The community-based service component of Community Engagement Scholars is one of the most impactful experiences I had at University of Delaware. Through the Community Engagement Initiative I was connected with numerous volunteering opportunities, some of which are represented below. During my first and second year at University of Delaware I volunteered with the City of Newark during their different holiday events as a support person. It provided me with a great opportunity to get out of the bubble that I found myself in on campus, and interact with diverse peoples in the community my campus occupied. Volunteering with the City of Newark was important for me because it was not only a way to give back to the new community I found myself in when I started college, but I could also tell that my presence changed the way that city citizens viewed UD students. I truly do believe I changed their perspective of who a University of Delaware student is and how we contribute positively to the community surrounding us. Another significant service experience that the Community Engagement Initiative connected me with was in the Spring of 2023. In collaboration with Framing Futures Through Faith, Habitat for Humanity invited volunteers to help them build walls for a project in Wilmington, Delaware. 150 volunteers came to help with the project, including my friends and I. We all had so much fun building the walls, and it offered my friends and I a unique experience that we never would’ve known about or participated in had it not been for Community Engagement Scholars. For this past school year, I became involved with volunteering weekly with Conversations to Remember, whom I also found out about through CE Scholars. Conversations to Remember trained me on how to appropriately interact with seniors experiencing cognitive decline which to me is an invaluable skill. The weekly calls have allowed me to develop a relationship with the seniors that have been mutually beneficial. We have a lot of fun on the calls, and I’ve learned a lot of life lessons. Conversations to Remember has provided me with the opportunity to make connections within a community that I couldn’t reach without their support. It’s expanded my understanding of cognitive decline in seniors as well. Finally, this spring I began volunteering weekly with Exceptional Care for Children. I go there every Thursday morning  for play therapy with the children. In my service there, I realized the importance of having more facilities like this so that medically fragile children can live as close to a normal childhood as possible. This has led me to be more interested in public health and nonprofit policies. On top of that, seeing the happiness of the children has made me happier despite the stress of classes and work. I am  grateful to have had all of these opportunities to serve the various communities around me and be connected to new ones, and I am appreciative to the  Community Engagement Scholars course of study for empowering and encouraging me to engage in such diverse service.