Week Two:
In your community engagement project, how do you connect with community members? What kinds of conversations are you having, and what common cause do you find? Meeting new people and beginning a new project is exciting, but can also be stressful. As you set out on your community engagement project, what are you most concerned about, and what resources or tools might you use to address these concerns? Add in photos and videos as you like!
In my community projects, I engage members by working right alongside them and mentoring them through specific initiatives. I've been put in charge of mentoring the robotics team here in St. Lucia, and my goal is to help them break into the top 50 at this year's global championships.
So far, my conversations with the team and my mentees have been mostly technical. There's a real excitement around technology in my community, and I feel privileged to share the knowledge I gained through university and research. There's also a strong fascination with innovation and startups here in St. Lucia, very much in keeping with the modern zeitgeist, so those discussions have been especially interesting.
The common cause I've found is a shared fascination with technology and a mutual purpose: using it to improve the lives of the people we interact with.
My biggest concern is the level of trust and expectation placed on me. The community wants me to mentor the team, give talks to local entrepreneurs, and contribute to the development of some of their company projects. I deeply appreciate that trust, but it can feel like a lot to carry at times. My main resources for meeting these expectations are the experience I gained studying and working in the US, along with the online tools still available to me as a university student.
Ultimately, the best way I know to manage stress is to prepare thoroughly and push through it. Good thing is that the food here is amazing and the nature is beautiful.
Photos getting ready for the robotics team:
Food:
View: