LauraLee

Today I went with my mentee from WYSE (Women and Youth Supporting Each Other) and some other mentors to Chinatown. The girls were a little skeptical about Chinese food and most of them had never been to Chinatown.  It was really cool driving them down Broadway Street under the dragon arches and showing them Chinatown with all the Chinese characters on the buildings, the people, and the new sights and smells. Then we went to my favorite restaurant in Chinatown- Yang Chow.  If you've never been there, then the next time you're in LA you HAVE to go there, its amazing (make sure to get the slippery shrimp). We taught the girls how to use chopsticks, which was quite entertaining, and then we got them to dry all new kinds of food. We were laughing and having a wonderful time. We all made sure to save room for churros though from Olvera Street.

Then we drove to Olvera Street, though technically you could walk cause they're so close. Olvera Street is considered the "Birthplace of LA," and has been around since the late 1700's. It is this historic street distric with Mexican shops, restaurants, and souvenirs. The food is absolutely amazing and on weekends there is live music in the plaza. Its amazing that two completely different cultures/ subdomains of Los Angeles exist so close to one another. So we walked around Olvera Street for awhile, taking in all the sites and playing with the toys and souvenirs, and then got churros from Mr. Churros shop. These are probably the best churros you will ever have in your life. This street is always so much fun and its bustling with people. The girls had a great time and I know that we all did too :-) 

On Wednesday I went with my organization called WYSE (Women and Youth Supporting Each other) to a gang rehabilitation center called Homeboys in East LA.  The work that they're doing at this site is truly amazing. Their mission is to help former gang members get on their feet and become contributing members to our society. They offer services like counseling, education, tattoo removal, and job training and placement. We were able to get a tour of their facility and listen to some speakers that have been effected by the work at Homeboys.

It was really benificial for our mentees to see Homeboys, and to learn that there is hope for their friends who are in gangs and are worried about how to get out.  Homeboys is completely self sustaining and they do this in part by an onsite bakery and cafe that is open to the public. The food looks great and I've decided that whenever someone comes to visit me I want to take them here so we can get awesome food while giving back to the community.  Its so great to know that organizations like this exist and are helping these individuals to have hope for their future.

I'm so grateful for WYSE and the eye opening experience that this has been. I feel like I have learned more from these excursions and from the wonderful 8th grade girls that we deal with than I could ever learn in any classroom. 

WYSE is a mentoring program for local 8th grade girls.  This is my first year in the program and I am loving it, I'm really dissapointed that I did not discover this organization earlier in my collegiate experience.  In the past 2 months this program has changed my views on life, on others, and the neighborhood in which we live.  I know that might sound corny but it's true, the girls in this program are simply amazing.

Each week we go to John Adams Middle School and mentor about 25, thirteen year old girls in an after school program. We are also paired up with 2 mentees whom we develop even closer relationships with.  The first few weeks that we went to visit we spent playing games, icebreakers, and covering more superficial topics. And then this past week we covered discrimination. I was scared that the girls might not get involved, or that the might not understand how we went from playing games one week to talking about discrimination the next. But they loved it and they all were participating!! It was so exciting. To introduce them to the topic of discrimination, as they walked through the door we only gave girls with ponytails a piece of candy. We didnt tell them why only certain girls got candy.  Then we had a disussion with them about how in a minor way, that is a form of discrimination.  The rest of the session was devoted to talking about discrimination, how they have been discriminated against, how people might inaccurately judge them, and things like that. It went so well. All the girls are amazing and I cant wait to get to know them better.

 I'm also getting to know my mentees better. Their names are Kim and Edith and they're both 13 years old.  They are so energetic and loving.  We have these journals, that are basically  "diaries that write back."  So they can write anything they want in there and then I respond, it works really well for Kim because she is a little bit shyer.  But they both love it and I am learning so much about them.  When I asked one of them if she could go anywhere in the world, where would it be, she simply responded "Six Flags."  It might not seem like that big of a deal to many of us, but for some people thats all they need to be happy. This Sunday I am going to take them out wherever they want to go in LA, so it should be a blast. I'm so excited to learn more from them.