As I mentioned in my previous post, the Chess Club hosted a Cops and Kids chess event. Located at a beatdown elementary school in the inner city, the events' intentions were to spark conversation and friendship between divided sides over a thinking game. I arrived early and went through a metal detector. A stark contrast to the life I'm used to at Burroughs. There were K-9's and the staggering majority of the student body was black. I walked into the cafeteria where my supervisor was setting up chess boards followed by placing Jimmy-Johns on the center table. By the time opening remarks came along, you could sense the tension in the room. All the kids who are super docile and quiet and the five police officers standing at the front of the room engaging in conversation among themselves. When we were invited to sit and play, I also played with the middle-school students. I had no trouble making friends and having a lot of fun while hanging out with them. However, I noticed th
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In my first post, I talked about what I have been doing in the morning. After I finish up at Stray Rescue, I head over to the Chess Club for a few hours. The Chess Club is a non-profit that aims to promote Chess throughout the Saint Louis area. I was put to work right away and started off by creating tactic puzzles. For those who don't know a lot about chess, tactics are certain positions in which the player needs to find an obscure winning move in order to solve the puzzle. Different tactics have certain themes they revolve around. The tactics that I have been creating involve being up material whether it be a rook, queen, bishop or knight and how to win from those positions. I've also worked on Active King positions and Pawn Promotions. A pawn promotion occurs when the pawn reaches the other end of the board and can be exchanged for a stronger piece typically a Queen. The tactics that I've been creating are being compiled into a giant lesson plan that the Club is creatin
Alright, I'll be the first blogger. For my may project, I am balancing work between two different organizations. In the mornings, I head to Stray Rescue of Saint Louis. After going through a volunteer orientation, I was thrown right into the mix. They have a pretty open schedule, so I can pretty much do whatever type of service I want. I usually start the mornings by taking one of the dogs on a walk. Many dogs have to go on shorter walks because they are heartworm positive and thus fatigue easily. Nevertheless, walking is a really important part of the day because the shelter is a high anxiety environment, and the walk is a chance for the dogs to get away from the barking. The organization does a great job with dogs, but barking is inevitable, unfortunately. As a result, many of the dogs suffer from high anxiety resulting in diarrhea and do not like other dogs. Anyways, as someone who doesn't own a dog, I am experiencing the ups and downs of having a dog. Cleaning up the poop h
