Community at Cornell: Family Orientation

Community at Cornell

Communicating and connecting across differences, as well as learning from others’ lived experiences, enables our students to maximize what they gain from their time at Cornell. It also allows them to actively contribute to making Cornell a more open and supportive community and better prepares them for their future in an increasingly interconnected global world. Community at Cornell is a program that all incoming undergraduate students complete in their first year at Cornell.

It has three parts:

  • Part 1: An Introduction to Dialogue – a short reading and written reflection assignment.
  • Part 2: Connection, Challenge, & Change – three short video modules, each accompanied by one reflection question.
  • Part 3: Create Community Across Difference – an interactive, peer-facilitated, small group session.

Connection, Challenge, Change

We are inviting family members to join along as their incoming student completes Part 2 of this program! Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have found ourselves forming and maintaining meaningful connections in a virtual environment. These three short videos, which feature students and recent alumni sharing their real experiences with connections, challenges, and changes at Cornell, are one way in which we hope incoming students will experience connection with their fellow Cornellians. You might recognize some of the technology used to create these recordings remotely (thank you, Zoom!), and we hope that you’ll also recognize the dedication to connecting, learning, and evolving held by many Cornellians. It will take approximately 40 minutes to watch these three videos. Each video is accompanied by a reflection question (incoming students will see a different set of questions focused on their experience transitioning to Cornell). We hope that these videos will be used to start a conversation between you and your Cornellian about connections, challenges, and changes that they (and you!) might face as they make this transition.