proud of you Jazzy! We’ll send you a summary of the week in detail in a day or so when we catch our breath J We received $1500 from the Association of American Indian Affairs to help underwrite the camp-thank you to them for their continued support!
§ Bob met with longtime ILI volunteer Audrey Williams on Monday to discuss her idea of bringing Peggy McIntosh, a highly respected and well-known author and speaker on the subject of white privilege, to the Lakeland area over the Martin Luther King holiday in January. We talked about finding an American Indian speaker to provide a balanced program and that this would fit really nicely with our Community Meeting series. We’ll keep you posted!
§ On Wednesday morning ILI staff attended the early Rotary Breakfast Club meeting to support ILI students who are going to be exchange students. Kayla Norris, Chelsea Nehm and Sammy Anderson are all going to be leaving in a week or so to host countries around the world. We’re incredibly proud of these students, following in the footsteps of former ILI student Anne Johnson who inspired them when she came back to share her experiences in Croatia. Good luck everyone!
§ Some preschools are using a special program to teach their students, before prejudices take hold, to respect cultural, racial and religious diversity, reports Carla Rivera in the Los Angeles Times. Sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League's Miller Early Childhood Initiative, "A World of Difference Institute", is one of the few anti-bias programs specifically for preschoolers, drawing on research showing that children begin to perceive differences and attach negative or positive values to them as early as age 3. Now operating in 14 cities, the program trains teachers in strategies to confront prejudice and uses specially designed materials developed with the characters from "Sesame Street." The goal is to teach tolerance, respect and inclusion in a way that is geared to young minds. "We really wanted to focus on building the right foundations," said Lindsay Friedman of A World of Difference Institute. "We know that biases and stereotyping are seeping in even at this age, but this is meant to be a preventive approach, not as much countering negative messages as building positive ones." One of the strongest aspects of the program is the outreach to parents, who also are encouraged to attend workshops and use the curriculum at home. Studies have shown that children learn social cues at an early age from their environment, the media, and especially from the behavior and words of caregivers and family members. About 85 percent of the brain develops during ages three to five, and impressions formed after age two are lasting, said Linda A. Santora of the Anti-Defamation League. One study found that 50 percent of children formed racial biases by age six, she said. http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-bias16jul16,1,5597092.story?coll=la-news-learning
§ The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: We are beginning to work on our 07-08 membership drive newsletter which we hope to have out by the end of August or early September!
§ ILI In the Media: nothing to report this week.
§ Upcoming ILI sessions and events: Nothing next week
§ ILI/LUHS Transition: Nothing new to report this week.
§ ILI Volunteers: Nothing to report this week.
§ ILI Annual Fundraising: ILI currently runs on a 2-year budget cycle. We have a two-year budget in order to keep our focus on the importance of sustaining our project beyond one year at a time. We currently have raised $276,519 of our $374,055 budget.
Bob Kovar, Project
Director
Intercultural Leadership
Initiative
Top of PageHere’s what has been going on in ILI this week-
§ ILI staff is all back together this week (mostly anyways as Bob continues to travel around) for the first time in awhile. Matt is back from running the boys camp in Michigan and Craig is back from his honeymoon-YES for those of you who didn’t know Craig and Kate Allred got married about a month ago and spent some time down in sunny beautiful Mexico. We’re so happy for these two wonderful folks, congrats you two, love really is a beautiful thing J
§ We are finishing planning for the upcoming UW LaCrosse ILI Summer Camp. Ernie Lori and Stef were down in LaCrosse last Friday to meet with UW LaCrosse staff for a pre-camp briefing and get together. The final count is 61 people so its going to be a busy week starting Sunday afternoon when they arrive. We have a great week planned-Alice has planned for great weather to match!
