Unleashing potential means helping kids find their gifts and talents. We do this through our early childhood education, after school programs and summer enrichment camps. It’s an important way to close the opportunity gap for kids and teens in our community. It starts with you.
Kaden had a great time playing video games at a recent summer camp at UM in Ferguson. He made new friends and had fun challenging himself in a friendly competition.
1. Explore Your Interests
You are unique and have a lot to offer this world. However, it can sometimes feel like a big task trying to figure out where your strengths and skills fit into this world. One way to discover this is by engaging in a career interest assessment. This will help identify your interests and provide a list of occupations that may be best-suited for you.
Give each Explorer a Zeroing in on My Interests activity sheet and ask them to reflect on the activities they engage in during their leisure time over the past week. Have them write down their top three interests on the sheet and then discuss how they relate to occupations. Then ask them to schedule informational interviews with individuals who work in the recommended occupations.
2. Explore Your Passions
The things you are passionate about can reveal a lot about yourself. You probably have passions that are hidden, but the key is to find them and then let them shine. The first place to look is at the things you enjoy doing in your free time. If you love reading, for example, this may reveal a passion for writing or teaching. If you spend your spare time gardening, you could have a passion for botany or learning about the native plants in your area. Alternatively, you might have a passion for solving problems – whether world-wide issues like climate change or personal problems such as weight loss or addictions.
Another good place to find a passion is to talk with people who have discovered theirs. If they are doing something you admire, ask them how they found their passion and what steps they took to turn it into a career. You might also want to consider a career counselor for some help with this process.
It can be difficult to pinpoint a specific passion, but it’s worth the effort. Think about what you have enjoyed doing since childhood – even if it was playing with your sister’s dolls or exploring the woods behind your house. Those are often the seeds of passions, although they might have been submerged under years of conditioning or hiding behind a veneer of reasonableness. https://umgcllc.com/
Try as many new things as possible to see what sparks a fire in your belly. If you don’t succeed the first time, that’s OK. Keep trying — months on end if necessary — and you will eventually discover what ignites your passions. You might be surprised at what you find.
3. Learn New Skills
Learning new skills can be an excellent way to boost your resume or advance in your career. It can also be a fun and rewarding hobby. The best way to learn new skills is to practice them frequently and constantly seek feedback. This will allow you to improve faster and become more proficient in your chosen skill.
Choose a Time of Day to Practice
Pick a time that is most convenient for you to practice your new skill. For example, some people get more out of studying in the morning, while others prefer to study later in the day. Identifying a time that works well with your schedule will make it more likely that you will stick with your goal to learn a new skill.
Set a Time Limit
One of the most common mistakes that people make when trying to learn a new skill is trying to master it all at once. This can lead to burnout and discouragement. Instead, break down the process into smaller steps and set small goals along the way. For example, you might decide to practice a new skill five times a week for the next month.
Assign a Partner or Mentor
When you are learning a new skill, it is helpful to have someone to turn to for advice and support. This person can provide valuable feedback on your progress and hold you accountable to your commitments. They can also help you avoid some of the pitfalls that might come up along the way.
The United Methodist Church is committed to closing the opportunity gap for children and youth through education and empowerment. We achieve this through early childhood education, after school programs and youth enrichment camps.
4. Make New Friends
The key to making new friends is simply to make the effort. This means showing up at events, getting to know people – even if it feels awkward at first – and eventually asking them out for coffee. The longer you stick with it, the more comfortable it will become and the more likely you are to have a friendship that lasts. Try to share a wide variety of interests with people, as doing so will help you develop what social scientists call a multiplexed connection. This type of bond gives you more reasons to stay in touch, even if the original spark of a friendship has fizzled out. For more tips on building stronger friendships, check out this helpful guidebook from Mizzou alumnus Kat Vellos.
5. Have Fun
Unleashing potential is fun — and for some kids, it’s even more fun when they get to have friends there to make it happen. Kaden, for example, bonded with his fellow Ferguson-Florissant campers playing video games together during a summer enrichment program. He learned new skills, but more importantly, he let his potential shine by laughing and making new connections. He had fun — and so did his friends.
For more information on UM General’s summer camps, click here.