Service/Capstone Update #3 – Spring ’23
Please respond to both questions below, thoroughly.
As the semester comes to a close, please take some time to reflect on your goals, and the journey to achieving them.
- Share a goal you had for service, your personal life, and/or for school this semester. Do you feel like you achieved the goal? What challenges did you experience? How will you use the lessons you learned to build your next goal or continue working on this one?
- Please reflect on any service you have done this semester. How have you grown at your site compared to the beginning of the semester? How have you challenged yourself to increase responsibility and contribute to capacity building? How do you plan to grow more at that site/within the issue area?
23 Responses
1. One of the ways in which I attempted to better myself academically throughout the semester was through improving my study habits when preparing for quizzes and exams. This is because I feel as up to recently in my life, I truly didn’t have effective enough habits to put myself in the best position to succeed academically. I felt that creating better study habits for myself would allow for me to not only strengthen my academic performance, but accomplish more learning than what I might pick up without doing so. This was not to say that there weren’t some challenges; in fact, one of the most notable ones was that there were times in which I struggled to allocate time strictly for studying for a quiz or exam. This is primarily due to the fact that there were days in which I was busy with other schoolwork or activities, meaning studying had to take a lower priority. However, I would say that more often than not, I effectively managed my time well enough to study for the subjects I needed to. So, in that sense – and due to the fact that I did see my performance on quizzes and exams increase this semester – I would consider myself to have succeeded in my goal. However, I am aware that I can partake in actions to better my study habits next semester, such as time management and more efficient use of my time altogether.
2. This semester marked my first for completing service hours at the Albany Red Cross. This meant for me, I really prioritized learning the ins and outs of my position I usually work, while getting to know the other volunteers, as well. At my service site, I still feel myself strongly seeking to provide the best service to the victims of house fires that I serve. Many of them may be devastated by the events which just occurred to them, and be impacted by the positive service the Red Cross provides if we work efficiently and effectively. This being said, this is what motivates me to learn more about my position and improve the service I provide to individuals appropriately. I understand how much displaying care and service can mean for victims, and wish to make that positive impact on them by any means necessary.
One goal I had for this semester was to grow a BLT committee. This goal I realized has not been achieved this semester because I have been accomplishing other tasks that are worth realizing. I have learned that this goal needs time and support to grow. With the recruitment of new PAs, this goal will happen and I am excited for leadership to grow in this way. My work with my capstone project has been getting in the way of this goal. The progression of this has amazed me and with the partnership of having Rachel doing it with me helps so much. During this whole semester, we have been working on an IRB application. Because of our collaboration and hard work, this can be submitted at the start if the Fall semester which is very exciting. Something that I have also worked on was merging more accountability tasks into Canvas to make it more accessible to students for self-accountability purposes as well as creating a more sustainable system for the next accountability PA to take on. This has made me realize that I can set goals but sometimes if we drift away from them to purse other aspirations that is okay. Not everything has to be accomplished in a linear way.
My goal for my service was to come up with more plans and activities that could help the people at the senior center. I feel like as a team we are finding new activities that could be fun for the seniors and could benefit their health. We have things such as yoga and classes that can help with memory. Some challenge we faced was getting it approved by Lifepath because of finances but we find alternatives so it didn’t cost a lot of money. The lessons I’ve learned are that it takes patience and finding other ways to face the challenges we are given, and I will continue to work on this goal. I’ve grown at my site because I’ve been given more responsibility and it has helped me develop more communication skills I plan to grow more by developing more ideas for my site so that our community can also provide help to the senior center.
1. A goal that I had for service this semester was to create a plan for recruiting students that could be sustainable. I am definitely still working on this goal and will continue to work on it in the summer but I am very proud of the work I have put into it so far. Some challenges were definitely taking what we’ve done in the past and realizing that its okay to make changes in order to create a more successful plan. I have learned a lot from this experience and will continue to try to create sustainable plans in this program.
2. This semester I have come out of my comfort zone and have been involved in a lot of events that have been held. Talking to people and recruiting students is something that I have never done before and didn’t think I would really enjoy. But after doing it for a whole year, I learned a lot and I am glad I become comfortable with the uncomfortable.
As the semester comes to a close, please take some time to reflect on your goals, and the journey to achieving them.
Share a goal you had for service, your personal life, and/or for school this semester. Do you feel like you achieved the goal? What challenges did you experience? How will you use the lessons you learned to build your next goal or continue working on this one?
I had a goal o finishing my research and I just got the results the other day! I feel very good that I accomplished this goal. I had some challenges with data and collecting results but it turned out well. I used my lessons of time management to learn how to properly prep.
