BITS 2010 officially begins!

Yesterday, the youths were introduced to their groups for the summer. City by the water group 3 is currently comprised of 8 youths: Dishaun, Zymair, Michael, Devin, Tykeim, Jessica, Labria, and Imani. In order to get to know each other better, we did a few icebreaker games over the past two days. Due to the excessive heat warning in Philadelphia we have been unable to tour Temple's campus, but we should finally be able to tomorrow. While we have been inside, we were able to come up with ground rules. Each youth signed and agreed to a paper today that contained these ground rules. The ground rules are: 1.) Be on time 2.) No cell phones 3.) Stay focused on tasks 4.) Respect yourself and others 5.) Participate fully- take risks 6.) Step-down, step-up 7.) Be open to new idea's 8.) No foul language. Everyone has been following the rules, and I was very glad that they were responsible enough to all be on time today. The activities that we did today were based on what a community is and how we each define a community. The youths drew pictures of how they perceived their community and in particular what landmarks define their community. After that assignment we headed to the computer lab for the first time where they made up g-mail accounts and were shown what a google map is and how to navigate one. I look forward to seeing what's in store for the youths tomorrow!