Ready, Set, Go!
When I started working at Miami University Hamilton I felt as though the Connect2Complete program had a life of its own. I have been extremely fortunate in my placement. I have two supervisors, which may sound daunting, but they are wonderful. It is the perfect match between the Office of Learning Assistance which works with all of the dev. ed. students and instructors and the Center for Civic Engagement which plans and coordinates all of the service projects on and off campus.
At Miami Hamilton I was set up for success. Each dev. ed. instructor was informed of the C2C program and its goals at the end of the Spring 2013 semester. This meant that when I met with instructors all I had to was give them fine detail about how the program would work and convince them it was a great idea! I was even given names of students that dev. ed. instructors had identified as ideal students to be advocates which was quickly doubled by recommendations from the Student Activities office.
Within a month I had interviewed and hired 6 advocates, planned their training, had 5 instructors willing to host an advocate and 3 of those willing to participate in a civic engagement project. This was all accomplished with minimal stress. My only wish was that the other C2C OCC VISTAs had had as much in place when they arrived.
As the semester has continued I have been able to create a list of improvements for next semester as well as problem solve along the way. I am hoping that I can become more proactive than reactive but that is the nature of a pilot program.
So far the most rewarding part has been the excitement and satisfaction that the C2C Advocates have had as they are working with students and their classes. These really aren't the run of the mill students. Each and everyone is passionate about helping others and doing as much as they can to in order for the students to be successful..
The Connect2Complete program has 4 civic engagement project set up during the next two weeks. Our first one is Friday September 27th at Shared Harvest for the 002 Math Class. I think it will be a lot of fun and very beneficial!
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