Last week, I had the opportunity to volunteer at Into the Streets.  This was an interesting experience for me because I never knew that Cornell had a day of service emphasized on giving back to the community. I also had never realized how far the Ithaca community spanned. I volunteered at the Y, and the task of my group was to rearrange the tree logs, stones, and rocks to make a nice playground setting for younger students who come to the outdoor Y for Summer Camp. This was an interesting experience since not only where we doing community service, but we also got to apply our creative skills in thinking about how we could arrange an interesting setup with the tools that we had to engage students. I appreciated that we got to collaborate with each other, brainstorm ideas, list pros and cons of what activities younger students were more likely to partake in etc, instead of just doing work that wasn’t mentally stimulating. I also got to meet diverse people from various grades and majors which was exciting because I feel like I only usually talk to students in my majors as they are taking the same classes as I am. In understanding the reasons people were choosing difference majors and minors, this got me thinking about the different minors that I could potentially do especially since I am enrolling for classes tomorrow.

Before we went to Into the Streets, there were performers who were showcasing their talent at Kennedy Hall. These performers were playing various drums and were very skilled and talented. I appreciated that we got to see the performers because that put everybody in an uplifted mood ready to get out and do service which I believe was the goal of the performers. Through this opportunity, I also realized the many opportunities there exists to volunteer in the community at Ithaca which I had never known before.  Sometimes because there are so many community service organizations at Cornell, it can be hard to see the simple ways that people can volunteer in the community. This one day of service was helpful in allowing me to understand very easily the types places I could do community service at Ithaca later on. Through this experience, I am looking forward to volunteering my time at similar outdoor settings like the Y in the near future.