PHOTO COURTESY COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT & ACTION CENTER AT UPS

Chief Leschi Staff Sadie Srail, Berta Lopez and Connie Wood join University of Puget Sound staff member Tiffany Williams as they bring middle school and college students together at UPS in a cultural and academic pen pal program between schools.

Puget Sound Pen Palz

By Sadie Rae Srail

The program, Puget Sound Pen Palz, was created in the fall of 2007 by a collaboration between the Office of Residence Life and the Community Involvement and Action Center at the University of Puget Sound (UPS), and Chief Leschi Schools. The goals of this program are to:

- To provide UPS students with positive cultural models and

increase their knowledge of Native American culture.

- To provide CLS students with positive college role models

and increase their knowledge of college summer youth

programs, the college admissions process and college life.

- To provide all program participants with a greater aware-

ness, understanding and appreciation of cultures that differ

from their own.

- To practice and develop writing and communication skills.

This will be especially important in preparing Leschi

students for the writing portion of the WASL (Washington

Assessment of Student Learning).

Nineteen UPS students volunteered to participate in this pilot program, and were paired with nineteen Chief Leschi middle school pen pals based on an interest survey that each completed. The requirements of the program include:

- Commit to write your pen pal once per month from

October 2007 through April 2008. These letters should

be hand-written, placed in an envelope, and then given to

the teacher, Connie Wood, who will then coordinate the

letter swap with staff at the UPS.

- Attend at least one Pen Pal activity in order to meet your

pen pal.

All nineteen students worked diligently all year to meet these requirements, and our partnership with the UPS has been crucial and very enjoyable! Although the program is still in its first year, students at Leschi are thinking of and talking about going to college, and receiving their letters from their pen pals and creating their responses have become their favorite part of the class!

On Friday, February 29, the Leschi students came to the UPS campus to meet their pen pals. The afternoon consisted of meeting in the cellar for some pizza and drinks, followed by a campus tour. Finally, Andrea Cobb from Access Programs came in to talk with the students about how to adequately prepare for college and stressed that it’s never too early to start thinking about these things. In fact, a couple of Leschi students picked up Access Programs applications from Andrea.

Here are some quotes from Chief Leschi 7th and 8th graders:

“I love this school.” – Swayla Duenas

“I’m going to come here.” – Morgan Lebeau

“Do they offer doctorate degrees? – Montana Dryden-Conway

“I want to play basketball here!” – Brian Castillo

Peter Ott, one of the UPS pen pals, had this to say about his experience:

“During their visit I learned just how fortunate we all are here at UPS. Also, I got to see the power of just sending letters to these kids and how much that means to them. To know that our letters and support have the potential to encourage these kids into college is extremely rewarding.”

UPS students will get the chance to visit Chief Leschi May 9 for the schools’ annual ‘Culture Day.’ CLS students reflected on their experience by saying:

“I liked the Field House.” – Hannah Sibbits

“What I liked about UPS is all the sports, the rock wall and

the huge weight room.” – Swayla Duenas

“I learned that college is bigger than I thought.” – Anthony Clark

“I especially liked the game room, or the Cellar, the Science

building and the field house.” – Benito Moreno

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