Host Joy Walczak (JW): Welcome to the Your Dream Is Our Dream podcast, where we celebrate student success one dream at a time. We're at Maranda's Beautiful U event today at the Mary Free Bed YMCA with students, seventh and eighth graders, from a middle school in Comstock Park. Welcome everybody.
Everybody: Hi!
JW: We love having you here today and we're going to find out a little bit about what you're dreaming about and how school is helping your dreams come true. Why don't we go ahead and get started? I'd love to meet some of you. Tell me who you both are and what you're dreaming about.
Kaylin & Lily: Hi, my name's Kaylin. And my name's Lily. And we dream to be a cop.
JW: Wonderful. Okay, let's start over here in this corner. Can we get a couple more of you to tell us your names and what you're doing and dreaming about?
Brooklyn: Hi, I'm Brooklyn and I want to be a nurse. JW: Alright.
Adriana: Hi, I'm Adriana and I also want to be a trauma surgeon. JW: Wonderful.
Jasmine: Hi, I'm Jasmine and I want to be an ultrasound tech.
JW: We have so many great dreams going on. Let’s keep going.
Delilah: Hi, I'm Delilah and I want to be a psychologist. JW: How about on this side of the table?
Amanda: Hi, I'm Amanda and I want to be a neurosurgeon.
Violet: Hi, I'm Violet and I think it'd be really cool to travel the world.
Eden: Hi, I'm Eden and I want to work in adoption and foster care.
Adele: Hi, I'm Adele and I'd like to be a veterinary technician.
JW: Fantastic. Let's hear a few more dreams for our students. But first, I'd love to introduce our teacher today. We have with us Mrs. Voss, a teacher at Comstock Park. Can you share with us how you feel education helps make our dreams come true?
Mrs. Voss (V): Well, education is a foundation of all of your careers. I heard a lot of medical and a lot of socio, psychologists, things like that. Your career is going to be determined by the education that you guys have now. So especially as you guys are moving into high school, taking your classes seriously while also maintaining your friendships and socializing, it's going to help you a long way in getting to colleges that will thus gain you guys a better education for your careers.
JW: Absolutely. Let's go ahead and share our students over here. How do you feel your education will help you get to the next step toward your dream? Does anyone want to share a little bit about that?
Student: I feel like my education will help me learn things better and it will help me in my future and push me to do better. JW:
Student: Fantastic. I feel like my education will make me grow as a person and show the world that I can become a better person no matter what background I come from or anybody else.
JW: That's true. We are all in this together and equity and equality are things we focus on every day as educators. We would also love to know, is there a special teacher or something at school right now that might be inspiring you to dream big?
Student: I feel like sports is like something that really helps, like it like pushes you and helps you focus on school better because you know, you're supposed to have like good grades to do sports, so like it kind of helps you focus on school better.
JW: Fantastic. Would anyone else like to share?
Student: For me it'd probably be my U.S. history teacher because he's constantly like telling us how like good we're doing or how we could work things and he doesn't really get mad about it, he just explains everything for us.
JW: Those are great examples of how education can really empower all of you and we're here today to learn how you are all beautiful inside and out. Can you tell me why you think it's important for us as educators to ask you what your dreams are and how we can help you make them come true? Would anyone like to share?
Student: I feel like it's important so that when we feel discouraged, we keep going.
JW: Fantastic. We'd love to help you keep going. Would anyone else like to talk about why it's important to ask you what you are dreaming about?
Student: I think it's important that we make it known what other's dreams are, especially girls, just because I feel like a lot of people will again be discouraged and the more we talk about it, the more worthy other girls could see as their future and themselves being.
JW: That's right. And Mrs. Voss, would you like to share with us why you think it's important to hear their dreams and also how it helps you as an educator do what you do?
Mrs. Voss: Yeah, if we know you guys' dreams and we're asking those questions, then we can better prepare you guys for those dreams and lead you down paths that will lead you to success versus not knowing what you guys want to do and then thus not knowing the answers. So the more we know the better we can help you guys.
JW: Well I want to thank all of you for being here today. Fantastic middle school students from Middle Creek Middle School in Comstock Park. Thank you so much for being here today.
All: You’re welcome! Thank you!
JW: And thanks to everyone who's listening as well. We love to encourage our students to dream big. If you have a student that you would like to share in our Your Dream Is Our Dream podcast, let us know by going to Kent ISD.org/yourdreamisourdream. And this partnership is made possible with WGVU. I'm Joy Walczak. Thank you for listening to the Your Dream Is Our Dream podcast today.
