As excited as I am to be back in Ithaca about to start my senior year, the end of summer was quite bittersweet. I can hardly believe Cultivating Community 2024 is over! On our last day at the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, I painted the welcome sign on the mural and conducted my post-surveys for the upcoming poster presentation. It was great to have some one-on-one time with each of the teens to allow them to reflect on the summer.
Our final cooking session was veggie pizzas! We used some of the herbs and produce we harvested from the Maplewood YMCA garden and the pizzas turned out great. Wednesday was my final day as I shadowed a University of Rochester doctor on Thursday. The students made me a thank you sign that I took with me to hang up in my college room. Saying goodbye to the students was quite emotional. I will miss each of them dearly but we agreed that they will call me during the school year for help with math and science homework whenever they need so we will stay in touch.
Now that I’m back at Cornell, I’m able to fully appreciate how wonderful this program was. I can compare my summer experience to those of my peers and am able to fully appreciate how lucky I was to work so closely with the community, form meaningful connections, make a direct impact, and spend so much time outside! I am so grateful to Susan Coyle, Kristen Elmore, Rachel DeVona, and the whole CCE Monroe County team for putting so much effort into such an incredible program. And to any undergrads considering this internship for next summer… I can’t recommend this job any more!
