Alissa Adams is a 18 year old who graduated from Lincoln Park High School in June 2015 in Chicago, IL. She is currently pursuing a college education in Indianapolis, IN.

Alissa participated in the YPP program during the two summer sessions in 2014 and 2015. Alissa has demonstrated immense growth over the course of two years. She is a leader and a perseverer. During a memorable moment, Alissa was in charge of facilitating a game right after her peers came back from their lunch break. Many of her peers were full of energy and they were losing focus. Alissa was able to capture the attention of her peers after trying different methods. Her mature attitude allows her peers and the children to see her as a role model.

Alissa shares a good moment during the first 2014 summer session: “Being involved with YPP makes me feel like I have a chance to change someone else’s life and help them to not look at math in a bad way and to just have fun with it. A time that I exhibited great leadership was when one of the outreach students were struggling and was not getting one of the games and one of my peers was getting frustrated so I to take the leadership role and helped him out. It made me feel good that I was able to help that student and show my peer you have to be patient with the kids or they will get frustrated too.”

She shares how the program helped her facilitation and patience skills during the 2015 summer session: YPP has helped me in this area by giving me the tools I need to be able to stand up in front of a classroom of students and explain a math game to them step-by-step, and them actually getting how to play it and have fun while doing it. Being in YPP you have to have a lot of patience especially working with kids. You have to be willing to explain things over, handle problems, and work with the kids all with a great attitude and energy. You also, have to erase “I Can’t” from your vocabulary when working with kids or else they will think it’s ok to give up on things so easily.”

Alissa aspires to become a CMLW once she begins her college education. In the long-term future Alissa hopes to pursue a career in the health field.