I went into this fellowship with a preconceived plan about what work I would be doing. My focus was on implementing an arts based program initiative. However, what I learned from my mentor, Lauren Gardner, was to focus on finding an intersection where my passion and my community partner's pressing issues aligned. She advised me that my program initiative might very well be beneficial to the students we are assisting but it might be strenuous for my community partner to afford, operate, and sustain once I leave. I took her advice and that led to the creation of Propel Forward, our alumni program. While it doesn't focus on my personal pillar of creativity it presses on my personal pillar of community building. 

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This advice will be one I apply even outside of my work in civic engagement. In my programming roles on campus, I want to make more of an effort to gauge where interests lie for programming events within the community instead of creating them myself with the community in mind.