What's going on in the neighborhood?

Contributed by Co-op Chrissy Beluk

Since Northeastern is uniquely integrated within four neighborhoods, the Service-Learning Program is always excited when they have the opportunity to show new students around the area and introduce them to our neighbors. In collaboration with the Honors Program and more than 600 first year Honors students moving onto campus this September, the Service-Learning Program set up tours to introduce them to Mission Hill, Roxbury, the South End, and Fenway. 

Although we would have enjoyed showing each student around personally, that didn’t seem possible for a team of four! Therefore, we created a training model to teach Honors student leaders the routes so they’d be able to lead their students through the communities themselves. On the first Saturday in September, bracing the heat and humidity the Service-Learning team ventured off into the sweltering sun with some pretty brave Honors student leaders. Although it was 90 degrees, the students were attentive as we showed them the ins and outs of giving one of the four community tours.  

The leaders were put to the test at the end of September when they went out to give the tours to their group solo! The tours for the Honors Program were unique to each neighborhood and led them through an interactive route to reflect the dynamic history, rich culture, and some of the community partners, students volunteer with throughout their time at Northeastern. Each group also stopped along the way for a snack from a local restaurant.

Although we weren’t able to go on the tours with every student, we were able to check in on them when they posted photos with the hashtag #NUHONORS – and from the looks of it, it seemed like quite a success!