Friday, February 29, 2008

Path to Scholarship


Path to Scholarship
Originally uploaded by hippyprogram
Last week was a whirlwind of activity! We hosted our annual Texas HIPPY Rally with almost 100 attendees including home visitors and coordinators from across the state. We started off the 2 days with a Texas HIPPY Advisory Council meeting. The advisors then joined the HIPPY teams for lunch and recognized the home visitors who are taking steps in higher education. This year we have one home visitor who is taking online courses, several enrolled in college, several in community college and others enrolled in ESL classes in preparation for college entry in the Fall. The remainder of the day was spent in training, with home visitors learning from Aurelio Montemayor and Frances Guzman of the Intercultural Development Research Association how to engage parents as leaders.

That evening was our 20 year anniversary celebration (more on that another day!) and then Friday was an all day training on Path to Scholarships--where we learned about the importance of being organized, informed and persistent in applying for the multitude of scholarships available. More on that too!

For now, suffice it to say...we had a wonderful 2 days together, learned a lot, shared a lot, planned a lot!

Friday, February 01, 2008

Peer Exchange with Colorado

The three of us, Susan, David and I, had a chance to visit with the Colorado HIPPY team for two days last week. We brought some Texas sunshine with us and the weather as well as the professional enrichment was great! We had a chance to each share our personal strengths and challenges, as well as our organization's strengths, goals and challenges. We each had a chance to learn how our counterpart at the other state office handles their tasks and share experiences and challenges. It was a highly productive 2 days that we hope can be repeated in the future! Thanks Melissa and the Colorado Parent Child Foundation team for generously sharing your time, expertise and energy with us!