I attended the orientation to the Certificate in Engaged Leadership to learn more about the program. The program allows students to apply for grants to provide community service to organizations they are passionate about. In their presentation, the presenters brought up an important point that made me reflect my own community service, that people often do community service for the sake of community service, rather than participating because they feel passionate about the organization’s mission. By participating in Engaged Leadership, this will really allow students who are interested in community service to hone in on which organizations they want to provide their service to and how they are going to provide such service.

Another point the presenters brought up that caught my attention is that many of the activities/clubs students participate mainly happen on-campus. However, by joining Engaged Leadership, this allows students to connect with organizations not located in the Cornell campus. This point reminded me of how important it is to remember that there are many organizations beyond Cornell’s campus (i.e. other parts of Ithaca) that need help as well. It is easy to think about events that are happening on the Cornell campus, but forget about the world outside of Cornell. I find myself easily caught up in school work that I do not realize/care to look up news and events happening around the world.  Moving forward, I will try to be more involved in not only on campus, but also the greater Ithaca community.