This past Saturday I had the chance to participate in a community service project that involved building a park playground.  Although our Rose House Scholar group arrived on Saturday, teams of workers and volunteers had been working on the project for almost a week and the playground was starting to finally come together.  As this was my first Rose Scholar opportunity, I did not know what to expect.  However, I ended up with many great takeaways from the experience.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to leave campus for a  while and do some hands on work.  This was my first time leaving the campus to go into Ithaca and it was nice to finally be exposed to life outside of the college.  Additionally, I really enjoyed this particular event because of the hands on work we were able to do with the tools.  Unlike some of the other events which involve sitting and listening, being given a goal and then working towards completing it was both satisfying and a great learning experience.  I especially liked how to the workers gave us a task and a lot of autonomy after giving us some practice with the tools and techniques as well as some basic guidelines.  I believe that the hands on experience I obtained working with the tools will stick with me and will undoubtedly be useful in the future.  It was also great to support the local community and to be able to bond with my fellow Rose Scholars.  In addition, I liked how it allowed me to work on something that was not academic.  Memorable Experiences

Ultimately, I had a great time volunteering to help build the playground and I would love to participate in similar events in the future.

This past Saturday I attended the community service event down in Stewart Park where we helped build a new playground. The entire project was done with the help of volunteers in the greater Ithaca community over the course of approximately a week, with twelve hours of work everyday. I really enjoyed the experience for a lot of reasons, beyond the fact that it’s always nice to contribute to a project like this.

One of my biggest takeaways was how important management is to the “flow” of a project. I’ve volunteered for a handful of projects like this, only they were always on a much smaller scale. The sheer amount of volunteers for this project was staggering, and it was clear that at times it was difficult for the project managers to keep everyone occupied with a job. There were only three people as far as I can tell that knew all the detailed plans for the project, and beyond that everyone was waiting for instruction. Because of this, there were definitely a lot of times I felt a little bit directionless. Not to undermine all of the incredibly hard work that was put in, but I can’t help but wonder if it would’ve been more efficient if there were more project managers on site that knew what needed to be done and how.

The other thing that I took away from this was just how little I know about power tools. I’m definitely comfortable using a drill, but when it comes to things like circular saws I have next to no experience. At first I was nervous to ask for help, but the fear of hurting myself with the tool quickly outweighed that nervousness. Life lesson: never be afraid to ask for help if you need it! All in all, this was an extremely rewarding experience, and I hope to attend more like this with Rose House.

Now and then pending towards an idealistic view, my mind can sometimes interpret things very simplistically and underestimate some details, depending on the situation.
At the Stewart Park Playground construction site, I worked the entire afternoon with another Rose Scholar volunteer and a single worker. And we worked the entire afternoon on a roof.
Honestly, it sometimes felt like we weren’t doing progress. All the time, we needed to check if the parts of the structure were at the correct angle. All the time, we had to correct small differences in heights and positions. Because of that, if you compared the looks of the structure in the beginning and in the end of the day, you would probably see very little noticeable difference. And, whenever I see something like that, I start blaming myself for “not working as hard as I should’ve” (even if that doesn’t make any sense).
However, this process we went through made me start appreciating much more the amount of effort and care that goes into construction and, actually, most things. We were always making every detail was OK; always looking at the last small step taken with the single, clear goal of making sure the next one is easy and smooth. Although a part of my mind would love to disagree, I now appreciate a lot more the work we did than I would’ve before, and I do believe we did significant progress. We didn’t make big steps: we made big small steps.

Aside from that, and going to a more general overview, the visit to the park was, to me, one of the few experiences I’ve had outside of campus so far, and one that made me feel like a part of the community. It was very rewarding to help building the playground for the kids, even if we only did it for an afternoon and, thus, were only able to take a very small portion of the big small steps of the construction.

The volunteering event at Stewart park this weekend gave me a newfound sense of community in Ithaca. It was the first time that I was able to be a part of an off-campus event where people from all over the city, regardless of experience or background, had gathered for one collective purpose: to build a playground for the city’s children. It really was a sight to behold, and it gave an entirely new meaning to “it takes a village to raise a child.”

The best way to describe this experience is wholesome. I had the opportunity to interact with other fellow Rose Scholars, as we made our way down to the park. Upon arriving at the park, I met townies with whom I had the pleasure of working through our assigned tasks. I met alumni who gave me career advice. I saw people from all walks of life sharing their stories with each other. On the way back, most of the Rose Scholars group ended up dinning together. This provided the opportunity for discussing our experiences at Cornell and sharing bits of wisdom and advice with each other, to be more successful in this admittedly stressful environment. It dissolved away the sense of competition that I feel usually encompasses my interactions on campus and created a supportive environment for discussing our concerns.

In the end, I feel I got as much back from my time volunteering in this community endeavor as I had invested. I may have been covered in dirt and sweat, but my spirits and attitude towards this semester felt refreshed.