This semester, I was placed in one of the most intriguing team settings possible for a class project. Our goal was to implement a unique, sustainable, and innovative community service project between the ten members of our recitation. I was instantly reminded of every interview question I've ever been prompted about working in groups ("give us an example of a time when you were in a group and...") and instantly knew this would be an interesting experience. After a frustratingly long period of thinking, revising, thinking, and revising again, we decided to focus our efforts in helping Attention Homes, an at-risk youth shelter just north of campus on Broadway, in a number of ways.

The first component is a food drive on campus, an event that we determined would not only get more of the community involved, but may be able to help the shelter refocus their funding on things other than food for their residents. Simultaneously, our sustainable component deals with what we reasoned would be a beneficial, long-lasting reference guide for the shelter to access when looking to take residents out to dinner, movies, or simply have fun in a safe environment within the Boulder area. We reasoned that, by soliciting local businesses to donate or discount goods and services, Attention Homes would be able to build community connections that would give them more resources to help the residents within their transitions, once again thereby allowing the shelter to refocus funds in other areas.

We're in the middle of our assignment currently, and encountering strange problems and concerns that never would have otherwise crossed our minds. Already, we've revised our initial project that aimed at implementing a system with the university's housing and dining services that would allow students to automatically donate extra meal plan swipes to the shelter. Unfortunately, because of the considerable amount of legal and political networking that, quite frankly, a group of 18-year-olds isn't exactly prepared to handle and succeed within, we were forced to considerably revise our project while keeping in consideration the limitations of a group of freshman students.

It's interesting for me to measure how our group dynamics changes and shifts depending on what area of the project we're focusing on; some members clearly dominate the project in a very aggressive and proactive manner while others assume the submissive "tell me what to do" role more frequently. This is typical of any team setting, there's always going to be more and less prominent roles and participation levels; however, it's fascinating to watch how it develops and monitor who exactly is fulfilling which types of roles. I've always been closer to the former's level of participation; I've never felt comfortable relaxing and assuming the role of a proverbial wallflower when there are things I could be doing that would advance the progression of the project. Although, others who sympathize with me in this light be warned that we all have to take the background sometimes and step out of the spotlight.