April 7 Meeting Thoughts and New Direction

What brought us together? What impulses did we originally have that made us want to pursue an extra year? What are some of the lessons we have learned so far? How can we function more effectively in creating a lasting value? This value is NOT defined to our original focus--it can be whatever we think is feasible, meaningful and will provide value for the future. This is my first step in being open, honest, and committing myself to creating value for our community. Ideas of how to do that will follow! Feel free to comment.

So, what is it that brought us here? Here are some impulses that exist within us all.
-Connecting People/”Bridging Gaps”
-Connecting UR Students to Community
-Connecting Community (students, ppl in SW Rochester) to resources
such as those available at UR
-Changing perceptions of UR/community that exist on both ends, create opportunities
to break down racial, social, economic, and even physical barriers (i.e. footbridge, lol).

-Enriching Peoples’s Lives
-Creating value in the community
-improving the lives of students both on campus and in Rochester
-supplementing the work that others are doing to make Rochester a better place
-We all know through our experiences that UR students have something
to offer the community, and that we can gain from a better relationship with
people of City of Rochester.
-We know this enrichment has been prevented due to prejudice,
unfulfilled commitments, perceptions etc. (negative UR-Roch experiences)

-Passion for enriching lives through education/volunteering
-Some of us have direct affiliations with educational endeavours, but all of us
clearly thinking learning is important, and subscribe to the idea that knowledge is power
-We all believe that volunteering our time to something we are passionate about
can add value to individual lives and our own.
-We want to share our passion for making a difference with UR students and
create opportunities for them to make a difference, whether that’s through tutoring or some other type of service

Stuff we’re thinking right now
-In need of structure? We can create our own structure for how this group should work. Learn from mistakes in the past, find our own ways of being productive; holding each other accountable for goals set out.
-Lack of focus due to lack of defined goal, direction.
-Passion! We need to renew our passion and follow it wherever it leads--this will enable us to be focuses. Sometimes we’re feeling lackluster because we don’t know what this is all for. Some of us may have lost passion for the original idea and need to find what it is we truly want
-Communication: we need to document and share information with eachother, be honest about personal and group goals and have productive conversations that lead to either mental or actual action (conversations that move us forward, either realizing failures and moving on, creating new visions, or new and concrete plans

-Individual Goals: We need to be comfortable with our role in the group and take on the things we are most interesting--each of us can be experts in something and add value to the group’s vision.

-Realize that...
-We’re gaining real skills right now!
-We can create value
-We can find a new direction if necessary
-We have something to give.