§ This past week, 10 students from Lac du Flambeau (all part of ILI-including ILI intern Jazmyn Deragon) joined with other American Indian students at Camp Heartland in Minnesota to meet and learn from students who have HIV/AIDS. Camp Heartland is a national non-profit organization with a mission statement to improve the lives of children who experience HIV/AIDS, poverty, grief, and other life challenges. During their 4 days at camp, students heard the life stories of students with HIV/AIDS and learned how to educate others. They also had time to enjoy the activities offered at Camp Heartland: archery, climbing wall, basketball, baseball, tennis, swimming, hockey, "Waterworld" water fights, boating, arts & crafts, drama, dance, newspaper, eco-adventure. These 10 students from Lac du Flambeau, and 20 other students from tribes in WI, were able to attend Camp Heartland for free, thanks to a grant given to the HIV/AIDS Education Program at Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council. Christine Friedrich is the Program Director for the HIV/AIDS Education program and spent this past week at camp with the students. Several of the students attending camp hope to return with what they have learned to provide a day seminar for the community.
§ Bob was in Bad River this morning giving an annual presentation and funding request to the Wisconsin Indian Education Association Board of Directors meeting. Lots of great support from this Board and they tabled a final decision on how much they are going to fund us with this year until their September meeting in Lac du Flambeau.
§ REACHING OUT TO DIVERSE FAMILIES Family involvement in schools is often limited to a small group of parents who seem to do everything. Culturally diverse families may not feel they fit in at the school or have a different perspective on what it means to be involved, so they are often left out of school activities. How can schools move beyond a limited level of family involvement and encourage all families to become more active in their children's schools and education? A strategy brief from the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) helps answer this question. It discusses strategies helpful to schools that want to broaden and deepen involvement beyond the traditional fundraising or party-planning activities. In "Reaching Out to Diverse Populations: What Can Schools Do to Foster Family-School Connections", author Chris Ferguson says that research has indicated that parents, regardless of their ethnicity, culture, or economic status are interested in their children's education. "They just may not know how to help their children with school matters," she says, "or they may feel like they don't have the knowledge or expertise to help their children with school work." According to Ferguson, schools can help parents become more comfortable playing a strong role in their children's education. Schools that are successful involving families are able to build on the cultural values of families and foster communication with families. Successful schools also have created an inviting environment for families and often facilitate involvement by providing transportation, translators, and other similar services. They can also help parents learn strategies to support their children's academic needs. "All schools can increase their parent and family involvement," says Ferguson. "It just takes time and innovative strategies to develop a strong, two-way relationship." http://www.sedl.org/connections/research-briefs.html
§ Still putting the final edits on the 06-07 Annual Evaluation Report.
§ Bob was at the Wisconsin State Prevention Conference this week in Stevens Point-one of the keynote speakers, Dennis Embry, advocated strongly for prevention programs that work to reach childrens hearts through nurturing, play, inclusion, mentoring, community service etc-virtually all of the philosophical approaches that we take in ILI. He noted that his research showed these to be as or more effective than many “model programs” that are typically many times more expensive and less holistic in their approach. It was very validating!
§ The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: We are beginning to work on our 07-08 membership drive newsletter which we hope to have out by the end of August or early September-we received $100 this week from our first 07-08 member!
§ ILI In the Media: nothing to report this week.
§ Upcoming ILI sessions and events:
o UW LaCrosse/ILI Summer camp July 29-August 3rd.
§ ILI/LUHS Transition: Nothing new to report this week.
§ ILI Volunteers: Nothing to report this week.
§ ILI Annual Fundraising: ILI currently runs on a 2-year budget cycle. We have a two-year budget in order to keep our focus on the importance of sustaining our project beyond one year at a time. We currently have raised $276,519 of our $374,055 budget.
§ FOR MORE INFORMATION!! Please check the ILI website at www.ilileadership.org.
