Archives: January 2019

Come Blog With Us At Reach A Student

Added on January 10, 2019 by Sarina

Come Blog With Us At Reach A Student

I hope everyone had an amazing New Year! 

Our goal at Reach a Student is to help the students at Windermere as much as possible by providing tips and help from a student's perspective.  Answering questions is a great way for students to connect and share with one another, however, the knowledge shared is limited by the questions asked.  Blogging allows students to share their thoughts more freely and anyone can provide their peers with whatever information they think would be beneficial.

Since I believe that every student has some kind of insight that could be useful to others at WPS, anyone can contribute their own personal entries to the blog.  I can even make your entry anonymous if you choose to.  I also believe that the WPS teachers have valuable experience from when they were students (for example, how they faced and overcame an obstacle that a student might be facing today), so I reach out to all WPS faculty and hope you will contribute to our blog. 

If you would like to submit a blog entry, email me at sarina@reachastudent.com

 

Embroidering Socks for the Elderly

Added on January 3, 2019 by Shailee.S

Embroidering Socks for the Elderly

I am very lucky to have known my maternal Great Grandmother, Moti Dadi. Her selflessness allowed my family to come to America. She followed her four children to the United States, and practiced customary Indian tradition by living with her eldest son. Unfortunately as she got older, they were unable to provide her the standard of care she needed. So at the age of 89, Moti Dadi, was moved to an assisted living care facility.

My family and I went to visit her as often as we could. I looked forward to our chats, which while she was in pain always started with her asking me, " How are you?" with a beaming smile. One of the last times I was able to sit with her - instead of her asking how I was, I got the chance to ask her. She told me about the hardships she faced: from large issues such as not being able to communicate with the staff to small issues such as her socks never making it back to her room. I wanted to reciprocate the care she had always shown me and asked my parents to write words in both Gujrati, our native language, and in English so whenever she needed help she could point at the English word and get the assistance she needed.

She mentioned how her socks always seemed to get lost in the dryer and she struggled to stay warm. I wrote her name on them with a Sharpie but this didn't solve the problem, after a couple of washes the letters began to fade. So then I embroidered her initials on the sock! After I left her with several pairs of embroidered socks, she called me to tell me that she was receiving all of her socks. I was so happy to provide her a little more comfort.

While talking to other residents at The Commons, I told them about my great grandmother and her story. Many of the residents had similar stories where they left their home countries to come to America in search of a better life or just to be closer to their families. I noticed while they were speaking many of their socks were miss matched and they also expressed a similar situation to my great grandmother's. So I began to make embroidered socks for each of the residents.

This experience has been a reminder of how small gestures can also be impactful. If you are interested in helping the local community, the assisted living care facility is a great place to start! The community is welcoming and always open to talking.

 

Cookies for the Elderly!

Added on January 2, 2019 by Shailee.S

Cookies for the Elderly!

I have always had a sweet tooth and love making cookies even more, especially at Christmas time.  One of my fondest memories growing up was when my whole family would put on Santa caps and decorate the tree. My mom would hand me and my two brothers ornaments to hang up while my dad videotaped us. During the holidays, I always looked forward to not just the decorating but the sweets. While holiday music played and we finished decorating the tree, my mom would make us a batch of chocolate chip cookies and peppermint hot chocolate (two of my favorite things). I was luckily to always be assigned the role of "taste tester".

While doing my monthly visit to The Commons senior care center I noticed many of the residents were not in  "the holiday spirit." I asked them about why they were feeling so mellow, and they expressed how they missed their families during these times. When I heard this, I could not even begin to imagine what it would feel to spend the holidays without my own family. To cheer up the residents, I decided to bake them homemade cookies and ask them about their own holidays and traditions. I heard from different residents who spoke about how their families did similar things to mine. We bonded over these similarities even though we were from different backgrounds. They spoke with such a reminiscent tone of the times they enjoyed. Many missed caroling, so I took them caroling to their fellow residents' rooms and we ate my homemade cookies together.   We created our own holiday traditions which I plan to experience with them next year, come join me and spread some holiday cheer!

 

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