At fourteen years old, Nicholas has already been with the FLOC Scholars Program for about two years. One of his favorite times at FLOC was a summer zoology program that took students on a field trip to the Smithsonian National Zoo, which he brought up and seemed to remember enjoying quite a bit.
The eighth grade student was working on homework and chatting with two of his friends when I found him in the student room at For Love of Children. “I usually eat and do homework before our program starts,” he explained to me. “Or I talk to my friends and maybe play a game with them.”
When I asked him what he is currently learning about in program, he told me about his theme-based workshop: Global Positioning. This month, our middle school and high school Scholars were given the choice of at least three different theme-based workshops led by our volunteer expert workshop facilitators. These workshops were designed to enrich our Scholars’ learning experiences and give them a chance to explore potential interests that they might not be exposed to in school.
“So far in my workshop, we’ve learned where different churches and famous buildings are in the world,” Nicholas told me. “We’ve also learned the names of these buildings and little bit about the civilizations of cities at different times in history.”
Nicholas likes coming to FLOC because he says that the instructors treat the students well and his time here has helped him meet new friends and learn how to work well with others on a team. In his free time, he likes to play the trumpet and sports like basketball and football.
Perhaps the most memorable part of the interview for me was at the end when I asked him if he had thought at all about what he would like to do for a job in the future. The very articulate eighth grader informed me that he would like to be an entrepreneur and sell his own product. “I would like to study business in college and hopefully live in Miami, Florida.” It was not the first time that I left an interview marveling at the intelligence and ambition of our students here at For Love of Children.
(Rachel Baxter is the Bilingual Recruitment and Outreach Assistant at FLOC).