By Mary Barrett '14
Non-profit professionals, faculty, students, K-12 administrators and community members converged inside Siena College’s Sarazen Student Union earlier this month for “Community Forum 2.0: Youth as an Untapped Resource.”
The annual conference brings people together to discuss issues that impact youth in New York’s Capital Region. It is hosted by Siena’s Office of Academic Community Engagement.
Newly elected Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan spoke at the Community Forum’s kickoff. “I believe today’s discussion of ‘Youth as an Untapped Resource’ is an important one,” Sheehan said. “Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders, and their choices will shape the development of our city, country and world. As my administration moves into a turning point in Albany’s history, I urge young people to make their ideas heard and be the engine of our progress.”
Participants in the day-long series of workshops discussed a host of critical issues, including financial literacy, common core, Latino and Latina youth, volunteerism in hunger and homelessness, healthy lives and bullying.
“The ultimate goal of the day is to have participants brainstorm action plans about how they can increase student engagement, leadership and empowerment through streamlining services and programs or creating new partnerships and opportunities,” said Office of Academic Community Engagement Associate Director and Community Forum Coordinator Yalitza Negron.
Negron hoped to bring diverse groups of people together to recognize the challenges that youth in their community are facing and to realize that operating in silos does not work.
“A lot of people see these groups and see nothing in common but the groups are powerful together,” said Negron.
Management major Katie Nelson ’15 made echoed Negron’s observation. “I found it interesting how so many people from different perspectives were all affected and motivated by the same causes,” said Nelson.
While engaging in conversations with local community members, Siena students realized that there is potential for positive transformations in the causes being discussed. “The forum made me more aware of how eager the community can be to create change when you give them the opportunity,” said English major Shauna Practico ’14.
Psychology and Spanish major Lizandra Cruz ’16 agreed. “It was refreshing to see a community so willing to help one another and it helped me to better understand problems and plausible solutions,” said Cruz.
By leading discussions and engaging with community leaders, students were able to hone skills that they can apply in the classroom and future careers. “Siena students who are facilitators learn firsthand about community issues in a way they can’t in just reading a book or attending a class,” said Community Forum Coordinator and Office of Academic Community Engagement Assistant Director Ruth Kassel, Ph.D.
While it brought the community together and helped Siena students learn about the issues facing today’s youth, as Negron suggested, Community Forum 2.0 is just the beginning of the important conversation that will continue and positive changes that can be made.
