I definitely had what most would consider a rough senior year of high school. The one golden light of my senior year was a New Visions Education program that ran through my local Boces. The most common section of this program is health, but my Boces also had Law and Government, Engineering, and Business. They called it “a pre-k for college”, where students would go through an application and interview process before being admitted to the program to complete senior year English, Social Studies, and “Academy-specific” courses and credits. I made it through the application process to the interview section and then eventually made it to acceptance into the New Visions Education Academy. This came with some summer work to be completed for the first day of school and a few extra orientations and meetings. My senior schedule was set as spending the mornings at my local Boces for New Visions and returning to my high school for classes and the remainder of the day. Within my New Visions schedule, I was to spend two mornings in placements within local school districts, one morning in social studies class, one morning in English class, and one morning in my academy specific class. Â
The winter is usually when bundles of warm memories cover me like a little comfort blanket. Luckily for me, there are so many happy memories baked into my New Visions experience, even if they were chaotic at the time. New Visions Education further developed my love for the field of education, with a strong passion and fondness for my middle school placements that cemented the adolescent education major that I now hold in college. Alongside some crazy videos and photo memories in my camera roll, that I look back on and smile at how much has changed from my senior year of high school. Most of the people I met through New Visions Education are some of my closest friends who I rush to see on long breaks and when our schedules align and allow.Â
Some of my fondest New Visions days were spent in the New Visions English classroom on Thursday mornings. Class was more on the laid-back side and gave room for a lot of jokes and fun memories. The table I sat at for most of the year was the only five-person table, that slowly grew to having additional chairs and laptops on the table. Most of the students were Education students, plus one health student. This is where a majority of Snapchat video memories come from, most notably a video of my now boyfriend playing with an Indiana Jones themed whip app in class as people who aren’t in our English class walk by unphased.Â
The next location for fond memories is the New Visions parking lot, where I would stay after they let us out (usually a touch early) to head back to my high school, chatting with friends and playing in the surrounding snow, showcasing my skills with being able to check my car’s oil and showcasing the damage on our cars due to hitting a deer (no comment) or the dirt caked onto another car, and stealing “assigned” parking spots that were truly only assigned in one person’s head. Occasionally one of our New Visions teachers would have to shout out of their windows to tell us to get going before they got in trouble for dismissing us too late.Â
The final location, the Education Academy classroom. Our teacher was amazingly sweet and understanding and provided the perfect space to try out a variety of different teaching techniques and learn about the education field. Guest Speakers came in and chatted about the educational field and their experience and the rest of class was spent on activities including social-emotional lessons taught individually by each of the fourteen students, teamwork exercises, and completion of placement packets. Some activities included completing Just Dance YouTube videos, yoga, reading assignments, and face paint practice. The face paint may or may not include the two boys in our class as the test subjects for practicing designs such as a full face of a dalmatian dog, and rainbows, stars and flowers.Â
Now looking at the memories and photos from this time period has made me realize that a lot has evolved since then in a variety of ways. Julia and Lauren are my absolute best friends that I met through New Visions and I’m so grateful to be able to live relatively close to them and hear all about their college experiences and see how different they are from when I first met them as we begin the college version of adulthood. One of the John’s from my New Visions class is also now my boyfriend. Tracking that timeline is a little crazy to think about. There have been times when videos of my boyfriend from New Visions pop up and I glance down and I’m wearing the sweatshirt he’s wearing in the video. I’m so grateful to have these memories and photos to look back on to keep me warm and that help me trudge through the cold snowy weather knowing there are bright days in cold spots behind me and in front of me in my future.