Here’s what has been going on in ILI this week- § We hired our first ILI high school summer intern this week-LUHS senior Jazmyn Deragon from Lac du Flambeau. She has been in ILI since 4th grade and is one of the leaders of the high school ILI program. She’ll be working about 10 hours a week on various projects. We're really excited for Jazmyn to be here and already her enthusiasm is spreading to others: Jazmyn brought her cousin Brie here for part of the morning one day this week. They were looking at a Disney grant (community service project) to see if there was something they wanted to do in their community. They looked at last years grantees to get their ideas flowing. They decided that they wanted to do an HIV/AIDS day seminar. They want to have some fun games, maybe a theme to go with the Fall, someone to come in and talk. I told them they could connect with Christine (GLITC HIV/AIDS coordinator) to get more info, but she wasn’t going to be back in the building until later, so we were going to connect on Friday. As the girls were about to leave, Christine walked in, and they got to meet. And it turns out that there is a camp next week for a few days, for teens to go and learn from other students who have HIV/AIDS, and to learn peer mentoring and how to teach about AIDS. So it was a really neat morning to see how everything came together. Jazmyn made the comment that if it was any other summer morning she and Brie could have still been sleeping! But because they were here, got the idea for the service project, and Christine came back to the building, they got to connect. The camp is free for them, and there were still a few more spots, so they were going to recruit their friends Leeah and Regina to go as well. Pretty cool-welcome Jazmyn we know great things will happen with you around J
§ We prepared a funding request this week for the Wisconsin Indian Education Association board meeting that will be in Bad River a week from today.
§ Still putting the final edits on the 06-07Annual Evaluation Report.
§ We worked on the UW LaCrosse/ILI Summer Camp this week: coordinating activities, planning logistics, doing contracts for staff etc. Camp runs from 7/29 thru August 3 and we’re expecting around 65 people! Should be a great time for everyone!
§ THE CRITICAL YEARS: SOCIAL & EMOTIONAL LEARNING The New York Times has wrapped up its series on the nation's middle school "crisis" -- titled "The Critical Years" -- with a profile of Briarcliff Middle School in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. The grades 6-8 school, according to Winnie Hu, "has emerged as a nationally recognized model of a middle school that gets things right, a place that goes beyond textbooks to focus on social and emotional development." The school relies heavily on the "Habits of Mind" program, developed by Arthur L. Costa, to "develop critical thinking, teach organizational skills, and instill social and moral values." As the story notes, the school also is very middle class, very white, and enjoys tax support of $24,738 per student, about 150 percent of the N.Y. state average. The story highlights several other widely used programs that help middle schools integrate social and emotional learning into their programs. http://www.middleweb.com/mw/news/NYTmsmanages.doc
§ THE NEUROSCIENCE OF JOYFUL EDUCATION Most children can't wait to start kindergarten and they approach the beginning of school with awe and anticipation. Kindergartners and first graders often talk passionately about what they learn and do in school. Unfortunately, the current emphasis on standardized testing and rote learning encroaches upon many students' joy. In their zeal to raise test scores, too many policymakers wrongly assume that students who are laughing, interacting in groups, or being creative with art, music, or dance are not doing real academic work. The result is that some teachers feel pressure to preside over more sedate classrooms with students on the same page in the same book, sitting in straight rows, facing straight ahead. The truth is that when we scrub joy and comfort from the classroom, we distance our students from effective information processing and long-term memory storage. Instead of taking pleasure from learning, students become bored, anxious, and anything but engaged. They ultimately learn to feel bad about school and lose the joy they once felt. Current brain-based research suggests that superior learning takes place when classroom experiences are enjoyable and relevant to students' lives, interests, and experiences. Many education theorists, writes Judy Willis in Educational Leadership magazine, have proposed that students retain what they learn when the learning is associated with strong positive emotion. Classrooms can be the safe haven where academic practices and classroom strategies provide students with emotional comfort and pleasure as well as knowledge. When teachers use strategies to reduce stress and build a positive emotional environment, students gain emotional resilience and learn more efficiently. http://www.publiceducation.org/20070706_ASCDjoyfuleducation.asp
§ The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: We are beginning to work on our 07-08 membership drive newsletter which we hope to have out by the end of August or early September-we received $100 this week from our first 07-08 member!
