I have been working with Job Corps students for about five years now; I have served as Safety Manager, Logistics Manager, and Administrative Services Director at the Oneonta Job Corps Academy. I’ve also had the good fortune of being a professional strength athlete and spokesperson for some top fitness and sports nutrition firms. In that capacity I have been part of some dynamic processes; in the quest for athletic success, I have employed all manner of innovative tactics aimed at performance improvement. I have worked to create plans, programming, and processes, all of which are proprietary, which have propelled five athletes to international championship status. I have a well-developed understanding of the challenges inherent in propagating new knowledge, programs, and processes which challenge, and sometimes call into question, universally accepted and traditional methodologies.

The Job Corps program, with its eclectic and diverse mix of bright young enrollees, can be a highly challenging, but extremely rewarding work environment. Some of our young people come from homes where they have suffered terrible abuses; others suffer from extreme neglect, and have no homes to speak of, and still others present conventional educational institutions with more than they can handle behaviorally. The people I work with every day are more than just co-workers and colleagues, but seem called to service in the unending fight to unleash human potential – they are amazing. Given the factors prevailing at the academy, and having attended Dr. Apple’s orientation, I had some real trepidation at the prospect of our young people enthusiastically submitting to a week long, high intensity, educational program, which is normally undertaken by college level students. However, before I had long deliberated the issue, the day was upon us, it would be up to the students from here on out.

Acting as a facilitator, I set myself to the considerable task of logistical and operational support for the week of the camp; I also committed to keep copious notes on the experience. The pace of the camp, from the very first hour, was something that the students were not prepared for. The course materials, which were significant, were intimidating to our young people; it was clear that a huge effort would need to be made. The expectations were immediately communicated to the students; they would be required to throw themselves into the following:

Author 20 pages for the Life Visions Portfolio

Author a 4 page Self Growth Paper

Submit a Foundations of Learning textbook with 10 completed activities

Submit a Student Success Toolbox workbook with various forms completed

Submit a Foundations of SMART Grid workbook with 13 completed activities  

Needless to say, the students were none too pleased with this workload staring back at them. There was palpable resistance which was very close to open hostility, and in some cases, was expressed as outright rage. For the most part, the students maintained their composure, which is impressive when one considers their very humble academic beginnings. The pace of the first day’s work was frenetic; the work just kept coming, and the students began the somewhat counterintuitive process of “learning to learn.” Dr. Apple was measured in his approach; this enabled him to adjust the variables of the project with great responsiveness, the students were frustrated but bought in at about 50% by 4:00 pm that day.

My collective experiences as Learning to Learn Camp facilitator were transformative in nature; there were real academic breakthroughs, which I have not seen in our students previously. The “snapshot” from 9:00 am on day one was dismal; the same “snapshot” of the training room at 9:00 pm that same night was nothing short of amazing – it was like looking into a corporate boardroom during a very serious meeting. Students were up at the board performing college level mathematics; presenting consensus responses from team activities, and thoughtfully debating the process of self-assessment. Students stayed until 12:30 am that first night; working on the portfolios and papers; pushing past barriers to employ the writing to thought process, and making discoveries about their academic abilities. The work products and group activities challenged the students to problem solve, think critically, and produce outcomes by constantly creating written work which could be assessed for strengths, improvements, and insights. The student council met with Dr. Apple nightly to provide feedback on the learning processes, classroom environment, and group activities – Dr. Apple implemented the feedback the next day which encouraged more effort from the students. By the end of day number two there had been transformations in the room; students were thinking, acting, and speaking like professionals, they had the demeanor of people I wanted to hire. The examples of personal growth and academic transformation which took place at the camp are too numerous to mention here, but the impact of the camp is undeniable.

To close, almost all of the students completed the camp; there were several students who completed with merit, and several with exceptional merit – one student completed the camp with a 7,112 cumulative point total. The student art show, talent show, math and reading contests, and the writing contest provided students with opportunities to shine; the students were so proud to see their efforts bearing fruit. Something amazing was happening to the students; they were confronting some of the issues which impacted their past performance, and they were learning how to access information, then they put those components together in detailed self-assessments. The students understood how to access information, how to produce quality writing, how to make critical discoveries, and how to improve their performance through assessment.