Cynthia Ramirez-Dominguez

I had a great time at today's BGS at JO Kelly. Dream B.I.G. got to collaborate with Be B.O.L.D. in an educational lesson on friendly debates. My mentees and other mentees got to work as a team to brainstorm ideas when discussing in groups to create a strong argument for the debates. One of my mentees participated in sharing her thoughts and ideas in front of the whole room. I was incredibly proud since she is usually shy. I thought the topics that were chosen for the debates were fun and allowed them to think outside the box.

I had a great time at the BGS. I got to meet with my mentee and we talked about our day. We learned more about national women's month and discussed about the type of women we want to be when we grow up. We got to prepare hygiene kits to donate and designed the bags that they would go in.

Today we my mentees and I learned what it means to be part of community. We talked about what communities we are a part of and how they make us feel. The mentees got to create a vision board where they demonstrated their communities and how they feel within those communities by using stickers and colorful paper.

The B.I.G. Mentor Training Session went really well today. I got to discuss with the other mentors how we would respond if our mentees told us specific information about their lives. We were also informed about how the next B.I.G. Brave Girl session will be like and the vision board activity our mentees will be participating in. Our mentor activity today was to paint umbrellas that represent our community.

I had a great time at today's Dream Big Girl Session. We got to learn about three new cultures, Italy, Thailand, and Nigeria. We tried their amazing food and snacks and got to accompany it with a fun activity. My mentee enjoyed the activities since she loves the arts and crafts!

Today we talked about mental health with our mentee and ways we can cope with any extreme emotions that we have. To go along with our theme, today we made scrubs and perfumes so that girls can use to implement into their day to day life. As we made each craft, I discussed more with my mentees on their coping mechanisms and techniques that they use. I thought these activities were fun and creative. I would suggests for next time to have the materials at each table in order for the activity to be a little faster and more engaging while being seated around the mentees while discussing today's theme. Overall, it was a great experience!

I had a great time at today's Mentor Training. We got to make clay trinkets while reviewing what it means to be a mentor and went over the plan for the next Dream BIG Brave Girl Session. I got to meet more of the other mentors and we got to play jeopardy as a group. Although we didn't come close to winning at all, I still I had a great time!

Today's activity was really fun! We made earrings out of clay and I got to see the different designs and color choices the mentees made. I can't wait to see how they will look on them. I like how we discussed what relationships are and how to identify healthy ones. This is an incredibly important topic for the girls at this age. I would suggest that for the scenarios we could do group discussions and then say out loud what each table thought and discussed. Overall, everything was great!