2010 Brinkley Fellow: Community Impact Video Project
Victoria Fox
CC, 2012
2010 Brinkley Fellow: Community Impact Video Project
Prior to this fellowship, most of my experience with community service at Columbia was as a volunteer and coordinator for one of Community Impact’s programs during the academic year. Working with this program has provided me with a valuable experience that is very much shaping and defining my college experience, I realize that it is very specific, specialized involvement that represents a small niche in the world of service. One of the greatest opportunities the fellowship provided me was a chance to look at CI as a whole, taking me out of the perspective of my individual group to broaden my scope on service and social issues pertinent to my community.
My fellowship project, which was to create video content representing CI as a whole, gave me a chance to learn more about the different social issues my peers address through CI’s programming. For my project I interviewed over 30 individuals, including student volunteers, coordinators, student executives, and CI staff. I was also able to observe and get footage from several youth and adult programs. Having the occasion for this level of conversation about and observation of such a wide varied of programs provided me with a very personal snapshot of the issues each program sought to address, making the issues much more dynamic for me. The personal connection I gained from seeing programs in action and hearing the voices behind them is an experience that I hope translates into the final videos.
One of the biggest challenges of my fellowship project was finding what statement I wanted to make about CI and student volunteerism. I found that as I clarified this statement for the project through my interviews with others, the project also reaffirmed why I consider service to be an important part of my life. Hearing perspectives on service from my peers both deepened and reinvigorated my passion for the program I work with during the academic year. After this summer I also feel more educated about the social issues addressed through CI’s programming, but even more importantly I am much more inquisitive about the wide range of issues that need to be addressed in my community. Being situated in the CI office for the summer also made me more acutely aware of the important difference that exists between providing a service and providing good service. This emphasis on evaluation is something I take very seriously and plan on acting on through my work in the coming semesters and after I leave Columbia.
My experience with the fellowship has also had an influence in shaping my career ambitions. Working around the CI staff and gaining exposure to so many different kinds of service projects made me realize the great number of options a career in non-profit work could offer, which is a likely path for me after graduation. More specifically, my project provided me with an opportunity to unite two passions of mine – service and media – which I had always kept separate in my mind. I am now thinking more creatively about my career path, entertaining the idea that there may be ways to combine these two interests.
Tags: fellowship, video
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