11 Skills and Attributes: Community Building
Leadership Objective: Acquaint newcomers to a community
Activity: Allen Hall Orientation Committee (2009)
Evidence: Allen Hall Orientation website committee page
While living at Allen Hall for two years I met a number of friends but was often busy with engineering studies. To get to know the Allen Hall community better I chose to be on the freshman orientation committee with a few of my diverse friends. When preparing the week of activities for incoming freshmen with the orientation staff, I learned more about the staff personally.
One way I helped build community in Orientation was by writing short bios about the staff based on talking to them and reading a survey they filled out. These bios went up on the Allen Hall website and were shared with the freshmen.
Learning about the personalities of other staff helped us coordinate activities better. A bicycle enthusiast staff member and I worked together to advertise and then conduct a bike tour of sites of interest in Urbana. The overall experience of working together to acquaint new students was enjoyable and I was glad to strengthen some friendships.