In HP200 - Introduction to Community Engagement, a course I took in the fall semester of 2023, I was introduced to a community partner for which I became a volunteer. The organization I partnered with was the Waddington Museum, a small local history museum located in Northern St. Lawrence County. The greater Waddington community is a small town with a village encompassed within it that has approximately 2,300 residents, situated on the St. Lawrence River. Five other students and I spent our time at the Waddington Museum organizing documents, digitizing photos and documents, as well as digitizing 35mm film slides. We were able to rotate out one exhibit and replace it with a brand new exhibit. Lastly, we helped compile documents for an event that highlighted the many one-room schoolhouses that used to span across Waddington.
On top of doing service throughout the semester, I learned valuable skills to make the most of this experience. We learned the importance of approaching service with elements of intellectual curiosity and an appreciation for community cultural wealth, as well as learning what it takes to create a unique and intriguing museum exhibit. An example of when I had to link all of these skills together is when we were tasked with displaying a collection of photography and artifacts collected by a famous world traveler who was a resident of Waddington, James Ricalton. For the Ricalton exhibit, I had to decide how the exhibit should flow around the given but limited space, then decide how to organize over 20 framed photographs in a compelling and meaningful manner that not only looked aesthetically pleasing but also told the story of Mr. Ricalton’s travels in a manner that is unbiased and purposeful.
As a result of knowledge and experiences obtained through this course, I will be able to take a different view of service and its connection to leadership. Going forward, my approach to service will be based on collaboration, empathy, and objectivity. This approach will allow me to conduct service in a way that benefits the organization I am partnering with and moves away from the common thought process linking service to “doing time”. This experience has taught me that the connection between service and leadership means listening to the needs of the community partner, effective collaboration, as well as being flexible and adaptable. I plan to use the lessons learned from this experience to create a wider-reaching impact while conducting service and to find more creative solutions to community and world needs.