Please reflect on any service you have done this semester. How have you grown at your site compared to the beginning of the semester? How have you challenged yourself to increase responsibility and contribute to capacity building? How do you plan to grow more at that site/within the issue area?
I have grown a lot as I have had a better relationship with my mentor and I have done great work presenting my paper. I really don’t plan I staying within this interest area. I am taking the last few weeks to sort out my plans after graduation.
1. A goal I had for my personal life this semester was to live more in the present instead of worrying so much about what happened in the past or about what’s going to happen in the future. I feel like I achieved this goal to some extent. I’m at least able to recognize when I’m overwhelming myself with things beyond my control which helps me to ground myself and put things into perspective. A challenge I experienced was not being hard on myself when I realized that there’s nothing more I can do to help a given situation. I’ll use the lessons I learned to continue doing this in my everyday life.
2. I have grown at my site compared to the beginning of the semester because I work a lot more closely with my project partner and with the supervisor at my site, which I didn’t really experience in the beginning of this year/semester. I’ve challenged myself to increase responsibility and contribute to capacity building by sharing ideas with my partner and communicating with her on how we can expand on the research that we’ve done for our site. I plan to grow more at this site by working on a NExT project with them next semester.
This semester, I aimed to build a better relationship with my coworkers and supervisor at my site. The transition from having two sites and only being at the connect center for 3 hours a week to being my main site was a needed one. This semester I have gotten the opportunity to learn so much about the connect center and I’ve gotten the chance to build better connections for lack of better terminology with the other bonners that work there. I have established myself more into the connect center crew/family and I now have the feeling of I am where I belong which was sadly and truthfully not a feeling I had last semester. I will take everything that I have learned so far about what it means to be a part of the connect center family and I will deduce new ways to bond with my colleagues to ensure that the students we serve have the best, most collaborative team working for their benefit.
This semester I am doing more than just the backpack program since I am now full-time at the connect center. With this, I have been added to the roster of volunteers who are tasked with making new initiatives for volunteer recruitment and retention. I am also currently working in the social media field and had the privilege of setting up computers for one of our after-school programs. These things are very important milestones for me and mark my growth from a small-time volunteer to a bigger one. Before any of this, I just came to the connect center on Fridays and spent approximately an hour or so working for the backpack program then I’d be free for my next 2 hours to catch up on any other busy task I could find. My goal for growth is to work closely with my supervisor to ensure tasks like these keep coming and to ensure that there is an avenue for me to claim more responsibility when the time comes.
1. A goal I had for this semester in general was to become more involved in the Albany community in terms of service related to improving healthcare access where there is inequity. I believe I achieved this goal with my service at the free clinic. It has given me an amazing opportunity to not only learn about the kinds of health issues that low-income and unhoused communities face but also to learn about how to run an efficient nonprofit clinic that is a trustworthy resource for individuals in need.
2. I have also really enjoyed my time at Free Food Fridge this year. I have now gotten to know the staff much better and learn more about where the meals are going. We have set up the Siena Free Food Fridge at the Moore House and have begun advertising the fridges around the Albany and Schenectady areas.
This semester, my goal was to devise a strategy for the remainder of my time at Siena. This was not very successful because there are many factors to consider and it was very overwhelming. Instead, I concentrated on making a plan for next semester and the J term. I learned that in order for me not to feel overwhelmed, I must pace myself so that I can focus on the little things rather than the “big picture,” and that the little things will make the “big picture” happen. I also met with Allison who helped me come to a conclusion. Going forward I think it is important for me to have little check-ins with someone so that I can focus on the important things and stay grounded.
This semester is my final semester working at the NEXT site, where I’ve learned a lot over the years. To begin, I’ve learned to give meaning to everything I do at my site. We did a lot of data analysis this semester. When working with numbers, especially at my site, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that each number represents a person. Keeping this in mind, I was able to give my work deeper meaning. The most important takeaway for me, however, was the value of experience. Due to my lack of experience, I had a difficult time during my first semester at this site, which had a significant impact on the productivity of my team. This semester when I went in with a background understanding and experience from last semester I was able to do so much better at my site.
1.) This semester, my goal was to devise a strategy for the remainder of my time at Siena. This was not very successful because there are many factors to consider and it was very overwhelming. Instead, I concentrated on making a plan for next semester and the J term. I learned that in order for me not to feel overwhelmed, I must pace myself so that I can focus on the little things rather than the “big picture,” and that the little things will make the “big picture” happen. I also met with Allison who helped me come to a conclusion. Going forward I think it is important for me to have little check-ins with someone so that I can focus on the important things and stay grounded.
