Civic Learning and Community Engagement has always been a part of patriot experience. My first experience with community engagement was during my Honors College freshman orientation when I volunteered at Women Giving Back, and I’ve been expanding my community engagement ever since. Through the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), I have volunteered in numerous ways. One of my most meaningful programs was the Noche de Ciencias program last spring. Noche de Ciencias, or Science Night, was an outreach program at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia for younger students with the aim of increasing student awareness, interest, self-efficacy, and self-identity with STEM subjects and careers.
Through out partnership with Wakefield, SHPE was able to provide middle school and high school students with opportunities to participate in hands-on STEM activities and receive mentorship. This program was so impactful because Mason volunteers were able to interact and inspire young students with marginalized identities, as well as educate their parents on the importance of college. In addition to Noche de Ciencias, SHPE volunteers at Wakefield to facilitate monthly hands-on STEM activities at their Science Club.
Another one of my favorite community engagement programs was the SHPE Stream Clean-Up. “Looking for a way to help the environment and beautify the Mason community? We’re seeking students who are interested in volunteering to clean up streams on campus! Clean water starts with YOU!” These words came to me on a Friday last Spring when I was walking across the bridge outside the HUB. While I was used to seeing bits of trash strewn all around the ground below, I was inspired that semester to do something about it by organizing a stream cleanup.
Out of the four definitions of leadership I learned at the beginning of Nick’s Ethics and Leadership class, the one that resonated the most with me was Warren Bennis’: “Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action…” I hate seeing litter on the ground because I know that it will wash down the storm drains which pours out onto the Chesapeake Bay, thus polluting our waters. With this knowledge in mind, I had the vision for a cleaner Mason campus. After creating an outline of things I had to do in order to make the cleanup a success, I reached out to Mason Facilities Management and two student organizations, created a flyer, made a few classroom visits to advertise the event.
“Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action…”
– Warren Bennis
Approximately 3 weeks later, I was working alongside 30 students outside the HUB, knee-deep in weeds, holding a trash picker in one hand and a plastic yellow bag full of litter in the other. In just two short hours, we had gathered enough trash to fill the bed of a pickup truck (part of me was proud of how the area was so much cleaner, the other was a little grossed out by how much trash was uncovered from beneath the bridge). While I thought this was an impressive feat, what made me most proud in this situation was that I was able to gather a group of strangers together to work towards a common goal of making Mason a cleaner campus. I don’t think leaders create effective change overnight. I believe it comes when we continuously commit ourselves to tasks and projects with the aim of creating a positive impact. It makes me wonder how much would change if more people took initiative to do something positive about a problem in their community?
As a Leadership Consultant, I’ve been given the opportunity to work on so many service projects that were fulfilling and gave me a sense of purpose and inspiration to do more to give back to the community. I think my favorite service project was our Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts, where we partnered with the Virginia Department of Transportation and Victory Van Corporation to collect immediate and specific items that were needed to support the ongoing relief efforts from Hurricane Harvey. The amount of donations that we were able to collect in 2 short weeks surpassed my expectations and I was inspired/astonished that we were able to get so many people from Mason to come together for one cause. What I liked best about this project was that it was very intentional. Through the lessons of impact vs. intent that I learned from Active Leaders (starfish and babies down the river stories), I learned the importance of critically analyzing service projects (i.e. identifying the issue/community and making sure that the service what the community actually needs) and we were able to find a credible partner to work with (VDOT) and secured direct means for getting specific items down to Texas (Victory Van Corp.).
