Last week, I attended the Rose Cafe with guest Mike Bishop, who discussed community engagement at Cornell and beyond. Mr. Bishop is the director of Engage Cornell, and he discussed his career in service and how his program helps students connect with service opportunities. His experiences were very interesting to listen to, since Mr. Bishop has been involved in many different types of service and demonstrated that there are many forms of giving back to the community. This could involve fundraising, mentoring, and more. Specifically, Mr. Bishop commented on how he is energized by certain types of service, encouraging us to discover the form of service that speaks to us best.
Mr. Bishop also discussed the number of non profit organizations in the Tompkins County area is over 500 organizations, which is much higher than the national average. I thought that this was surprising and did not expect there to be so many organizations. This also demonstrated to me that there are many ways to provide service and connect with the community, and also that there may be many issues in the community that we may not realize. This Rose Cafe reminded me that being at Cornell allows me to pursue many opportunities that I may not have access to at home. I plan to reflect more critically on my previous service experiences in search of the method of community engagement that suits me best.
I fully agree! The number of opportunities Cornell provides is staggering, and sometimes it feels difficult to partition your time amongst all the amazing things happening here. It is always great to see people engaged and interacting with the surrounding community.
Throughout high school I was very passionate about community service being a girl scout. However, at Cornell, given the plethora of opportunities, I’ve found it hard to narrow down on opportunities that really fit me. I’m a person that is willing to learn and have new experiences, but have realized that often times these experiences come at the cost of other activities, etc. I’m still looking towards balancing my other interests yet still engaging with more fulfilling experiences such as community service opportunities which I plan to make use of next semester.
It’s nice to know that there are local organizations available to us as resources such as “Engage Cornell” that show us ways in which we can give back to our community, even if we don’t always have the time for it between classes and homework. I also didn’t know there were so many non-profit organizations in our area! Did Mike Bishop mention any specific non-profit organizations he has worked with?