It's been a busy first week here at the Clinton School. Early in the week I intended to blog about every single significant event as it happened. By late Wednesday it was clear to me that too many significant things were going to happen this year for that to be possible. Here's an incomplete list of events that were significant to me:
~Met the faculty, staff and incoming class of the Clinton School, as well as several members of former classes
~Met Vic Snyder, Arkansas congressman
~Had front row seats for a spirited Town Hall meeting in which Congressman Snyder addressed the concerns of his constituents related to the proposed Health Care Reform legislation
~"Met" the city of Little Rock (i.e. were given tours to help us get to know the community in which we'd be working)
~Met one of the former mayors of Little Rock, Jim Daley
~Met Ginger Beebe, First Lady of Arkansas
~Began discussing Public Service
~Got assigned teammates and the organization, TOPPS, that I'll be working with throughout the year
One of the lessons that I'm taking from the first week is the importance of understanding the community in which you'll be trying to Make a Difference and developing a network of contacts that will continue to help you understand the community.
Networking has never been one of my favorite activities and is pretty far outside my comfort zone. Frankly, I viewed it as an act of insincere selfishness. It seemed like the purpose was to be nice to someone not because you cared about them but because they could help you get something you wanted. I've developed more of an appreciation for networking this week because the common thread that tied together all of our meet-and-greets was Public Service. Helping others help themselves (to borrow a motto from the PAL program) is one of the goals of all of the people I've come in contact with this week. I'm not sure I'm any more skilled at small talk yet, but at least I dislike it less when it's purpose is to benefit others.
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