after my first summer program

There are six main things you need to do once you return from your summer trip:

1. Welcome Home Call
2. Weekly calls with your mentor
3. Community Service
4. Your Summer Search Reflection Letter
5. Mandatory Summer Search Events
6. Your Junior Year Reflection Meeting

Your mentors are here to help you transition from your summer experience back home and apply what you have learned about yourself in school and at home. Together we will continue to figure out how to build on the leadership skills you showed over the summer and integrate them into your everyday life.

WELCOME HOME CALL

We can’t wait to hear all about your summer trip: your favorite moments, the challenges, your group and leaders, how you feel now you’re back...and everything else! Call your mentor within a week of returning from your summer trip.

Please also email or bring in photos from your summer program! We would love to see them, and we always need new photos for our materials (like this website).

WEEKLY CALLS WITH YOUR MENTOR

After your welcome home call, you will continue checking in with your mentor every week.
Our phone numbers and office hours are here.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

One of the most important values of Summer Search is altruism: giving back to others. You were selected to be part of Summer Search because you already showed the potential to be an altruistic leader. Our program is designed to encourage you to develop your altruism further.

As part of your Summer Search experience we would like to you do 24 hours of community service following your summer experience. We encourage you to find an area or issue you care about and want to support, research organizations that work in this area, and volunteer for at least 24 hours of community service. We can help you brainstorm ideas when you call in. During your service, we expect you to demonstrate the same leadership skills that were expected of you during your summer program.

Download your community service timesheet as a pdf here.

YOUR SUMMER SEARCH REFLECTION LETTER

The first draft of your reflection letter is due two weeks after your return.

Throughout your time in Summer Search you have had many chances to have new experiences, share your story, and learn more about yourself. You began your journey of self-discovery in your Summer Search interview, continued it by talking with your Summer Search mentor, and further developed it on your summer program. The reflection letter is another opportunity to reflect on your experiences, share who you are, and think about how you are growing and continuing to develop your leadership skills. You can read one student’s reflection letter online here.

Why write a Summer Search Reflection Letter?

• When you take the time to write down your story and how you have developed, you help make your change permanent. Writing things down helps make things lasting and real, whereas memories and ideas that you don’t write down eventually just fade away.

  The process of working with your mentor on your essay and writing multiple drafts helps you to think hard about who you are, what you have learned, and how you have grown as a person. This kind of reflection is key to being a successful leader.

• Being able to express who you are and tell other people your story in a clear way is an important skill. Leaders have a powerful, confident voice.

• The essay is a chance to say thank you to everyone who helped give you this opportunity. Feeling and expressing gratitude is an important part of being an altruistic leader. Saying thank you when you really mean it is actually a gift to yourself as well as to the people you thank.

• Your essay is one way you can make a difference to other students like you. We show your essay to donors, to help them understand how important Summer Search is. Your essay helps raise money for Summer Search, which means that next year’s sophomores can have the same chances you had.

Ask your mentor for practical instructions and hints on how to write your Summer Search Reflection Letter.

Junior year MANDATORY* SUMMER SEARCH EVENTS

* “Mandatory” means that you HAVE to attend these events. They are a core part of the program, just like the weekly mentoring calls and the summer program preparation. For each event, the date, time, and location will be announced nearer the time (by email, during one of your phone check-ins, and online here. Please confirm your attendance (and your parent or guardian for the Fall Event) as soon as possible.

Fall Lunch
We will have a fall meeting either at your school, the Summer Search office, or at another location. We invite the teachers who nominated you for Summer Search, so this is a chance for you to thank them by sharing your summer experience and growth, as well as connect with and support other Summer Search juniors and seniors in your school. Bring your photos!

Fall Event
The Fall Event is an evening celebration of your amazing accomplishments on your summer program! Just like at the Spring Event, you will meet all of the other Summer Search students, hear speeches from students and alumni, and commemorate your successes. All Summer Search mentors and staff also come to the event, and so do some board members, donors, and teachers who refer students to the program.

JUNIOR YEAR REFLECTION MEETING

In the fall, we will find a time for you to sit down with your mentor and other Summer Search staff. This is a chance for us to reflect together on your experience and progress in Summer Search so far, as well as talk about your second summer experience. Together, we’ll look at your leadership development in terms of RAP, celebrate your strengths, and identify places where you can continue to grow. At this time, you will be given the Junior Handbook, which covers your next steps in Summer Search in more depth.