Session One: Service Project

For my first session I want to introduce the student I will be working with. His name is Nolan, he is 13 years old and in 7th grade. He is home schooled and is my younger cousin. I asked him what he wanted to learn more about in his school work. We immediately hit a road block. He has a very religious curriculum and did not seem to want to know more about anything. He seemed to be looking for me to tell him what he wanted to learn. This is where I was able to pull the cousin card. I was able to prompt him off what I already knew he was interested. He is very interested in public service and what type of career he will pursue after high school. I knew he was interested in training service dogs, welding, and the army. From there he continued to talk about all the different things he found interesting about each profession. Before I knew it he had connected it to firefighters. He reminded me that on his Mom's side of the family had a family history of firefighters. Then he suddenly proclaimed that he would like to know more about firefighters. I told him that this would be what we would be focusing on.