By Service-Learning Program Assistant Asta MacKie
Did you know that there are five pairs of roommates within the Service-Learning Student Leader Program this spring and summer? While some of these pairings were coincidental, others have known each other for years, and several even met through their positions at Service-Learning! Read on to learn more about four of our pairs or roommates: Hailey & Lauren, Porter & Chelsea, Tyler & Griffin, and Amanda & Kelsie!
Hailey Konisky & Lauren Scornavacca
How did you and your roommate meet?
Hailey: Through mutual friends.
Lauren: We met through some mutual friends! We really bonded our freshman year when we braved the Haymarket Farmer’s Market on a Saturday night (in its prime hectic time).
Did your roommate impact your decision to join the Service-Learning team? Who joined first?
Hailey: Lauren said she was applying and I looked into it and decided it seemed like fun, so I applied too!
Lauren: I applied to be a part of the Service-Learning team first and was talking about it with Hailey one night which prompted her to apply as well.
What’s one thing someone wouldn’t know about your roommate just by looking at them?
Hailey: Lauren is really good at robotics and coding and doing engineer things that I don’t know anything about.
Lauren: Although Hailey is a biochemistry major she is taking classes in American Sign Language.
What has been your favorite Service-Learning experience so far?
Hailey: I loved our large group meeting about privilege with the Polly Attwood!
Lauren: Last year through my service-learning course I volunteered at Madison Park PIC, and was teaching students about STEM and robotics. At our end of the year robotics showcase, I was standing around the sumo-bot ring and I felt a little tug on my shirt. One of the young girls that I had been working with the past year looked up to me and said “Lauren, I just want you to know that I want to grow up and be just like you. I want to be a robot-builder and teach others about building robots too. Thank you for being my friend”. It is a moment that I will never forget and has influenced not only my course of study, but the way that I go about my everyday life.
Chelsea Lauder & Porter Warrick Hess
How did you and your roommate meet?
Chelsea: In an S-L course! We met in the course Human Services Professions freshman year (Spring 2016) and bonded over our love of Yoga!
Porter: We met in the S-L Human Services Professions class and bonded over our Service-Learning site, Generation Citizen. After running into each other at a bunch of yoga classes, we started planning yoga dates and the rest is history.
Did your roommate impact your decision to join the Service-Learning team? Who joined first?
Chelsea: I would like to say I impacted her decision! I encouraged her to apply when Lisa said she still need TAs for the semester.
Porter: Yes! I didn’t really know much about the S-L team until this semester when she mentioned they are still looking for people to TA. She helped me apply and figure out what I was doing the first couple weeks.
What’s one thing someone wouldn’t know about your roommate just by looking at them?
Chelsea: That she has a 15-pound cat… Chirp Chirp is definitely considered our third roommate.
Porter: Chels is from Wisconsin and is a huge Green Bay Packers fan.
What has been your favorite Service-Learning experience so far?
Chelsea: I can’t stress how much I love the community I’ve gained from S-L activities. I love meeting new people and building lasting relationships within the S-L realm!
Porter: The Dialogue of Civilizations to Zambia was an unforgettable experience. Chelsea and I were also roommates in Zambia and shared a tiny room for a month. While it was definitely challenging, I learned a lot and LOVED my S-L placement and the weekend safari trips.
Tyler Nicholson & Griffin Rademacher
How did you and your roommate meet?
Tyler: We were randomly assigned! My roommate from last semester moved out, and Griffin joined our room!
Griffin: After a housing snafu, I picked the closest apartment to the one in which I had originally intended to live for Spring 2018. I came back from my semester abroad in Zürich in the first week of January and Tyler got back soon thereafter. We had a delightful initial conversation in our room where we realized we had quite a few friends in common and were both S-LTAs (Tyler is also an S-LTM)!
Did your roommate impact your decision to join the Service-Learning team? Who joined first?
Tyler: We were randomly assigned, so I didn’t know that he was in the program until we started chatting after move in! I have been in the program for 2 years, so I believe I joined first.
Griffin: Tyler has been on the team longer than I have, and when we met, neither of us knew the other was working on the Service-Learning team!
What’s one thing someone wouldn’t know about your roommate just by looking at them?
Tyler: He’s super friendly!
Griffin: He has a fantastic sense of humor!
What has been your favorite Service-Learning experience so far?
Tyler: I ran the S-L Swag Table at the Spring 2017 S-L EXPO with my best friend Emily, who was also a S-LTA at the time. It was so much fun!
Griffin: My favorite S-L experience so far is currently teaching the material we prepared to the students with Mujeres Unidas Avanzando at the end of my first semester here in my BIOL 2299 Inquiries in Biological Sciences class (where I was a student, not a TA).
Kelsie O’Flanagan & Amanda Tompkins
How did you and your future roommate meet?
Kelsie: We met through working in the Center of Community Service office together this semester as program assistants, Amanda is the co-op, and I work part-time.
Amanda: At work! I am the Service-Learning PA and Co-op and Kelsie is a Program Assistant, S-LTM, and S-LTA.
Did Service-Learning impact your decision to live together? In what ways has it strengthened your friendship?
Kelsie: YES! We did not know each other before, this was our first meeting. My roommate needed a sublet for the summer, and Amanda needed housing so this was such an easy-to-find match! We have had the chance to get to know each other through our time in the S-L office, and now that we are going to be roommates, we are spending even more time together!
Amanda: Being an older student I have struggled connecting with other Northeastern students, but I was immediately at ease with Kelsie. She doesn’t treat me any differently than her other friends!
What’s one thing someone wouldn’t know about your future roommate just by looking at them?
Kelsie: How much she LOVES cats!
Amanda: Think Amanda Bynes in “She’s the Man” and that’s Kelsie!
What has been your favorite Service-Learning experience so far?
Kelsie: Seeing new and excited Service-Learning Student Leaders join every semester 🙂
Amanda: Working with Dr. Aljoe has been so amazing this semester and I have enjoyed every minute! I got to do research in the Harvard Archives on an African American magazine from 1902-1903 and in Northeastern’s Archives on the Boston Busing Crisis (which I presented on in class). I also got to meet Dr. Ted Landsmark, who was a civil rights lawyer and activist during the Busing Crisis, and he came to speak with our students, as well as students from our class collaboration with Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers.
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