Bianca
1. “Recognize and take care of the people who help you out along the way. I often would bring donuts, kind notes, or a treat to the secretaries at the schools or counselors that I formed relationships with. 2. Make yourself and your club known in the community. Attend local community events and invite your students/parents to set up an info booth/activity. This is a chance for them to share their culture and club with the community. More exposure is better and social media is a valuable tool for this. 3. Make partnerships within Cooperative Extension and other local organizations that could offer services to your families. Offer to help them at their events, and hopefully, they will return the favor. I assisted the local Cooperative Extension with the county fair and brought Juntos students and parents so they could experience it, as well. This program cannot be done by you alone. 4. Find a mentor in the community who has your and the family’s best interests in mind. You need a sounding board for your ideas and someone who can give you honest feedback. 5. Building relationships is the key to the success of your program, and communication is the most important piece of that key. Always be open with your partners/ families/students about what you are able and unable to do.”
Eddie
1. “As a Juntos coordinator, one of the first things I highly recommend is setting boundaries. We love our students and want to help them with whatever they need, but we get caught up. We need to take care of ourselves and take time off to be at our best for the benefit of our youth. 2. Never over-commit; we want to make
everything as easy as possible or provide all the resources we can, but we have to make sure not to promise too much. I’ve done this before, and all it does is negatively impact your relationship with a student because they trust you. 3. Share your story. We all have gone through ups and downs in life, and I’ve seen how youth
appreciate when you share your story with them and tell them about how imperfect life is. Everything I do in the classroom with the students, I always relate to my personal experience or to the experience of someone that I know so that youth are aware of the real-life consequences of their actions. 4. Empower your youth. Push kids to step outside their comfort zones
and to not fear failure. When I started, I didn’t want our youth to fail, and I would do as much as possible not to put them in uncomfortable situations until I realized it was doing them no good. 5. Never assume. No matter what the situation is, always ask or observe a student or situation before reacting. I’ve had circumstances where I have assumed, and all it did was put me in a tough situation.”
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