Though we’ve seen quite a bit of the local culture of Orange County in the time that we’ve been here, I didn’t know much about its history to begin with. However, I was able to learn more about the native population at the Bowers museum as an enrichment activity. Additionally, there were both photos and paintings that depicted early Orange County, and how it has progressed since then. Since most of what I have currently seen of southern California is modern Fullerton, Costa Mesa, Irvine, and Los Angeles, witnessing how these areas appeared and grew was quite stunning. Hiking up to the Hollywood sign made this experience even more meaningful, since I was able to see the expansive development now in the area.
We didn’t spend quite as much time preparing for Eureka! summer camp this week as we did last week, but we did work with around 40 high school girls in an externship program. On Tuesday, we helped them prepare for mock interviews and build their resumes, which was quite fun since it was our first time actually working with students at Girls, Inc. On Thursday we ran “speed mentoring,” where we talked about our college experience and gave advice in four-minute rounds. I loved being able to talk about my best college memories and talk about what I would’ve changed about how I approached both college applications and Duke itself. I hope I was able to help them a bit, but I’m pretty sure that as a rising junior in high school, I wasn’t confident in what college I wanted to go to or what major I wanted to be, or even if I knew anything about the college admissions process. I tried to convey how much I’ve loved my college experience so far, and really hope that I got them a bit more excited about life after high school. All in all, this week was my first introduction to what working with girls through Girls, Inc. will be like, and I’ve really enjoyed it so far. I can’t wait to get more involved in the preparation and lessons of Eureka! camp in the weeks to come!