Visiting Rapid City high schools for AmeriCorps Week

AmeriCorps Week

Day 1 of Activities in Rapid City, South Dakota!

Today I visited St. Thomas Moore High School. It's been a slow start: the first group of students just stopped by to tell me about their athletic scholarships and that they don't need any money for college. Oh, and they feel very strongly about Clemson, that USC is better. Fortunately for them, I happen to know that academically Clemson is a better school. I don't know anything about football, though.

Yesterday was a vacation day for me so I don't feel as prepared for today as I was, say, last week when I visited a local college. Somehow the college students seem less intimidating. I have a small table set up in the cafeteria and now I'm just waiting for the first lunch hour to begin, which, judging by the increasing volume of a basket ball being bounced up the hallway, should be soon. 

 I overheard the lunch ladies wondering aloud what AmeriCorps was, so I approached them as they set up the chips and cookies for the kids and told them just what AmeriCorps does. The students started filing into the lunchroom in packs and singles, walked right past me to get their chairs, and then past me again to set their chairs down at their tables. What a welll-oiled machine, this high school. The students lined up next to their chairs and waited for the blessing. After everyone blessed their food, the traditional Catholic meal-time prayer, they raced to the lunch line and began their ordering. The're sitting at their long rows of tables, on chairs they set out and pick up themselves, talking, laughing, glancing my way occasionally as each table awaits their turn to line up for food. I guess I wait until they're done eating to satisfy their appetites for education and service. I hope they're still hungry for doing good deeds!

I got to speak to several small groups of kids. St.Thomas Moore has a lot of talented young folks I suppose because almost everyone who approached me with questions about AmeriCorps told me they didn't need any money for college. What lucky students! And they all must complete a certain amount of Community Service hours in order to graduate, so hopefully I at least recruited some volunteers for next year. I enjoyed meeting such talented high school students.