True Colors

Every week YES teens and Coaches have College Prep session in the beginning of Lab time. Freshmen through Seniors meet to participate in activities that expose them to and build their awareness of opportunities for live after high school. This includes developing skill sets necessary for success. This week we looked at developing interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, esspecially teens' perceptions of their personalities and how that influences their interactions with each other. My educational background is in Psychology, so True Colors is one of my favorite activities. Teens talk about what color they feel best describes their personality. Greens are the independent workers and free thinkers. Oranges are the fun loving friendly group. Yellows tend to be seen as the leaders in the group, being responsible and holding others accountable. Finally, blues are the creative and compassionate individuals. 

I can never decide if I am mostly blue or mostly yellow, but most of the teens in our Sophomore group were pretty clear on where they stood. Our largest group was Orange, which is pretty typical in younger audiences. We had a really interesting discussion on what makes a color that color, and how do stereotypes play out. We also talked about how certain traits typical to a particular color that might be considered negative could be reframed as positive. For example oranges could be called goof offs, or we could say they are able to see the fun side of everything. Yellows could be thought of as dull, or alternately as responsible. Developing your communication skills is a useful process whether you're talking about people you work with, go to school with, or in your family.