All Good Things..

I can't believe it is over. Wow, the year flew by. My summit experience has been great. It had its ups and downs, but overall it was great. I really benefited from the classes that help me really learn more about myself and others. For example the colors assessment was great and it made sense when compared to the summit community. One of the greatest things I have learned is that you have to learn to be adaptable. Circumstances and even people change but I need to keep my head in the game and keep truckin'. With the Kitchen, I feel like I have truly made an impact on the Springfield community. The people I met who were often sad and depressed were able to cheer up when being involved in a simple conversation. Being in summit really pushed me to be more active in my community, and I know that without being in summit this year I would probably not have had the great experiences and might not have enjoyed Drury as much as I have. The only thing I might have changed in the summit experience was the Stress Free course. It didn't seemed to be so beneficial, but I do say that it was interesting to see the different types of wellness programs Drury has to offer. My only advice to future summit groups is to always keep a good communication with each other and your advisors.

What a Year

What a year its been in Summit Park. It's been a year of firsts for me, its been the first time I've experienced apartment life, the first time I've worked in a clinic, and the first time I've really spent time working in a field outside my usual interests. If I were to describe my time in Summit park in just one sentence, I would say that it's been an exciting and compelling process from start to finish, where every visit to the Kitchen Clinic provided a new experience, and every Summit Park event provided a new memory - from the yoga classes to the backyard Summit barbecues.

There's many parts of my time at Summit that will stick with me well into the future. For instance, taking time to volunteer to help out the community has become an important part of my schooling, helping me to be more community minded, especially important for my field of study: architecture. The useful tips on everything from budgeting to resumes will stick with me well into professional life, where I hope to be in both a successful career and home life. The greatest impact Summit had on me wasn't so much the volunteering, as the relationships I've gained at the clinic, as well as in our own apartment.

Together, I believe our group has made a lasting impression on our community. Not only did we get to be a friendly face to the many faces of Springfield as they came in for treatment, but we also showed the clinic staff that a new generation was interested in taking action to help out the local community. If it wasn't for living in Summit Park I wouldn't have learned these valuable lessons, leaving me with a purely internal educational focus.

If I could change one thing from this past year, I would seek to spend more time developing a strong resume. I felt almost as if we didn't nearly as much time in development as we could have. Mostly though, I've had a great time in Summit Park, and really wouldn't change much at all. My advice to new incoming Summit Parker's is this, plan ahead to fit volunteer hours into your semester, don't stick to minimums.

May

My summit experience has been busy but very exciting to meet so many new people. My volunteer hours with the Kitchen Clinic will look very good on my resume especially when applying for a position as a Physical Therapist. The experience with working with others in the same house will also be beneficial in the future because I will be staying with people in the future. The greatest thing I learned from summit was living in a house for the first time on my own without parents or family to be on to me about things such as laundry, dishes, cleaning house and time management. It taught me very quickly how to cook for myself, do my own laundry (I know sad, but true. lol), and time management. The biggest impact we have made with the kitchen clinic I would say is the DVDs and Books that we purchased for their lobby which will leave a lasting impact on the place. If I had not been able to do Summit, I most likely would have been living off campus again and most likely would not have met as many people. I also most likely would have been late to several more classes than normal. Another thing is that I would not have had the volunteer hours without doing summit because without the motivation I would most likely have not made the time for it being a student athlete. The only thing I would change about the Summit experience would be the time the class meets once a month. I would prefer it to meet earlier in the day but I know that is hard to do considering many other classes meet during the early parts of the day. I would at least change the day to a Thursday, that way people can still make plans for friday night, or go home or athletes don't have to worry about missing class due to track meets and games on fridays. I would tell future summit groups to make sure they stay in good communication with each member as well as the agency they were associated with.