Visit Overview

YMTF is looking for people who would go into the classroom to talk to students about the value of high school education. We have no set plan that we want you to follow, but we do have some data on cost-of-living and economic value of a high school diploma.

We put a new volunteer into a classroom with another person, or a new person could volunteer to be an observer and not speak at all. The observer could just see what YMTF is all about.

We ask volunteers to try to make 2 visits a semester. Each visit takes about 3 hours of your time, from leaving home to the school and returning to your desk at work. We try to car pool. It is more fun that way and saves people getting lost.

A typical visit schedule consists of:

• 8:00 AM - Arrive at school and register.
• 8:20 AM - Welcome to school by principal and/or on campus YMTF coordinator.
• 8:40 AM - Review of YMTF program and materials available for classroom use.
• 9 AM - Start classroom visit.
• 10 AM - Reconvene in assembly area to review visit, read student and teacher forms, and fill out volunteer form.
• 10:20 AM - Depart for work.

In the classroom, you will notice that few students talk, particularly at the high school level. This is due to the fact that you are a stranger and the class room size is usually slightly large for good interaction. Some volunteers will do almost anything to get students to interact. Some just lecture unless there is an obvious student with whom to interact.

You will begin to wonder if this is worthwhile, since it seems that the students are not listening to you. That is why we have the students fill out a survey form just before the end of the class. When you get a chance to read them, immediately after class in the assembly area, you will see that the students are listening and you may have convinced a few students that day to stay in school. It is a great feeling.

Because many people are nervous about speaking in front of a crowd, particularly younger people, we offer the observer status. Observers can just sit in on a class room visit and are not expected to participate. Since most of the discussion is about things we know, i.e., how we live, how much we spend to live and how we make that money for living, most observers have eventually contributed to the classroom discussion.