Engaged and Out of the Bubble

Crystal Hendriks (’18 AS) lived in the Maxwell Citizenship Living Learning Community during her first year at SU. Competing in the Maxwell Citizenship scholarship competition and creating a public policy for veteran affairs lead to the opportunity to be a part of the living learning community. Professor Coplin advised the LLC residents in important skills and encouraged them to be a part of the Syracuse community engaging rather than being stuck in the “College Bubble” of SU. Students made blankets for the Veterans Hospital close to our building at BBB. They also went to Firemen’s Park on the days before the commemoration of 9/11 to clean up the park and its memorial. At the end of the year, it came full circle as each of the floor members took part in the scholarship competition for the class of 2019. Crystal served as a proctor for the incoming students on the day of the competition.

In her own words, Crystal said, “My favorite part of being a part of the community was having the common group with my peers on the floor, where we all experienced the same event because of the competition. We all had goals of being engaged in the community from having jobs, volunteering, and helping each other in our academic goals. I learned that peers working together to remind each other of our goals helps to build a strong community within that can contribute outwards to the Syracuse community and the new students. I look forward to continuing my education in policy studies as well in the Maxwell school.”