The CCCE, in collaboration with the Volunteer Network at St. Olaf, hosted “Community Development Week” midway through the term. This week of service and reflection included a panel of students and community members, daily volunteer opportunities, and a reflection dinner at the end with El Triunfo.
Beginning on Monday, the cohort of students spent time working with Clothes Closet on Monday, Greenvale Community School on Tuesday, followed by Northfield Retirement Center and YMCA on Wednesday and Friday respectively and finished with a Special Olympics basketball event on Saturday at Carleton.
Community Development Week succeeded for two reasons: first, it introduced students with little engagement experience in Northfield to an array of opportunities with community partners, and second, participating students expressed that they enjoyed working alongside their St. Olaf counterparts and desired more opportunities for such partnership.
David Goodell ’18 volunteered three of the five days during the week and even found a possible comps project from his experience. David said, “Volunteering with St. Olaf students was super awesome.”