It was an interesting beginning for this Rose Scholar’s Program. It was unfortunate that Dr. Hill couldn’t join us in the first Rose Cafe but it was definitely a good experience. I think having this type of town hall type meeting once in a while actually makes the students part of the Rose community. There are a lot of aspects of the maintenance of these dorms that we, as students, don’t know of such as how certain buildings are serviced. It was also very nice having Professor Blalock providing us background information on the gothics and how things are kind of run in the Rose House. His willingness to listen to requests such as thinking about providing  the bathrooms in the main house with larger shower curtains was something that struck me. The fact that the administrators of the house would go as far to provide a minor comfort to make sure students are satisfied is touching. This Rose Cafe also provided a way to bond with the other residents : the bond of certain issues that come with living in the gothics. Personally, I actually loved living in the gothics even with the minor inconveniences. However, this cafe reaffirmed that there were certain demands that were reasonable and they were put to rest at this session. Something else that I liked about this session was that there was an objective set for how to improve our experience at Rose House. The scholars were able to directly speak out about including certain professional development events, which are already put in place. I was withholding from writing for this specific event because I was waiting for some of the things that were going to be looked into to be put in action. I’m really happy to say that I’m really glad that our suggestions are being put to use. This Rose Cafe has definitely opened the doors to a more engaging semester at Rose.