transitioning from the field

Hello TTS25 supporters~

As students are knee-deep in final projects, presentations and exams, teachers are planning transition activities. How can we best prepare them for transference, weaving all they have studied, experienced, and learned into their lives in their home communities?

This weekend the group heads to San Blas, beautiful islands owned by the Kuna people, an indigenous group of Panama. The islands are a comarca (reservation), and we will need our passports to enter, as the Kuna rose against Panama to gain their independence. We will have the opportunity to experience how an indigenous group is utilizing their autonomy. We will continue thinking about the term ethnotourism, using one's ethnicity with outsiders to make a living. San Blas will also be the staging point for our transition activities. With the sun and the sand as our backdrop, we will begin discussing hopes and fears on returning home. This talk will lead into a workshop giving student practical tools to use when speaking about the past four months of their lives.

The weekend will provide the time for hammering out Global Presentations- the speech, activity, or class students will facilitate upon their return home to share each TTS experience. Mentors will give feedback on student presentation outlines, and then students will orally rehearse presentations in front of their mentor group, getting over any butterflies they may feel in anticipation of the event.

TTS25 is also currently brainstorming their class project, the Zenith Project. The Zenith is an opportunity for the class to work together to plan and implement a project from start to finish once the semester ends. The final week allows students to meet as a class and work through the plan, deciding roles before they all split up across the U.S. The goal of the Zenith Project is for students to remain engaged with a place they visited this semester and help create change. 

full planning mode

TTS life is full to the brim, which is why San Blas will also be a space of contemplation. Each student will spread along the beach for some solo time. Students may journal, sit, lie down, close their eyes, think, not think, be, but all in silence, soaking in the experience of being alive.

The final week is a mix of detail nuts and bolts and group appreciation time. We'll celebrate Annie's birthday on Monday, explore historic parts of Panama City and gift shop on Tuesday and continually focus on friendship and internal contemplation. We will also have students complete final feedback forms for teachers, pack their bags, and prepare for their individual flights home from Houston.

Wednesday will be full of together time, visioning exercises, and appreciations. The focus will be on writing warm and fuzzies, a long-time TTS tradition. First we will each draw a name and create a beautiful envelope dedicated to that person. Then each person writes a note, words of love and appreciation, to every other person in the group. The evening graduation ceremony will revolve around each person presenting the envelope she created to its intended person. Once the ceremony is over, and we celebrate with a delicious graduation dinner, the envelope-stuffing will commence. Each TTS25er will have a personalized envelope filled with letters from classmates and teachers. The one rule is that no one is allowed to read the letters until she is away from the group. Some may choose to read them all on their connecting flight home. Others may choose to ration them out, reading one letter per week post-semester. Still others may save them for a rainy day when they need an extra amount of encouragement. No matter how each person does it, warm and fuzzies are a fun way to share our thoughts in a meaningful way.

Throughout the week we will integrate more transition ideas - whether it is how to address the huge question, "So, how was Central America?," waltz back into friendships or seek new friendships. We'll appreciate one another and reflect back to those first days when we were all nervous about how to talk with one another. 

It is an adventurous week, and we haven't finalized every transition activity, but we'll help these incredible women get ready to get off that plane and run into your arms back home. 

Thanks for a great semester!

Sarah, Vickie, Meredith, Maya and Laurel