1) The workshop on “Meaning Making” — (You can read my abridged version in a blog post here) I write this as one of my takeaways because I plan to run this session for the students here at Tufts who are involved with the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. These students are superstars… they run projects all over the greater Boston area and accomplish so many great things. But this workshop helped me realize that once you get caught up in your work, it’s very easy to lose sight of who you are and how you are related to the work you are doing. I want to share that enlightenment with the scholars of Tisch and remind them WHY they are doing what they are doing.

2) The integration of technology into promoting civic engagement skills on campus — Students are connected through a multitude of networks online, whether sites promoted by the university itself or external social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. But the breakout session with Jennifer Corriero helped me realized that we must take ahold of these resources and use them to promote civic engagement on campus. For example, Tufts has a website called TuftsLife… we can use existing sites such as these to connect students, such as perhaps a student who want to starts a project related to human rights with another student who is interested in that particular topic.

3) Inspiration and hope for the future of civic engagement within higher education institutions — If the world of civic engagement is filled with all the amazing people that I met at the TN conference, there is no doubt that this movement has a very bright future. Every single one of the students I met has left a unique impression on me, so I know that my comrades are promoting civic engagement at their schools just as heavily as I am at Tufts. I can’t wait to keep brainstorming and working with all of them as we craft potential improvements for the TN as well as our individual higher ed institutions.