I believe B and G are leaving for Yellowstone as a part of their last big trip with the Utah Museum of Natural History. They, like I worked/interned there for six years, but I was the only original member of the Youth Teaching Youth program which originated in 1994.

Youth Teaching Youth was/is a program based out of a local junior high school that through the Utah Museum of Natural History recruits 7th and 8th graders to teach anthropology, minerals and earth science to elementary schools. The 7th and 8th graders spend a few months learning each of the six-eight science kits (Great Salt Lake, dinosaurs, rocks & minerals, plants, animals, etc.)

This was my job as a junior high school student. To visit kids just a few years younger than I was, and to try to teach them science. It was difficult, but it enhanced my desire to become a teacher.

9th grade comes along, and we're continuing the program, only this time it's after school programs at schools I've never heard of or been to. The 15 or so of us are all still enjoying the program and the trips that come with it, like river rafting, Yellowstone Nat'l Park, and countless other day trips.

In 10th grade, it all changes. After six months of getting hourly pay, we are converted to a stipend when another director comes into the equation. People who had been with the program since its inception four years earlier begin to drop out. No longer are we teaching kids. We are now "interns" and are working in various areas of the museum.

Without the option of teaching, I chose to work on webpages. In fact, I believe a few of them are still up in some obscure area of the web. It's at this time, we get local news coverage, the opportunity to travel to Minnesota for a microbiology confrence, but with the good, more bad. In the span of four months, (and three in one month) three of the originals leave the program. Two of them were working in the same area as me at the museum, and I had known the three that quit at virtually the same time for most of my life.

To add to this, my sophomore year was terrible. I felt out of place, I had fights with friends, and it was probably the most depressing year of my life. I stuck out the year, and couldn't wait until the next where I would once again become involved in teaching, only this time it was I who would teach the kits to the junior high students.

I am grateful of the program. I met so many people that I became close with whom I otherwise may have never been involved with. The trips were the one in a lifetime type. I went river rafting six times, visited Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon once, cross country sking and camping countless times.

It was such a shame it had to end for me on such a sour note. Last year's trip to the Grand Canyon and slide show weren't as enjoyable as they should have been.

I hope G and B have a fun time on their trip. I hope they remember that opportunities like this don't come along every day.

Jason

Random Jagged Little Pill lyric:

"What it all comes down to

Is that everything's gonna be fine fine fine

I've got one hand in my pocket

And the other one is giving a high five."

-Hand In My Pocket

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