2.) This semester is my final semester working at the NEXT site, where I’ve learned a lot over the years. To begin, I’ve learned to give meaning to everything I do at my site. We did a lot of data analysis this semester. When working with numbers, especially at my site, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that each number represents a person. Keeping this in mind, I was able to give my work deeper meaning. The most important takeaway for me, however, was the value of experience. Due to my lack of experience, I had a difficult time during my first semester at this site, which had a significant impact on the productivity of my team. This semester when I went in with a background understanding and experience from last semester I was able to do so much better at my site.
1. A goal I had for school this semester was to attain a 4.0 GPA, but if I do not end up doing it, it’s fine. A goal for my service this semester, which was my first semester in this program, was to explore different sites and gain a passion for a particular area. I am close to achieving the first goal mentioned, and for the second goal, I definitely explored different sites but I have yet to gain a true passion for a particular area, though my current area of focus if food insecurity. The biggest challenge I experienced were getting used to being in the Bonner Program with the second school semester beign my first Bonner semester and having to get acclimated while everyone around me already was. The lessons I learned from joining this program during my second semester were to always be concentrated on what you are involved in so you do not miss anything important as well as the importance of communication when planning things. My next goals, expanding on this, might include becoming a stronger leader and event planner.
2. At the beginning of the semester, I did not have any sites because I was new to the program. I started out a little before mid-semester working at the Connect Center. I did not do much there at first, but as time progressed, I helped to manage their websites, help in recruiting, help plan new activities, among other things. I also work with Catholic Charities virtually by converting papers into spreadsheets, which is all I have done with them. I have increased responsibility with the Connect Center in particular by taking on more responisbilities (listed above), which in turn makes the Connect Center more efficiently run and higher performing, with their website being updated regularly and recruiting being updated frequently, among other things. I hope to grow more with this site in particular by taking on more leadership positions. For Catholic Charities, I hope to expand my service beyond creating spreadsheets by doing in-person service. Within the food justice issue area, I hope to explore it more and help to make sure people do not grow hungry. I also hope to explore more issue areas to find one I am truly passionate about.
I am currently working on P.A. and capstone for service this semester. As a P.A. I am focused on researching and formulating plans based on sustainability and moving forward as a program. Some of these are looking at restructuring leadership roles and creating new ones because our eventual goal is to have a larger P.A. team. Additionally, I supported other Bonners on their projects and worked on a few media projects. I feel like I’ve had a number of successes this semester including creating possible new P.A. roles and defining more of what my role is and will look like in future semesters. Some challenges are not getting distracted by other projects, but also not limiting myself and what I want to do in my role. Next semester I plan on outlining some other areas of growth as well as doing more to support other students starting new projects (ex. Bonner exchange). I think my experiences this semester helped me find my footing and realize what I want to do in my role. I think that this experience has allowed me to grow in leadership and understanding of how this program works from a different perspective. I’ve learned a lot about what goes into planning for events and activities and teamwork. I think I’m more aware of what is expected of me and how to complete tasks as a P.A. I think that this role has been a new challenge for me because I’ve been saying yes to a lot of roles and tasks that I previously would have doubted my ability to complete. This has made me take on more responsibilities and better appreciate the work that my peers complete. Next semester I plan on taking on more tasks and supporting others who want to branch out and experience different forms of leadership.
This semester I wanted to work on my work-life balance. I wanted to assure that I was still getting my work done, yet also focusing on enjoying the semester and engaging in my life outside of school and service. While this is a challenge, because work always finds its way to pile up, I do think that I was successful. I made conscious efforts to prioritize sleep over a few extra hours of studying. I also tried to wait until my service hours to respond to late-night emails and do other tasks. This worked out fairly well, but like all things sometimes things go outside of their time limits. Excepting this is often something that I struggle with, yet I will use this lesson for future semesters. I found that everything ended up working out, and being flexible is not synonymous with being inconsistent. I will continue to allow for flexibility and prioritize my own needs before allowing myself to succumb to work.