§ ILI In the Media: nothing to report this week.
§ Upcoming ILI sessions and events: UW LaCrosse/ILI Summer camp July 29-August 3rd.
§ ILI/LUHS Transition: Nothing new to report this week.
§ ILI Volunteers: Nothing to report this week.
§ ILI Annual Fundraising: ILI currently runs on a 2-year budget cycle. We have a two-year budget in order to keep our focus on the importance of sustaining our project beyond one year at a time. We currently have raised $276,519 of our $374,055 budget.
§ FOR MORE INFORMATION!! Please check the ILI website at www.ilileadership.org.
2006-2007
Weekly Update
Friday July 13, 2007
Weekly Update
Friday July 13, 2007
Here’s what has been going on in ILI this week-
§ We held our 6th Community Wide Prevention Plan meeting at Lakeland Union High School on Tuesday July 10 at 5pm. Great discussions and we’re moving in a really good direction! (please see the notes sent out on Wednesday).
§ We’re still working on the Annual Evaluation Report that we hope to have done and printed within the next few weeks. This week we are pulling together quotes from parents, students and teachers, photos and finishing the graph work. A lot of information to synthesize but it will be well worth the effort.
§ We continue to work on the DVD of the Transition Day in May. Copies are being burned in Minneapolis so we should have them in a week or so to show you!
§ We have agreed to the terms of our agreement with the UW LaCrosse for the 2nd Annual ILI Summer Camp that will take place the end of July. The budget for this 4 day session is $15000. We’ll be serving about 65 students and staff once again-we’re really excited about this session, last year it was a huge success. Ernie and ILI staff are putting the final touches on the details.
§ We’ve been notified that ILI is a recipient of a $10,200 award from the Ministry health care Fund grant process! They received requests totaling nearly $400,000 and granted out $177,000. we’re really honored to receive this award and are especially thankful to the folks at Howard Young Health Care Foundation who wrote us a letter of support and helped advocate for us along the way-Thanks so much!
§ We were denied our request for funding that we made to the Forest County Potawatomi Community Foundation-we’re just too outside their geographic scope for support. They love our project so maybe we can find a way to work with them in the future.
§ On Wednesday we presented a funding request for 07-08 ILI to the Lac du Flambeau WITCAPP prevention coalition.
§ Thursday morning we gave a presentation at the Kiwanis breakfast meeting in Minocqua and included our 07-08 funding request to that group. They have supported us in the past and it sounds like they will be trying to help out again! Thanks to them for inviting us to their meeting and asking great questions!
§ We’ve completed the 07-08 Budget-this year we are looking at a $200,795 budget. This is our largest ILI budget yet due mainly to the high indirect cost rate we are paying at GLITC. We have been trying to work with them to see if there is a way we can reduce this cost but so far nothing is on the table. The IDC cost to us this year is over $36,000 plus we have to pay for space, telephone, copies, etc-pushing our costs over $40,000 to be housed at GLITC. We met with GLITC administration in early June and asked them to get back to us by the end of June with any suggestions they might have-so far we have not heard back. We’ll keep you posted.
§ The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: We are beginning to work on our 07-08 membership drive newsletter which we hope to have out by the end of August or early September-we received $100 this week from our first 07-08 member!
§ ILI In the Media: nothing to report this week.
§ Upcoming ILI sessions and events: No sessions next week
§ ILI/LUHS Transition: Nothing new to report this week.
§ ILI Volunteers: Nothing to report this week.
§ ILI Annual Fundraising: ILI currently runs on a 2-year budget cycle. We have a two-year budget in order to keep our focus on the importance of sustaining our project beyond one year at a time. We currently have raised $276,519 of our $374,055 budget.
§ FOR MORE INFORMATION!! Please check the ILI website at www.ilileadership.org.
Bob Kovar, Project
Director
Intercultural Leadership
Initiative