After last week's event, I was sad to be heading into my last week at the Alliance Française. My priority was to prepare a brochure for an event at Pershing Elementary for their Black History Month Expo! In addition to the brochure, I wanted to get Laïka in a good place with the curriculum, and with all the ideas I’ve been working on, I was feeling a little stressed about getting everything done. Luckily, Cornell has helped enhance my skills in perseverance and getting things done promptly.
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| The Alliance Française wanted to spread the word about Josephine Baker and her story at the Black History Month Expo. I wanted to make a visual element that would appeal to kids and teach them fun facts about her. |
In addition to teaching kids about Josephine Baker, we also wanted to teach the parents who attended the event. On the other side of the brochure, I designed an invitation to the Alliance’s celebration of Josephine Baker Day on May 20th. |
On Wednesday, Laura Davenport invited Laika, Aliru Wahabi, and me to the Black History Month Expo at Pershing Elementary School. The event was like a large festival, with activities, speakers, and presentations in classrooms all over the school. At the beginning of the event, the kids gave a concert and sang “We Are The World” along with other songs written by Black musicians.
We were stationed at the jewelry-making and textiles station where we got to help the kids with the activities and hand out our brochures. Aliru Wahabi is another instructor from the Côte d’Ivoire at the Alliance and while I didn’t get to work with him during the internship, he helped me build my confidence and gave me advice on how to approach people.
The event was one of the highlights of my internship and I felt very connected with the community at the end of it. Getting the chance to speak with the parents, teachers, and children that would be participating in the program was very exciting. This experience taught me that community outreach and volunteering is a pivotal part of what I’m looking for in a career, or what I’m looking to continue pursuing into my adult life.
Even though I extended my trip by a couple of days, by the end of the week it was time for me to head back to campus. I ended the trip with a meeting with Laïka and Dave and I gave them a completed lesson, a full curriculum template, and one more time to snuggle my cats. Safe to say, I’ll be keeping in touch!
When I arrived back on campus, I began coordinating with my professor Dr. Rebecca Wines on when I could present my work to staff and students at Cornell College. We arranged a date and I gave a poster presentation in French to the faculty and we had an open discussion about my overall experience.
Acknowledgements
I wanted to thank the Cornell College Berry Career Institute for granting me funding to complete this opportunity. Without their contributions, I would not have been able to complete the project I am passionate about that fulfills my requirements to earn my French Major. I would also like to thank Laïka Thomas, Isabelle Heidbreder, Dave Mount, and everyone at the Alliance Française for teaching and guiding me through this project and teaching me about what it means to be a strong mentor. Finally, I’d like to thank my professor Rebecca Wines for mentoring me and coordinating this project and helping advise me throughout my time at Cornell College.