This semester I worked with Wildwood to bring some of their clients to Siena’s campus for programming. I feel like I have grown exponentially in my service this semester. From the start of the semester (and the year) I was not very comfortable with taking full responsibility for an event. The idea of organizing such activities was very daunting. However, as I went along the steps of doing it, I found myself far more comfortable with reaching out to new people and addressing Wildwood’s needs while on campus. We had the first event on April 13th, and it went very well! Four Wildwood clients came to Siena and we hosted an orientation for them to get to know us and what we are going to do over the next two Thursdays. Im excited that this is also a project that is sustainable, as we are collecting data to see how this can be translated to different schools and nonprofits. I plan to work with Wildwood on another initiative in the next two coming years, hopefully with my capstone project. I want to be able to continue with the relationships I have fostered and build more ones. Overall, this project and hopefully future ones will be aimed at adding to the communications skills of those at Wildwood, and their social education.
This semester, my goals were to finish off my undergrad and at the same enjoy it before it ends. Although the semester is not completed yet, I can say that I achieved this goal. My housing changed in the middle of the year and commuting and waking up really early to go to classes has been difficult, but I’m almost there! In addition, I did not expect to be as busy as I was. I often found myself rushing from one task to another, but I certainly learned how to manage time better especially because I did not have much of it.
This semester is the most growing and learning I have done at my site. I recently changed from the youth aspect of FOR-NY to the education sector, and I have loved every moment. Not only am I learning more than I ever had, but I am having more meetings and discussions so that interaction has helped me develop professionally. I have led meetings this semester, which was initially intimidating, but now I feel like one of the staff and feel like I am actually working with my site instead of for my site has been a nice change. I am graduating, but I am leaving FOR-NY with training based on my research and I am most likely going to work with them after I graduate which is exciting.
1. A goal I had for service was to reach out to Unity House and try to make them a partner. I feel like I am still working through the early stages of setting it up as a site but it seems promising! I am currently working to try to go in person once before the end of the semester. I struggled with being able to consistently know what was happening. There has been a lot of back and forth and I have been trying to find an easier root of communication rather than email. I think that once I am able to go in person it will become easier to understand what Unity House is really looking for from a Bonner.
2. I recently joined the marketing team. I learned how to use Basecamp efficiently which is so beneficial because I had really struggled in the past. I enjoy learning about the different things we post and trying to gather content. I was nervous at first because even though I have done some marketing before it’s been smaller projects and I was worried about my abilities. I’m taking it slow but I am excited to be able to learn more about creating posts and content for the ACE office.
A goal I had for my service is to actually start my service site. This site has been in the making for quite some time and finally this month it is up and running. I have been working with my supervisor to better understand the work I’ll be doing. My supervisor, Rich, has been an amazing mentor and has helped me to understand how to respond to certain emergencies. I have completed by first call on my own and everything went smoothly. It was hard to start this site because there were so many steps involved. There wasn’t much communication involved so I didn’t know if I was ever going to go to a site. Most people thought I was on a Bonner break which is not true, I was waiting for my director to sort out this situation. In the future I learned to handle the situation independently.
This semester I have just recently started at my site, but I would say that I am quickly understanding the work. Gradually I feel more and more comfortable with my job and how to handle certain situations. I have signed up for several shifts that even creep into midnight in order to help those in needs. I make sure to contact and communicate with my peers in order to have each step run smoothly. I am ready for any challenges that may come up.
1. A goal I had coming into this semester was to go as hard as I possibly could while also learning how to control my stress. I did end up achieving this goal because I learned the importance of having to make time for things and when to do them. Challenges were getting adjusted to having a schedule for things but it eventually led to lessons that could help me push through adversity and adaptable in any situation.
2. A service I have done is at the connect center. I have grown in my acts of helping others and just having a more open mind to everyone at my site. I have challenged myself to work with others and work on my own and also to be a lot more independent. I plan to grow a lot more due to the fact it is a positive environment overall.
My goal for school this semester was to get more involved on campus. I made progress by attending club meetings and events with LSA, ASL, GSA, and Spanish club, and going to SEB activities and Damietta cafe and performances. Sometimes I was unable to attend, needing to put schoolwork first or not having the social energy at the end of the day as many of these were scheduled at night. However, I feel that for a busy semester, I did my best while also looking out for my work/life balance. I realized how important it is to show up for each other in these affinity spaces, and what positive learning and community-building experiences can come from doing so! I will continue to be community-engaged on campus next semester by scheduling events and meetings in advance in my calendar. I will work on time management so I can stay on top of studying and schoolwork to make time for my classes and clubs that help me connect to other students in a meaningful way!
I have somewhat grown by establishing better communication with my supervisor, club staff, and the kids at the BGCCA. I have not effectively challenged myself to increase responsibility and capacity building, though, which will be my priorities next term given I stay with my service site. I will work on my issue area of youth development by developing programming of my own to educate students on my field of study in specific projects as other college groups are also doing with this organization. Or I will step back from what I’m currently doing, refocus on what the mission of the organization is and plan what I can do to help the Troy branch reach and exceed its goals or improve capacity-building.
