Providing Students with that Extra Little Push

As a new Project Success facilitator, in November I got to lead one of my favorite workshops with ninth graders at Southwest High School known as the “PBJ workshop.” PBJ (aka Peanut Butter and Jelly) is a workshop designed to help students break down the real-life steps and short term goals they’ll need to accomplish in order to make their long term dreams for the future a reality.  Students are first asked to give step-by-step instructions for making a sandwich, which the facilitator then follows exactly as stated by the students, with varying and often comic results.

When students talk about Project Success workshops, “PBJ” is a common topic, as this humorous workshop gets the students laughing and relaxed enough to then think about the deeper meaning behind the activity. I started the workshop by telling a story describing my ineptitude with cooking and that I needed their help with making a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich.  The students then wrote out the steps required to make a quality PBJ.  However, the students did not know how literally I was going to take every step they wrote down.  So when they told me to “put the jam on the bread,” I placed the entire jar on the bread.  If they told me to “get bread,” I would grab the whole loaf, or if they told me to “now, eat it,” I picked up the entire loaf of bread and began to eat it, bag and all.  Students yelled out “What?? He’s eating the plastic!”

Anytime they skipped a step, or were not specific, I used it as an opportunity to mess up the sandwich, with often hilarious results.  The students laughed and sometimes got frustrated when they saw how literal I was taking their directions. Yet this, in turn, spurred a conversation about the importance of being clear, what is assumed about a certain situation, and what it means to skip steps when planning.

Once the laughter had subsided, a discussion about how the benefits of planning and generating clear steps can help us succeed with our own hopes and aspirations.  Finally the students got an opportunity to break down an actual goal in their own life and begin plotting out a plan for success.

After leading the PBJ workshop, Jared, a ninth grade student, approached me with some questions about acting and becoming more involved in theater.  He had heard me talk about my own theater experience and just the week before I had the chance to see him perform in the fall musical, Band Geeks, at Southwest.  In the musical, he played a passionate yet insecure high school musician in a marching band that was on the verge of falling apart. He said he was a little overwhelmed with trying to break down the steps to becoming an actor as his future profession.

While the class was working independently, I briefly sat down with him and told him about how I got involved in theater during high school.  I remembered how much I appreciated the support and the opportunities to see theater all over the Twin Cities through Project Success. We discussed the plays Jared was involved with and he was very excited to make the connection between Project Success and the theater community in the Twin Cities.  We chatted about the wealth of great theater opportunities for youth performers around the Twin Cities, like The Children’s Theater and Steppingstone Theater.   By the end of the discussion we had mapped out a plan of steps he could take to continue pursuing his dream to become an actor.

As we talked about auditioning, different theaters, and possible classes to take I was reminded of what it was like to have Project Success as a student and the impact that the theater involvement and workshops had on me.  The timeless benefits of Project Success truly hit home during my discussion with Jared.

Project Success has been helping motivate and inspire young people for more than 20 years to dream about the future, help them take steps to get there and give them the tools they need to achieve their goals. I too, had Project Success, as a high school student at Southwest and I’m grateful to have an opportunity to keep the positive dream cycle going and help provide the little pushes that students like Jared need to have a successful future.

Ben originally wrote this post as a guest contributor for for the Young Education Professionals Twin Cities Blog “Extra Credit,” and it was entitled “Providing Students With That Extra Little Push.”

Click here to see the original post on “Extra Credit”