Week 1: Networking...not just for business

 Creating a new institute program is very much like starting a new business.  We have to worry about budgets, numbers, recruitment, content, and experiences had.   I will be focuses on building up a brand-new institute program.   This will involve finding those students who are not attending and help them see the value of attending institute.  The readings this week taught me the importance of networking.   I had never really thought about the idea of networking students, but I did try it this week.   I re-formatted the way I reach out to students and went through an older text list to be able to reach the greatest number of possible students.  I then tried to use networking.  I specifically asked students to be in charge of reaching out to other students.   An invitation from another student is always more valuable than an invitation from the teacher.   I sent out Instagram links, texts, calls etc. like I normally do.  However, by using the idea of networking we went up in attendance this week by almost 10%.  That is a huge increase in students in one week.   

I also created a little more excitement for the class by mentioning that we would be having a fun funeral.  I served basic iconic Utah funeral foods. (Things they have never had here) We also said goodbye to one the YSA elders who has been well loved while serving here in New Mexico. 



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