a Final Final Reflection

Ah, here I am, the final Fellow to have her say again. What can be said about my shared summer that hasn’t already been mused on by the other two fellows? I have to say, the paragraphs below are shared sentiments said by two of the greatest young minds I’ve met and had the tremendous privilege to work beside this summer.

Diversity of Exposure

In very few programs can you work one-on-one with a businessman barista, a retired engineer-glass artisan, a team of innovative caregivers giving hope to those at the end of life’s journey, and a passionate volunteer community in perhaps one of the midwest’s most beautiful theaters. I was told stories of the past, clued into the lessons learned and given common vision for the future in all of these settings. As a student of a liberal arts education, I’m no stranger to handling multiple disciplines--but never such at a level beyond the university's idealized projections and hypotheticals. But in these diversities experienced in my fellowship remained a common thread tied tighter than any noble educational pursuit--the thread of serving one community called home.

Relearning the Language of the Natives

This may seem like a dramatic or even silly notion--besides, I grew up here and Kelsey and Dessie have both studied and worked in remote European counties and I’m here talking about the difficulty of communication between myself and other members of the only community I’ve really known since birth. Yep, I am.

Learning to depend on real people with critically different experiences through different educations and generations takes a lot of patience, not just from me, but patience from the business partners that I worked with. There’s a lot of trial and error in the Fellows program and there’s a plethora of different methods of trial and even more methods of error. People here have been so willing to learn and quick to be affirming when I’ve been unsure. So whether it’s me showing a business a better network solution or them telling me that I put stamps on the wrong side of a letter (oops.), the experience has been a two-way highway of crash and learn.

Networking for the Future

The familiarity built in the last section has given way to new hopes and goals for us fellows (fellettes?). As I humble-bumbled in the MSNBC interview my scared, second week, I really haven’t had the much of the “adult” life. Sure, I’ve had great little summer jobs between the school-years, but I always felt like “the kid”. Here, you’re not only a professional colleague, you’re trusted with information that their employees may not even know about their business. No, I did not uncover any sensational plots against the State or an awful scheme to get rich and run, but I was shown first-hand how each and every business consciously aims to improve their service to give back to a deserving community. It always came back to contributing to the Community.