Creator: Kendall Lucchesi
Course: ENGW1114 First-Year Writing with Service-Learning
Below, I have attached a project I completed early in my first semester here at Northeastern. The assignment was to take three communities we identified with and sum them up in one hundred words, no more, no less. I however chose to pursue a different route; rather than choosing three communities I felt uninspired about, I chose one community that I knew I was truly a part of. On paper, New Paltz, New York is a small college town just an hour north of New York City, but to me, it has always been home. I have written three pieces I believe sum up the essence of New Paltz and further illustrate what community means to me. This piece is meant to teach others that the term community can foster many different reactions and similarly hold many different meanings depending on who you ask. That lesson is the essence of what I learned during Service Learning as well. I spent my semester volunteering with 826 Boston and during my time there, I learned from the children not only what community meant to them, but how 826 Boston has shaped that definition for them. I hope these pieces help other think about what the term community might mean to them.