Tier 3: Community Fellows

In the beginning of the year, all members were asked to assess their Top 5 Strengths from the website CliftonStrengths. Mine during Tier 3 are as follows:

1. Learner - has the desire to learn new concepts and skills

2. Input - gathers information from any relevant sources to solve a problem

3. Intellection - enjoys deep, thoughtful discussions

4. Analytical - focused on finding cause-and-effect relationships

5. Restorative - can identify defects and create methods to solve problems

Tier 3 is unique because I took this section as a graded course for the first half of my 3rd year of undergrad. This tier takes what was learned in Tiers 1 and 2 and applies them to a community outreach project; this is when Tier 3 members are split into teams for a particular nonprofit and must create a solutions project to solve  a problem the nonprofit has. 

Being a step up from Tier 2, Tier 3 has the distinction of allowing myself and my team to research our assigned community partner. The Delaware Down Syndrome Association is a local nonprofit that seeks to educate the Delaware public about Down syndrome and supporting local families that have children with the condition. 

One recent venture they've started is installing a teaching kitchen to help adults with Down syndrome learn valuable skills, such as cooking and money management. Our group's job was to let the Delaware public know about it!

Before providing any help to the Delaware Down Syndrome Association, it was crucial that we identify exactly what problems they could be having via interviews and research.

With our findings, we were able to determine that the Delaware Down Syndrome Association needed assistance with marketing their new teaching kitchen and organization message.

This was a step further than what Tier 2 required, as Tier 3 expected us to create a project that was both from scratch and one that could be easily maintained after our involvement ended. See what I learned from this experience.