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P2P truly gave me the opportunity to get more involved in the Gainesville community, beyond direct service. I was exposed to the numerous stakeholders present in the city government, the university, and the Gainesville community. This exposure has given me the opportunity, as a student who is not fully integrated at all these levels, to see areas where I can contribute to, such as the Neighborhood Revitalization Coalition, Indivisible North Central Florida, and the Division of Student Life.
I discovered that my identifying self-interest area is not truly defined and is very flexible. At the beginning of the semester, I decided to focus on the homeless population. With the repeated exposure to stakeholders, my self-interest area changed to creating sustainable community capacity building through various means, whether through developing academic collegial material to working with the Neighborhood Revitalization Movement to connect the UF (University of Florida) campus with the Gainesville community.
South Africa Virtual Exchange
The students of the Paths to Purpose cohort held a virtual exchange with 26 students from four different schools at 9 AM EST on February 2nd through zoom. All 26 students ranged from ages 11-13 years old. To engage properly with this audience, the Paths to Purpose cohort designed a cultural exchange presentation. The cohort created a video about the average life of a UF student. Continuing in the vein of exchanging culture, we created a presentation where we highlighted common American food, music, sports, media, and attractions. To fully embody the definition of a cultural exchange, throughout the presentation, questions were asked to the South African students about their culture. Questions ranged from famous musical artists in South Africa to common cartoons/shows that the students currently watch. This virtual exchange was concluded with the South African students joining different breakout rooms with a Path to Purpose member, where they had a chance to ask questions individually.
Feedback from our coordinator in South Africa indicated that the topics we covered were enjoyed by the students. Throughout the session, engagement was very high, with multiple students engaging through the chat box feature as well as raising their hand (virtually) to ask questions or comment. Paths to Purpose will continue this engagement by writing letters to the individual students as well as sending swag items like stickers.
Neighborhood Revitalization Coalition
Neighborhood Revitalization is a grassroots coalition of local organizations has been meeting for years to share information about the work they are doing in East Gainesville. The coalition members work together to improve social and economic development in the community. We are working to engage students, faculty, and staff from both the University of Florida and Santa Fe College in this work.
I have worked to create relationships between community groups, students, and faculty to support long-term goals of positive community change. In doing so, I gained a better understanding of the numerous ways to collaborate for social change. In addition, I gained a broader understanding of the needs that Gainesville has that students, with specific skillsets, can fill.
Be The Change Summit
P4H Global, an international nonprofit organization teamed up with UF’s BCLS to host the Be the Change Summit. This two-day participatory program brought together 35 UF students from all backgrounds and interests to think critically about sustainable development while also establishing a community. The curriculum from the P4H Master Class was transformed into a framework that was relevant and accessible to UF students from all disciplines at this two-day summit. Students explored a myriad of topics including asset-based community development, needs assessments, logic modeling, and program evaluation.
I helped facilitate conversations and logistics throughout the weekend.
What did learners gain from the Summit?
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Increased understanding of both the global and local complexities in sustainable development
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​Increased capacity to affect meaningful change in their local communities
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Connection to a growing network of like-minded leaders
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Skillfulness in deploying development tools for social impact & Skills in critical analysis for complex problem solving
Additional Work
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