My Job.

So, after I graduated from college, I decided that I want to do something that will make a difference in the world we live in. I considered the Peace Corps and Teach for America, but I finally ended up working for the Missouri College Advising Corps (MCAC).
MCAC is the Missouri branch of the National College Advising Corps (NCAC). This is a grant-funded program that places recent college graduates into rural and inner-city high schools and community colleges to help make access to information about college easier to obtain.
The NCAC was originally funded by a grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation whose goal is to help young people of exceptional promise reach their full potential through education. This is the first year that Missouri has participated in the program and as of now, there are nine college advisors serving at seven different high schools and 3 community colleges across the state. This is us:

This job is very rewarding in all aspects except the monetary aspect. Isn't that always the case? There must be a job out there that actually pays a good salary to make a difference in the community and society, right? I'm still looking...
Anyway, I do love my job. Especially the students. Here are a few more students and experiences worth mentioning:
1) My very first day of work, one of my schools was having a schedule crisis. This year the school switched to an internet-based system for the grades and student information and because of this switch, a majority of the students' schedules were lost and the one counselor at the school had to figure them all out again. Anyway, because of this, the counselor's office was constantly filled with students sitting around waiting for their schedules, which gave me a great opportunity to meet them. On particular student, we'll call him J, was especially talkative. He is an Anime kid, so that should give you an idea of what he is like. When I asked him what he wants to do after high school, he told me he wants to go to MSU and then transfer to Japan and become and anime artist, which apparently has a name and that name is a Manga. He continued to show me all of his artwork that he had already done and talked constantly about his girlfriend, who he referred to as "Kitty." He also told me that last year, he got kicked out of school and put into the alternative school for bringing a Samurai sword to school and he didn't know why because he wasn't going to hurt anyone with it. He just wanted to show it to someone.
The moral of the story: Samurai swords are not allowed in high schools.

2) One day I was trying to call financial aid to ask them a question about the FAFSA, so I dialed the number and entered my long distance code and this is what I heard:
"Hey cutie, so I hear you're looking for a good time..."
At which point I slammed the phone back onto the receiver. Unfortunately, the financial aid number is 1 number away from a sex hotline. The worst part is that I didn't even catch on for a while. I just thought: "Wow, that is really weird that the Financial Aid hotline calls the caller "Cutie..."
The moral of the story: Make sure you punch the right numbers when dialing financial aid.

3) At the homecoming dance in the fall some of the teachers and I chaperoned. (I hated dances in high school, but this was great because I didn't have to dress up). Anyway, I was helping with the drinks so I would fill up cups with ice and hand them to students. Toward the middle of the dance, one student came up and was talking to me while I handed drinks out to the other students. He is kind of awkward, so after a little while he was just standing there bouncing on the balls of his feet until he looked at me and asked: "Can I buy you a drink?" I just started laughing because 1) the drinks were free and 2) I was serving them. I kind of feel bad for laughing in his face, but I couldn't help it.
The moral of the story: If you're a student, don't try to "buy" drinks for your teachers and if you're a teacher, try not to laugh in your students' face when they do try.