Jeannine Murtaugh, associate director of the Career Center, was one of the adult leaders or "the den mother" as she put it, for the nine first-year students who selected the Urban Service Experience (USE) program for their orientation.
"This is an Urban Service experience. We don't call it a program because it's really an experience - you live it and breathe it for the week," said Murtaugh, who graciously agreed to share her experience with ATH. Here are her reflections:
My experience started when I walked out onto the track field looking for nine first-year students among the many Adirondack Adventure participants. We ended up meeting the entire pre-orientation population and had the opportunity to get to know everybody!
As part of the getting-to-know-you exercises, we tried to do a human knot. It was hard. We were interlocked like a human pretzel and had to try to get it undone. It seemed nearly impossible, but this great group just didn't give up. This was the essence of our group throughout the whole week. We just didn't give up.
What was great about this particular group was having Yubo Lu, a student from China. We experienced so many "firsts" with him. Coming here was the first time he flew, first time away from home, first time he ate ice cream and his first pizza. It was ideal how it all worked out for him.
Three of the students who participated last year came back to be leaders. As sophomores, they were energetic and helpful, and taught the new students so much about campus before they even got here.
We went to Utica for the "Downtown Utica Monday Night" musical festival, and then that night we camped out on the third floor of the Chapel. I was the "den mother." I decided after the last program I didn't want to play an intermittent role. I missed out on the bonding, and thought it would be good for students to have equivalent of den mother with them the entire time.
On Tuesday morning, we watched a video and talked about "hospitality row" in Utica's Cornhill section. We wanted to prepare students for what they were getting into. In addition to Sally Cockburn, Jeff McArn and me, Katheryn Doran, who has participated in past USE programs, came to meet the students.
Next it was off the drop our stuff at Westminster Church where we would be staying for the week. Sleeping at the church was like camping out indoors. We laughed, joked, played cards and games. Playing a very funny game called "mafia" was such a big hit, that we finished our USE week with a game after we had our completion dinner/banquet.
The work part of the week was filled with activities. At Hope House we cooked and served meals. We scraped and painted at "For the Good." We visited many of the organizations of "hospitality row," the refugee center and rescue mission, but the high point was the time we spent with kids at the JCTOD. After working six hours on a painting project, we spent three hours getting hugs and spending time with the children in the day care program. They sat on our laps and really wanted the attention.
The Hamilton students were so flexible and so adaptable. These nine kids came from completely different backgrounds yet were able to mesh in a great way. We spent time on Thursday at the Compassion Coalition, and the director couldn't thank us enough for how quickly and efficiently we got the work done.
We met with representatives from the Utica housing authority, the new Cornhill initiative and the Hope 6 project to discuss ways we can help the community. An immediate result is that we'll be going back to do work with Housing Authority on Saturday for "Make a Difference Day."
Our last dinner was "a taste of Utica" hosted by Government Professor Phil Klinkner. There were greens, chicken riggies and Saranac soft drinks.
In the middle of our hectic week I had to take Yubo back to campus to recover his lost luggage. Another first, of course.