One of my goals this semester was to improve my time management skills. Along with bonner this semester I stage managed the play which took up a lot of my time. It was definitely a challenge making sure I did all of my work for Bonner and the show while keeping on top of my school work. Although it was difficult at first I definitely learned a lot and practiced my time management skills. I also had to make sure I didn’t procrastinate any work so as to not get overwhelmed. This skill will help me in many aspects of my future as it allows me to stay focused and work efficiently on any task I am given. I hope to continue to work on this skill throughout my four years as a bonner.
This semester I have gained a lot of confidence at my site. Going into an office space at the beginning of my first semester was a little intimidating as I have never done anything similar in the past, but as I continued throughout the two semesters I learned a lot and felt more comfortable. As time went on my director challenged me with more tasks and increased my responsibilities. I look forward to growing both on my own and alongside my site in these next few years.
This semester I set the goal for myself of diving deeper into my capstone project. Event though I was not devoting the full amount of hours to my capstone, I hoped to get familiar with a site that I may be able to connect with. I would say that this was definitely a challenge because I did not know which direction I wanted to take for my capstone project. I was able to take the lessons I’ve learned from Bonner of being comfortable with the uncomfortable through my experience. It was easy to shy away from exploring new opportunities because of the unknown and not fully knowing what I was doing all of the time, however, it was definitely a good learning opportunity for myself.
At my site, SBANYS, I have been able to grow in similar ways that I have in past semesters. Although I have been with this site for almost 3 years, each semester brings up new challenges and experiences that I get to work on. As a PA, I feel like I have grown in my responsibilities and been able to feel more like a leader. I think that I’ve been more willing to ask for help when I needed and realize that when working as a team, it is okay to lean on others as well as be there for support when they need it.
1. One goal I had for this semester which relates to both service and school was to solidify some things for my capstone project, such as my faculty advisor, community partner, and deliverable. I feel much more confident and stable in my capstone project now than I did at the beginning of the semester. I have a definite faculty advisor and a solidified topic for my capstone. I am almost confirmed with a community partner as well as deliverables. I found it a little challenging to start research for my capstone and then narrow it down to the specific topic I want to focus on. For example, my topic started out very broad as restorative justice and trauma-informed care in schools and I have had to narrow this down to be a bit more specific. Narrowing down my topic is still something I am working on as the semester continues. I have learned though to take it one step at a time and have the big picture goal in mind but realize that this goal has to be broken into feasible steps. This makes the work feel more manageable which is something I will take into continuing my work next year.
2. I feel like I have grown a lot at my site. Since I have been at SBANYS for a few semesters now I am very comfortable with the work I do and feel very confident in how I am able to help my site supervisor. One new thing that I think has helped me grow is adding another Bonner member to our team and taking on the role of delegating tasks. Another thing that has helped me grow is learning how to balance my time between two service projects as I have started to work on my capstone project. By taking on new roles and learning to balance multiple forms of service, I have taken on more responsibility within my site.
One of my goals was to focus on getting good sleep and not pulling all nighters. I wanted to make it a form of self care and taking care of myself. I really feel that I accomplished this goal and it was nice to feel refreshed and ready for each day. I will continue to do this because it helps me thrive in other parts of my life.
Service was good this semester. I enjoyed working with Kim everyday and it is always nice to see the kids. I have worked on trying to find people to come volunteer for our after school homework help program. However, service has been quite boring this semester, so there isn’t much to say and I’m ready for summer. Anywaysssss, have a great day everyone. :)))
1. A goal I had this semester was to finish my capstone and do my best to create something that I am proud of! I feel like I am doing this. We are nearing the end of the semester and I have adjusted my capstone so that it fits more of my interest while also being beneficial to my community partner. I have experienced challenges in finding the motivation at times and being comfortable communicating with my community partner at times. I will take what have I learned through the capstone process with me by knowing that it is okay to makes changes and that not everything is always going to go exactly how it is planned.
2. Service this semester has been crazy as it usually is. From PA, to the Connect Center and capstone it has been a lot to balance. I have grown through learning that it is okay to make changes and that it is important to do work that you’re passionate about. I have challenged myself by making sure I am staying on top of everything and having difficult conversations to make sure that everyone involved is on the same page. With my capstone is the process of being completed I will be able to continue to grow as I get ready to present at NCUR as well as be able to take what I am learning on with me to the next part of my life.
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