Early Move-in and Introductions

My POST experience started with an early move-in to my dorm. After getting my keys and student ID, I set up my room and headed to the POST registration tables, eager, yet nervous, to begin. I met my POST leaders and was ushered into a room with the other POSTees. I am not the best at striking up conversations with new people, so I thought it would be awkward, but as more POSTees gathered in the room, our POST leaders led us in some warmup games.

Next, we were assigned to our groups and broke off to talk with our group’s leaders. My POST leaders sat us in a circle to introduce ourselves and discuss details about the plans for the evening and program. Our groups included students from various majors and schools, so we met peers we may not have otherwise run into.  

First Night Together

On our first afternoon, we took a coach bus down to Boynton Middle School, the Ithaca school that was to be our home base where we would sleep and spend time after our service activities. Our first step was to unload the mats on which we would be sleeping. We laid these out on the floor, and then each group claimed a section for their belongings and set up their sleeping bags.

After setting up and getting to know our fellow POSTees a bit more over dinner, we all moved to the gym. We formed a huge circle, then started playing another icebreaker game that included running around after a question was asked and trying to find other people with similar interests and experiences. This tuckered us out quickly, and we went to sleep early, eager for our service activities the next day.  

Site Visits

For the next three days, our schedule included waking up around 7 am to eat breakfast and get ready for our visits. My group spent one day at Boynton Middle School washing the windows and weeding/cleaning the blacktop in the back and front of the school. We spent our second day on a local farm, helping set up fences and carrying water and supplies. We also got to see all of the animals! (A chicken threw up on a fellow POSTee’s phone - none of us expected that!) Our third day was spent at Cornell Cooperative Extension, helping clean up their demonstration garden and working with compost.  

Volunteering with these organizations was a very rewarding experience; the volunteer opportunities were new to me. It was also a lot of fun to work with my fellow POSTees!  

Evening Activities

We had several fun activities in the evenings after our volunteering, including venturing to North campus to eat our first dinner in Morrison Hall, a North campus staple, followed by a campus scavenger hunt and hike through Cascadilla Gorge. We also had a night to eat out in Ithaca (dealer’s choice)—my group went to Maru Ramen for dinner and Purity Ice Cream Co. for dessert. On our last night, we had a barbeque at Stewart Park and got some lovely photos by Cayuga Lake. Every night, after our activities, we reflected on how the day had gone and engaged in icebreakers and other fun games. This was a nice way to wrap up our days and reset before the next day’s activities.  

Other Highlights

Our POST leaders helped us get to know each other during the program by creating a shared playlist, engaging us on our favorite books and movies, and giving us tips about local restaurants and activities.

My POST group helped me adjust to college, away from the routine I had known throughout my high school years. We stayed connected after POST, and I’m still in touch with several Group 5 POSTees. This program was incredibly helpful for me to begin making friends—most of the people I still spend time with can be traced back to a POST connection!

I highly recommend POST as it was a foundational experience for my time at Cornell, increased my exposure to the Ithaca area, and helped me make friends before the semester even started!