Or better yet, what does community mean to you?
Community is often described as a common feeling of fellowship. Here at Minga we believe it’s much more than that. We believe that once a sense of community is achieved it can lead to greater heights in your school spirit, student involvement, and even create a better environment for your staff.
You already know that though. Community is a key to greater things, but how can a community be built? Minga has some suggestions.
- Events: This one is a given. You need to host events that the students WANT to contribute to. Without certain attributes these events can turn out as duds. The main thing is how important it is to have a mixture of recurring events and new innovative events. Students will be more inclined to attend an event in their freshman year if their older senior sibling has already attended. These also build school tradition and amplify the sense of school individuality.
- Fundraisers: How are you supposed to hold events without FUN-draisers? Minga’s main key takeaway tip for fundraisers is to let the students choose how they want to raise the funds. The second is to make it a competition, and provide them with recognition in-front of their fellow students. Fundraisers contribute to the community in a different way than events, because students are working together for a more selfless cause, that they are still motivated to complete for the greater good of the student body. They are working together towards a common goal. A selling point if you’re unable to get as many students involved as you desire would be to remind seniors that participation in fundraisers can be beneficial on a resume/college application.
- Field trips: Not just any field trip, class mixing trips where multiple classes attend and are mixed in with one another. This is a great way for students to make new friends in a different environment. Not to mention it’s fun for you the educator as well!
You can kick start any of these recommendations by logging into Minga. Creating events and planning them online as well as marketing them to students and prompting them to post their participation. Organizing fundraisers in the clubs section, and having students virtually sign up for the fundraiser. Lastly, coordinating field trips, polling the students asking where they want to go, and reminding them of dates, times, schedules, and what they’ll need to bring.
