WYSE (Women and Youth Supporting Each Other) Session

Every Friday from 2 to 5 pm, WYSE (Women and Youth Supporting Each Other) travels to Little Village to mentor middle school girls at Madero Middle School. On April 19th, ShotoSnap got an inside look on what a typical session within the 6th grade looks like.

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Preparation for the weekly sessions starts early. 6th grade mentors, Lizbeth Cordova and Christine Wong, meet at C-Shop on Monday afternoon to discuss and create the session plan for Friday. This week's session topic is on community involvement.  

After the session plan is finalized, it is sent out via email to the other 6th grade mentors. Each session plan is reviewed by all the 6th grade mentors during WYSE's weekly meetings on Tuesday. 

Each WYSE session involves a "Product of the Day" for the mentees to take home with them. Before session, Christine cuts out small paper circles as button templates for the girls to decorate. 

On Fridays, WYSE mentors typically carpool or take public transport to get to Madero. The 30 minute drive allows mentors to catch up and talk about weekend plans. Rebecca Silverberg flashes a quick smile before heading off to Little Village. 

Before session, all the WYSE mentors hang out at the Dunkin Donuts across the street from Madero. It's a great chance for mentors to blow off some steam after a week of stressful schoolwork. 

After school, the WYSE mentees are always excited to see their mentors. Here, Sherry He and her mentee embrace before entering the Madero cafeteria, where session is held. 

While the 6th grade mentors set up and prepare for session in the background, the 6th grade mentees enjoy a quick snack of delicious strawberries. Yum!

As some mentees finish their snack, Christine starts session by explaining the message of the day: Anyone can be a change agent in their community and every little act counts!

Before the big group discussion starts, the mentors and mentees do an icebreaker to get everyone talking. An animal name game does the trick.

In the game, every person has to say their name and an animal starting with the same letter as their name and then recall the name and animal of the person next to them. If you get the name wrong you have to make your animal's noise. Laughter and animal noises fill the room.

After everyone settles down, the discussion starts with two questions: Have you noticed anything in your community that you would like to change and why does it matter to you? 

Mentees reflect and bring up issues that they've seen in their community such as neighborhood violence and school bullying. 

The conversation turns to a big group discussion of current community issues and real solutions to these problems. Art programs like Enlace, petitions like the Dream Act, and communities like WYSE are all talked about as viable solutions to these relevant community issues.

The mentees are then split into small groups and are given hypothetical scenarios from which they must come up with their own solution as a group.

The small group setting allows for some of the shyer mentees to speak up. This type of setting is much preferred by the mentors as it gets all the girls talking. 

Each mentee received a worksheet where they would write down their group's solution to the issue at hand. This particular scenario dealt with students having to cross gang lines as they walk home from school, a very relevant issue in the mentees lives.

Afterwards, the groups reconvened and mentees volunteered to present their group's solution to the rest of the group. Each mentee offered thoughtful insight and imaginative ideas to solve these community issues.

After much inspiring discussion, it is finally time for "Product of the Day"! The mentees are given a coloring worksheet where they are to come up with their own solutions to the issues they brought during the initial discussion. Stopping violence is a common goal among the mentees.

Lauren works with some of the mentees to brainstorm on how they can make their dream of a clean park a reality.

"Product of the Day" is not just limited to mentees, mentors often take part too! Here Jing shows off her drawing of striving for a quality education for all. 

This particular session had two "Product(s) of the Day". In addition to the coloring worksheets, the mentees and mentors were also given little paper circles that will be made into buttons the next week. 

On the paper, mentors and mentees alike were supposed to write about facets of their personality that made them advocates for social change. 

Lauren shows off her WYSE flair with a touch of glitter glue. 

After "Product of the Day" is over, session comes to an end with "Closing Circle". Everyone holds hands and says one good deed that they did today, emphasizing that every small act counts!

Everyone unravels. Laughter and cheers fill the room just as when session began!

As the mentors clean up, the mentees, filled with excitement due to session, pack up their belongings and talk about their weekend plans and the following school week as they head outside. 

The mentors pack and clean up. While they are tired after a successful session, they are already looking forward to coming back to Madero the following Friday.