Sunday, January 19, 2014

January 17th Meeting Relfection

1. Name of Cohort Meeting: Communities, Teams and Groups

2. 3 Things I Learned:

  • I learned that sometimes when you think you have a great plan but it falls through, its just to make way for something better.  Basically even though our original service project didn't work out, it made way to serve a population (the elderly) that is often ignored.
  • I learned that we will be presenting our service project to a lot of people who are very important at BGSU, particularly President Mazey.  This makes me nervous but hopefully I will overcome that fear with the help of my public speaking class.
  • Lastly I learned that sometimes forming a community involves a little chaos but that is okay because it helps the community learn to be open about problems instead of shoving them under a rug.
  • Also I am beginning to accept that there is a lot of gray in the world and that that is okay but since I'm not quite there I didn't think that should count as one of my three things.
3. I believe a community is a group of people who share a common identity, whether it simply be geographically based, such as a residence hall, or on larger scale such as religion or sexual orientation.  My ideal community is an inclusive place where everyone realizes that under outer identity differences they can still find common ground with each other.  It would also involve mutual respect where people could be open which relates to the 4 Stages of Community Development that Eric explained to us.  Also, based on the Cross the Line activity I would want it to be a place where there was equal privilege for everyone.

4. My definition of a team is a group of people united under a common goal whether by choice or by circumstance.  To me, teams are different from communities because they have to work together to accomplish something, they don't just believe the same thing side by side.  But teams are like a subcategory of community, like squares are a subcategory of rectangles.

5. I included a picture of my drawing because I want everyone to enjoy how pretty it is and also to remind everyone of the 8 aspects of a community.