This week at Awesome Club, after enjoying our snack and pleasant conversation, we tried a brand-new game. This new version of "telephone" combined the high schoolers' love of the traditional game with their fantastic skills at "charades." The game started in a single-file line, with all members facing the same direction. The last person in line was given an action or word to begin. He/she tapped the person in front of them on the shoulder, who turned around to see the action being mimed (without any talking!). Next, the person who witnessed the action tapped the next person in line, then acted out their best impression. The action or word moved up the line in this format and by the end, some crazy ideas came up! (My favorite: making a sandwich turned into petting a cat.) After this new game, the high schoolers split up to play Uno and Mafia. It was a fun, relaxed day at Awesome Club. It is really hard to believe, but there are only two more meetings before the end of the year! We will see everyone next week!

Written by Steph Smith, Edited by Natalie Davis

We played a new game,"Guess Who," this week at Awesome Club. In contrast to the traditional board game, this version involves putting a post-it on your forehead! Everyone thought of a Disney character and wrote it on a post-it then stuck it on the forehead of the person next to them. Then everyone has to ask the group questions to try and figure out which character they are. It was a fun change of pace, and we played two rounds! The boys then decided they wanted to play the game where they start a picture and then pass it around the circle, each person adding new details to each drawing. They always have a lot of fun with this game and it's so funny to see what has happened to each picture in the course of the game. Some are hardly recognizable due to all the new additions!

The boys were very excited to see us when we came into the middle school, and they had plenty of energy throughout! Luckily we had an outdoor Easter egg hunt planned, so the excitement was appreciated. Before heading outside, each of the boys traced their hand and decorated it for a hallway at St. Olaf to raise awareness about autism and to promote Awesome Club. The idea was that they would write what they like about Awesome Club on the hand, but they are so creative that most of them took the project in their own direction. We ended up with a couple turkeys and a mutant rabbit! After that we got to go outside for the egg hunt. The boys loved it! And, of course, they especially loved the candy inside of the eggs!

Written by Sara Schaenzer, Edited by Natalie Davis

This week at Awesome Club, we had a delicious snack (as usual) and chatted about our plans for Easter weekend. Next, in order to help out the college volunteers with a special project, we traced our hands on construction paper, cut them out, and wrote our favorite thing about Awesome Club on them. These hands will decorate a hallway at St. Olaf in order to raise awareness about autism. We quickly learned that the high schoolers love Awesome Club for a wide variety of reasons - everything from "Food," "Mafia," and "Friends" to the notion that "Skill is not a requirement." (Yes, that is a direct quote.) Another person wrote on their hand, "I love Awesome Club because...it's awesome! 'Nuff said!" Needless to say, the program is a hit. After finishing our art project, we broke up into smaller groups to play Uno and the Guessing Game from last week. As hard as it might be to believe, there are only 3 more Awesome Club meetings before summer!

Written by Steph Smith, Edited by Natalie Davis

I was so honored to be recognized as a nominee for the St. Olaf Established Leader Award. To the left, I am pictured with my friend Meghan Kleinsteiber, who was also nominated! Congratulations to everyone who was recognized for their accomplishments this evening!

Today, I performed Brahms: Ein Deutches Requiem, Op. 45 as a member of the St. Olaf Chapel Choir, accompanied beautifully by the St. Olaf Orchestra. To  check out the performance, visit the St. Olaf Video on Demand Website and search the Archived Concerts & Recitals. Select Semester II, 2010-11 and click "Spring 'Oratorio' Concert." http://stolaf.edu/multimedia/streams/archive.cfm?category=concerts

I was so excited that my family came to support me! I can't wait to see them next weekend over Easter break!

On Friday, I was honored to speak and perform at Sertoma's Service to Mankind Banquet, where several outstanding community members were honored for their commitment to service. Ellen Wild was honored for her dedication as an oncology nurse and her support of numerous cancer foundations. Diane and Mark Christensen were honored for their commitment to the Minnesota Nice Project, through which they have been able to send countless care packages to troops overseas. Thank you to everyone at Sertoma for including me in this wonderful program and for supporting the Miss America platform, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. All of the money donated to the Miss Mankato "Let them Bloom" project will help children seeking medical care at Gillette Children's Hospital. THANK YOU!

This week at Awesome Club, we were hoping to have another beautiful day like the previous week. However, it was very cold and very windy, so we stayed inside, first chatting about our weeks and plans for the weekend. Some of the high schoolers had plans to go to prom and it was obvious that they were very excited to get dressed up and show off their dance moves. After our snack, we split up into small groups to play a few different games. By the end of Awesome Club, the majority of the group had joined the guessing game, where participants wrote down a Disney character on a post-it note and put it on the forehead of their neighbor (so that they couldn't read it). Everyone took turns asking yes-or-no questions to figure out the name on their forehead. It was very entertaining and made for a lot of laughs, so I'm sure we will see the guessing game again sometime soon! Summer is getting closer by the day, so there are only a few more Awesome Club meetings left this year!


Written by Steph Smith, Edited by Natalie Davis

The cold MN weather kept us insides this week, but we still had a fun and laid-back club. The boys really enjoyed talking to each other during snack time, and we used that time to talk about what they wanted to do with our time. Based on their suggestions, we started out with the game Security Guard. We played an advanced version where they could cross the room from any direction, making it quite a challenge for the person who was trying to make sure no one was moving! After that we played Mafia for the first time this semester. Everyone especially enjoyed the last round that went quite long and ended with the "arrest" of the wrong person. At the beginning everyone had agreed on free time at the end, so we spent the rest of club building impressive K'NEX creations!


Written by Sara Schaenzer, Edited by Natalie Davis

At the last round of Awesome Club, we reunited after a two week hiatus (due to both St. Olaf and Northfield High School's spring breaks). We spent some quality time chatting about our spring breaks over snacks and juice, but it was obvious that everyone wanted to enjoy the nice weather. It was a perfect day to take a field trip to the park. Playing outside helped everyone's moods and it was nice to get some fresh air after being cooped up in a classroom at every Awesome Club meeting for the past couple of months. Weather permitting, I am sure that we will be taking more trips outside. Let's keep our fingers crossed that winter is gone for good (at least on Thursdays). We look forward to seeing everyone again next week!


Written by Steph Smith, Edited by Natalie Davis