We kicked off the new school year for our Mentoring Program with our annual Opening Day, where many of our mentees and mentors from the Middle School Mentoring Program (MSMP) and High School Mentoring Program (HSMP) met for the first time. This year, we celebrated Opening day at Fink’s Country Farm in Long Island; because Halloween is right around the corner, the farm was pumpkin themed and decorated with various fall decor too. We started off the day with a large rock-paper-scissors face off between MSMP mentors against MSMP mentees, and HSMP mentors against HSMP mentees. Soon it was between the MSMP mentors and the HSMP mentees, and the HSMP mentees won!
We then broke off into small groups and got to know each other better through ice breakers and other events throughout the day. We participated in many fun activities such as exploring the corn maze, playing pumpkin games, feeding farm animals and everyone’s favorite: rolling in the corn crib, similar to a sandbox in which the sand is replaced with corn instead. Even during lunch, the groups sat together at wooden picnic tables, chowing down Italian baked chicken served with pasta, and everyone was having a great time.
After all the games and free time, we went back to P.S.1, concluding our first mentoring program event of the year. Thank you to everyone for making Opening Day a success; we can’t wait for the next exciting event!
-Celine Yan, Apex Development Intern
