Fall Workshop

The Fall Workshop was held on Tuesday, October 9th at the University of Scranton. ​This one day workshops provides an opportunity for VISTAs, supervisors, and community partners to collaborate on their VISTA project. 

​By Alexandra Garney, CCNYPA*VISTA  serving at University of Pennsylvania 

As we showed-up to the Fall workshop, I couldn’t believe that so much time had already passed since I had begun as a VISTA at the end of July. It felt like just the other day that we had all attended our first retreat. The agenda for the day included a lot of opportunities to connect with other supervisors and VISTAs across programed focuses, geographic areas, and interest areas. We kicked-off the morning learning about our True Colors Leadership style. My supervisor and I both had the same leadership color. It was interesting to think about how that influenced our working styles and approaches. Later, we also reviewed my VAD. It is helpful to consistently find time to revisit this document to ensure we are both on the same page and that the VISTA project is progressing. Finally, we closed out the day with our VISTA team and had the chance to brainstorm in small groups about different areas in which we were interested. I appreciated this activity and talked to some other VISTAs about planning for after our year of service. It was awesome to hear about what others were thinking and start to create my own plan.

Participant Comments 

"Getting together with the entire cohort of VISTAs and supervisors was beneficial in several ways: 1) seeing the breadth and reach of the work we are doing was energizing and positive, 2) hearing best practices and strategies to engage in this work will inform my logistical practices and programming, 3) thinking about how I personally engage in this work and what my strengths and challenges are was eye opening and timely."     ~Supervisor 

"​My greatest take away from this meeting was that I was able to connect and share ideas with other VISTAs who are involved in similar projects as my own."     ~VISTA 

​"I took away that there is no perfect project and that everyone has some sort struggle with their project. With saying that, though, they/we are not alone in the struggle with the support of many individuals, which is helpful!"     ~VISTA

"What an amazing group of VISTA workers!"     ~Supervisor