University-Community Partnerships

This week's readings were focused mainly on the responsibility that universities who received land during the Land-Grant Act, and how there is a certain expectation of these universities to give back to the communities in which they are located. While reading the two articles I could not help but to begin to compare the private university in my hometown to these larger public universities. I thought back through my childhood and how I couldn't remember a specific time in which that university did something for the community. So whenever we began to talk and read about how larger universities have gone through phases of community engagement, I was taken aback. I had never before thought or expected large universities to be so engaged in the community. The history of university engagement really blew me away and I am feel proud now to know that I am attending a university that stays engaged with its community. I also saw how there was a change from the universities coming in as the all mighty fixers of all problems, and became collaborators with the community. This shift in roles I feel has strengthened the trust that the community has in the university and has also given the university a new view on how teaching and learning works. During my Team Lead meetings it has been said numerous times that we are there to help and collaborate, not dictate and overrun. This thought process is something that I continue really think about to ensure that I go into the community with an open mind and do not come in trying to solve only the problems that I see.

Project Feelings: Being a social work pre-major, I feel as though many people in the social work building have a natural caring personality and I love to help others and empower them to make the best decisions for them. I had assumed that only social work students were so engaged in the community, since it shows us first hand how people are living and gives us a better understanding of their lives. But coming into Global Project Development and learning about Project 2013 I see now that it is not only the social work students who are engaged and volunteering with the community. Seeing students from so many backgrounds being engaged in Project really excites me and makes me want to continue being apart of it. I am also very thankful that they asked us to complete the trainings to better equip us on the day on Project because I have learned a lot about the community and have a much better understanding going into it.

Community Thoughts/Feelings: I am a member of the organization Longhorn LULAC and our chapter's president has been in Washington DC for a couple of days at a conference. He has been sharing his experience and posting pictures as much as he can on Facebook. Today while on Facebook I saw that he had posted the link to an article that was speaking about how large the hispanic community is in Texas and how within 20 years we will make up half the population in Texas. I feel as though the hispanic community's growth is an excellent thing, but I also worry about how we can better educate minority groups. Minorities generally live in low income areas, and even though the hispanic community is large, they do not understand or know their rights so they do not participate in voting elections. We as citizens have a right to vote and have our voice heard. I hope that in the coming years we can find ways to educate the minority communities and allow their voices to be heard as well.

I know this is lengthy so I applaud anyone who reads it. I was feeling and thinking about a lot while writing tonight.

By the way, Project is about to be here! Soo excited!