After going on a journey with some of our presenters we broke out into several workshops. There was something for everyone. The one I attended was the one for parents on Parent Child Relationship facilitated by Dr. Ann C. Eckardt Erlander, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Molloy College. She had a special way about her! She made sure we all got to speak and listen to each other. She shared her area of expertise and gave examples to help us with solutions. We felt so comfortable that everyone wanted to engage in the discussions. We spoke about several things, but mostly about the impact of technology on the family, especially cell phones and how they suck the life out of family time. For example, you sit around the dinner table as a family and most of the family members instead of having meaningful conversation, they’re busy with their head down on their cell phone.
We also spoke about the impact of video games on our young people, and the fact that your child can stay at home and still learn to be extremely violent through these games because when they enter these virtuoso worlds they become thugs, thieves, killers and computerize beings that become addicted to the game. We spoke about setting standards in our homes and being role models for our children.
Can you imagine the impact on a child when they see daddy reading a book? We spoke about getting our children out from behind the walls by taking them on trips as a family to the museum or a ride on the train by developing more time for teachable moments.
When it was time to break for lunch some of us were too excited to eat and felt filled with empowerment. However, lunch was from Panera Bread; Baked Ziti, Lemon Chicken and sesame rolls from Gino’s of Rockville Centre; Fried Rice from Island Buffet and Hibachi Grill. Who could refuse that? yummy!! As we ate there was more time to network. During lunch, my daughter shared with me one of her favorite presenters who happens to be the young doctor to be, Mr. Caleb Garard, who is always very inspirational and spoke about medical school: the journey Part 2.
He attends Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education. She also shared with me her notes that she collected from his presentation, and said when she goes home she will compare them to her notes from last year.
She spoke about her Get Set Mind Set workshop, that was led by Mrs. Madona Cole-Lacy and how Mrs. Lacy got them to open up and talk freely about preparing to deal with the obstacles that can affect life at school next year.
One of the young ladies that I had invited to the workshop, who graduated from high school two years ago and had no intentions of going to college, also came over to me during the lunch break and shared with me how empowered she felt, and that now she felt driven to go to college and be more productive.
After lunch, we had the youth panel discussion and some more presenters. The presentation on Financial Aid by Ms. Ajana Wilkinson, MBA, Assistant Director of Financial Aid at Kings Borough Community College was well done and extremely informative.
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