Adrian Macdonald: September 2011

As the Athletics Coordinator at UTEC I am part of the enrichment department. We offer programs to all youth in the community with the goal of helping the teens grow as people. My job is to be in charge of the athletically related programs with the basketball team and drop in and healthy bodies being the biggest emphases.  While these programs seem easy to pull off, I found out quickly that organizing them would be difficult with our gym under renovation.

Luckily, I am an AmeriCorps member, and as I pledged in the AmeriCorps Pledge, “when faced with adversity, I will persevere.” So, I have spent much of my first few weeks trying to find alternatives to basketball in the gym. For example, we have started playing flag football on Monday at Shedd Park.  I have also reserved gym time at the YMCA for basketball practice and have been thinking of ideas for healthy bodies training that we could do outside. As a distance runner and former cross country coach I am tempted to just make them run but I might have to be more creative to get teens to come back.

The part of my job that scared me the most was outreach. Outreach usually involves going to the high school at dismissal and talking to the teens to try to get them interested in something we are doing at UTEC. This was scary to me at first as I am not the most outgoing person. I love talking to new and interesting people, but making that first move has always been difficult for me. In fact, I was voted most shy by my classmates in high school. I have grown a lot socially since high school and am no longer shy, but I still feel like I’m fighting the demons of my past when I’m outreaching at the high school.

Adrian Macdonald: Youth Empowerment Corps

AmeriCorps Blog Home