GUESS WHAT?!

I am so excited! I have some great news! I am so grateful...oh, so would you like to know what my good news is?! Well, I will tell you. Today I finally heard back, after weeks of waiting, and 2 interviews later, and I have been offered the job that I really wanted for the summer. I am in an interesting situation with school. I finish classes on April 30th, and then I have to do 5 weeks of student teaching this summer...well, that means that I have to student teach while kids are still in school, so I am most likely going to start student teaching the week after classes wrap up, while simultaneously finishing up things with my assistantship. I will student teach through June 12, most likely. Then I have to student teach again in the Fall, and will finish up around Thanksgiving time. So what did that mean? It meant that I was going to have a very small window of time, from mid-June through August, unemployed and without school commitments. I was going to need someone to hire me for 8-10 weeks, and that seemed unlikely. I could always nanny, I had thought. Well, to make this long story shorter, I found a job listing on BU's website for a summer camp program. It is called YouthCare, and is run and funded by Massachusetts General Hospital. It is a program designed for children and adolescents with high-functioning Autism and Aspergers Syndrome. I interviewed with the lady in charge of the kids' program as well as the lady in charge of the teen program. So in the end, I got a job as Program Facilitator for the Summer Explorations Teen Program. I will be working directly with several staff and mentors, and a total of 12-15 teenagers. I am really excited to have a rewarding, challenging, and beneficial (for my future) job. In several of my education classes, we have discussed Autism extensively, it is more and more often diagnosed these days, and so I know that what I learn about these kids with Autism will help me in the future with a variety of children. I am excited to learn more about the disorders, the therapies that are used, and I know I will learn a lot from these kids, too. I am also excited to have fun. The kids do morning exercises, outings, field trips, therapy sessions, social skill activities, games, service projects, ropes courses, cooking, etc. It should be fun and challenging. So hooray! I am excited for the opportunity, and I am just so grateful to have the job, with the economy as is. I am so blessed, always. I will probably be free after mid-August until schools start after Labor Day in September...so visitors will be most welcome, or your proposals as to what I should do, who I should be with, and where I should spend that time are welcome, too?! The best, most persuasive proposals just might convince me where to go! :)