Community Walks fosters student involvement in local community
The Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students and the Pace Center have cosponsored Community Walks, a new initiative designed to foster student involvement in the local community by introducing students, alumni and their families to various organizations in the town of Princeton through student-led walking tours. The concept originated in the spring of 2012 after four students formed a Pace Center working group to research projects sponsored by the civic engagement centers at peer universities, according to Shirley Gao ?13, one of the four members of the group and a member of the Community Walks Executive Board. ?I had noticed this gap in Princeton University programming; I noticed that we didn?t really have anything to push people beyond Nassau Street and explore the local town,? Gao explained. The team of students and administrative advisers developing the initiative hopes to familiarize students with the town and encourage them to participate in the local community on the basis of the awareness gained from the walk, according to Associate Dean Maria Flores-Mills, the ODUS member affiliated with the project. ?I think it?s very much in concert with the University?s unofficial service motto,? Flores-Mills added.