Radke - Week 7 - Dickinson

On Friday, I had the opportunity to participate in a meeting about Dickinson’s upcoming Sophomore Neighborhood Experience Program.  This program is piggy-backing off the initial program that was launched last year with a Freshmen Neighborhood Program.  The idea of the neighborhood programs was brought to campus to instill the values of community engagement and leadership at an early level upon coming to Dickinson.  I could talk about the details of this program for hours on the blog, but so I don’t bore yall with the details, I will focus on the success of the program.  In one year they were able to see tremendous success in the goals they were trying to achieve with their students.  When their Student Affairs division was revamped a few years ago, they brought in consulting firms to review ways to get their institutions mission in more than just the classroom.  They saw a need for a more structured residential system that placed responsibility and freedom among its students, but also gave them a sense of belonging within the neighborhood they were placed.  At State we see these groups form in the way of our greek system and learning communities; 200 plus living together.  On a small campus where greek life isn’t as large and the incoming class settles around 600, this option works very well.

Freshman Residence Hall - Adams

After all the success of the first year program, the college has decided to build into a Sophomore Neighborhood Program.  The meeting I mentioned before was one of the initial planning stages of the meeting to see how the years were different, but still valuable to students.  We were charged with the simple questions of how would the neighborhood be split up? How many would there be? What would be the mission and focus of this neighborhood and how would it be marketed?  It was a great learning experience to be in a meeting with planning that was really just starting from the beginning.  I was asked to attend not only as a learning experience, but to contribute some objective, not as invested, thoughts over what was trying to be accomplished.  We will be meeting again before I leave and everyone in attendance at the meeting chose specific issues to work through to bring back to that meeting. 

The one problem that I’m beginning to see with this practicum is how I will be leaving things incomplete and only through keeping up with the Office of Campus Life, will I be able to know how it all played out through the semester.  I guess this is the price you pay when going away somewhere for this experience.

Carrie