Community Reflection Paper

This past two week were most dedicated to the final project, but we also had a guest speaker from the biomedical engineering. We get feedback for our design decision matrix and for our second project report.

Team work and commitment through collectively working within and outside the center to aid those in need.

Thinking about what to do for my senior project was difficult. At first I was thinking of skateboarding and at first I thought maybe that could work then, I remembered a good friend of mine did a senior project and introduced me to Arlington Street. People's Assistance Network (A-SPAN). A-SPAN is a organization that’s mission is to provide life-sustaining services for Arlington’s most vulnerable individuals through outreaching and building relationships built on trust and respect.

Because I am a busy single mother raising three boys, going to school, and maintaining a job, finding any extra time to volunteer is no easy task. However, this summer I managed to squeeze it in. The organization that I volunteered for from May through July is the Ashwaubenon Department of Parks, Recreation, and Forestry. More specifically, I volunteered as a coach for AYSA (Ashwaubenon Youth Soccer Association), for the 4 & 5 age level.

We will use two different types of primary research to help aid in the creation of our video. First, we will research videos containing reenactments of community conferencing which can facilitate ideas to extrapolate from to make a video of our own. It is important to analyze the videos to see if there is a certain technique that can be used to accurately depict community conferencing. Also, we will look to see which videos are more popular and analyze what they do differently so that a video we make will gain high popularity as well. It is important to make a video which highlights aspects of the Key Bridge Foundation to make people want to donate towards this organization rather than other community conferencing organizations. Another primary research we will be doing is a survey to the students of the University of Maryland.

Since Muskegon Community College has no housing for students that makes all of it’s students commuters. Engaging commuter is a very important goal. Many institutions struggle to find ways to connect commuter students with the involvement opportunities. Because commuters are on campuses for such little time, the connections to make with them must be immediate and high impact. The primary approach will be to make a simple change in how to orient students and how to interact with them during the first month of classes. By creating a culture of involvement and information sharing at the beginning of their college career. The approach will be meeting with admissions counselor who will present students a list of available clubs and organizations and encourage them to get involved with

Tell us about the most successful group project you have ever been a part of

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate my knowledge of volunteer organizations. Twenty years ago I began my volunteer career working for a relatively young faith-based non-profit organization. My initial community beautification responsibilities progressively developed into other areas of service including teaching, fiscal administration, and event logistics coordination. Through my evolutionary involvement as a multidimensional volunteer, I was able to learn about the inner dynamics of volunteer organizations: fiscal pressure, bureaucratic barriers, struggles to build and maintain community engagement, and the pros and cons of an exclusive volunteer labor force. For documentation I am including my letter of resignation (2014) as the financial

What can make our community better? Could it be sidewalks or Community centers. Lots of things can improve our community. We all want to make the community and better place. There could be fun things to do or peace instead of fighting over things. I say entertainment actives will help improve the community.

As a living-learning program promoting community engagement there are many concepts that are simultaneously applied to the VCU ASPiRE community and the communities at which we set to impact. While building the goals of community engagement within the Richmond community and local areas we are also promoting and building the same aspect within the programs community. We live, learn, and engage with in both communities. Which suggest how community engagement concepts relate to the principles that VCU ASPiRE’s community engagement. There are several concepts that I find to be essential to community engagement. ASPiRE itself is a community engagement focused on creating positive change in communities. In the context of VCU ASPiRE, I find Community

Yes, I have read it. I thought our survey responses were going to be totally anonymous. If I would have known that some of our comments were going to be put in a letter and then posted on the board, where everybody can read about my disability, I would not have included that information. The only reason I put that in there is for future students who are younger than me who have disabilities. my study classmates figured out it was me and asked me to confirm it. I would prefer to come and talk to you in person about the issue before the final and not continue to discuss this on an open discussion

Sense of community “refers to a perception of belongingness, interdependence, and mutual commitment that links individuals in a collective unity” (Kloos et al., 2012, pg. 27). Within my placement at the Queen Street Commons Café, I see multiple instances of sense of community each day I am there. The café strives to include every person from the community in order to ensure that they feel included and a member of the overall community. Two elements of sense of community that I see most often during my time volunteering are membership and integration and fulfillment of needs. Both are seen through the program at the café called, the Speak English Café. This program serves to integrate immigrants or refugees to Canada into the Kitchener community by helping them practice their English through a welcoming, informal

Thus, institutional policies and practices are essential to making all students feel that they matter, rather than marginal (Jacoby, 2015). Research shows that many colleges have not adapted their approach or services to address the changes of the increasing numbers of commuting students (Weiss, 2014). The reoccurring problem of programs and interventions designed for residential students are being applied to commuter students with the assumption that the effect on learning will be equivalent (Weiss, 2014). However, this is not the case and there is an overwhelming amount of stress that comes with colleges continually viewing commuter students as deficit (Weiss, 2014). Additionally, the institution pressures commuting students to adjust to the institution, rather than the institution adjusting to their needs (Weiss,

Non-traditional students, specifically considering our commuter student, those students who do not live in traditional residents halls, but may live off campus, and would not be included in campus housing. These students can sometimes fall into the cracks of higher education. As Student affairs practitioners we might see our residential students, much more frequently than students who commute to school. These students may not get the same type of orientation as our residential students, and their for may not hear about all the different resources available to them on campus. On our college campus we need to begin to become more inclusive. Our students need to be aware that we are here for them. Not just students who are always on campus, but that we are available to help those who are commuting, as well as others who fall under the Non-traditional category. Having a program developed to help commuting students connect with traditional students who may live on campus, or having a commuter student lounge, where they can grab a snack while on there way to class, or even where they can build a community with fellow commuters, might be helpful to

For the service learning project, I teamed up with three of my classmates to volunteer at a lady’s conference at Imani Restoration Centre church (IRCC) on the 16th of September, 2017. IRCC is a non-profit organization which is a Kenyan community founded that focuses on bringing African immigrants together to support and learn the things of God. Samuel Mwangi, the senior pastor of IRCC, said that through the counseling sessions that he holds at the church every Thursday, he discovered that most ladies go through the same challenges. Therefore, he thought it would be great for him to organize a lady’s conference, so that ladies could come together to share and support each other (Personal communication, September, 16, 2017)