Monday, August 19, 2013

2013-14 VISTA Orientation

Each year North Carolina Campus Compact invites new VISTAs and their supervisors to join us to share ideas, get to know one another and us, and learn about what it means to be a NC Campus Compact VISTA. On Friday, August 16, seventeen VISTAs, their supervisors, and their community partners met at Elon University for NC Campus Compact VISTA Orientation.

To kick off the day and break the ice the group got to arrange themselves as though the room was a map of North Carolina. Groups introduced themselves and talked briefly about their projects. The group also participated in an Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator session led by NC Campus Compact Executive Director, Dr. Lisa Keyne and discussed different ways they can work together and use differences in their type preferences as strengths rather than challenges to overcome.

Dalton Hoffer and Aubrey Swett talk VADs.
In the afternoon Mary Morrison, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement joined the group to lead a session on Making Campus and Community Partnerships Work. Afterwards, during breakout sessions returning VISTAs Takira Dale (Duke), Christina D'Aulerio (Queens), Marion Hudson (ECSU), and Ariel Mitchell (LRU) moderated conversations with the new cohorts about case studies and professional expectations. They also shared their knowledge about everyday life as an NC Campus Compact VISTA and how to live on the VISTA stipend.