First Week at Siena College!

It’s that time of the community engagement process again folks: orientation!!!  Woohoo meeting people and learning about Siena and starting out another adventure!  Our Siena journey began with an informal pizza dinner, similar to that at the beginning of Stetson Bonner orientation week, at the Siena Academic Community Engagement (ACE) office.  We had the opportunity to meet other Summer Service Scholars as well as Dr. Ruth Kassel and April Risley, who were both involved in the phone interview process in order to be admitted into the program.  It was another awesome chance to meet people from all over the country who share our passion for community engagement.  I was especially excited to meet Sarah Ferritto, who would be my partner while working at the Boys and Girls Club of Albany throughout the summer.  We also met a group of three students from Ursinus College named Becca, Shannon and JD, and others such as Taylor, Conor, Gabriel and Katie.

The first true day of orientation gathered everyone in the program together in the library for a day of icebreakers, PowerPoints, discussions, games and Americorps paperwork.  The highlight of the day, in my opinion, was when all of us divided into two groups, with each group having their own secret form of communication and culture.  After spending about 30 minutes learning about our new society (either Alphas or Betas), we then had to integrate and try to learn about the other group while maintaining our own culture.  It was incredibly confusing at first to understand what our objective was in this game as very little direction was given to us by Ruth, but it ended up being very rewarding.  It really emphasized the importance of open-mindedness, understanding, and avoiding pre-conceived notions about what other cultures are going to be like.

Our second day was much busier!  We spent the entire day out in the community visiting the sites that some of the Summer Service Scholars are going to be working at.  I personally visited the Albany United Methodist Society in the morning, a site similar to the Neighborhood Center.  We then all met up at the Boys and Girls Club for lunch where I was able to meet my supervisor, Ishmael, for the first time!  Continuing on to the Capitol District Community Gardens to plant some future food for a few hours and then heading back to Siena for more discussion!  Although exhausting, it was an incredible day to be able to visit three different sites and learn how each one has their own way of helping the community, each one has a different target demographic, and each has a completely different work environment.


This then led me to my first few days of working at the Boys and Girls Club of Albany.  As of right now we are only working with the after-school program until the school year ends, and will then transition into summer camp in early July.  Upon entering the club, we were immediately introduced to a bunch of staff members, given a tour, and asked to participate in an activity to brainstorm potential games for the kids and the needed supplies for best ones.  Ishmael did not hesitate to welcome Sarah and I, and I can already tell that this is going to be a wonderful place to work.  I’m more excited to meet all of the kids and start building relationships with them!  My first full week at the Boys and Girls Club is still ahead, and there’s much to look forward to!