Here at Cornell, students have developed some sort of personal identity. Whether it is being on an athletic team, a member of a sorority/fraternity or even just being a part of a specific major. Haythornwaite defines a community as “a web of affect-laden relationships that encompasses a group of individuals”. We have developed communities in our lives and continue to contribute to their advances and successes. I am currently a part of the Cornell Women’s Soccer community. According to Haythornwaite, Gemeinschaft states that a community is based on certain aspects including strong interpersonal ties, shared focus and common language/identity. We go through painful fitness practices, stay up late studying, and sacrifice social opportunities all for the same goal. We spend a large portion of almost every day together and develop very strong interpersonal ties. Your relationships with your teammates can never be compared to relationships with others. We all have the same focus and same common purpose while we are on the field and off. While we are on the field, we listen and respect our coaches and the systems and technique they may be teaching us. Off the field, we are all focused on schoolwork and balancing both academics and athletics. We share the same identity – Cornell University women’s soccer players and student-athletes.
CMC does play a role on our team. Often our coaches or captains will send out emails for quick, informative notes, or to make scheduling plans. For example, today before practice our coach sent out an email to the entire team saying “make sure everyone has their running shoes today before practice”. Normally, we only have our cleats but because of a tough loss this weekend our team was going to do some running on pavement before our practice. Often, our captains will send out emails starting a thread on team bonding ideas. Many people will respond with their ideas until we come up with the best ideas (for example last weekend was pumpkin carving). In the summer, CMC is what keeps our team together and allows us to begin interacting with the incoming freshmen.
Communities require a lot of time and commitment. In order for the community to develop and progress every member must share the same values morals and goals. The relationships in the community must continue to criss cross and reinforce each other. The women’s soccer team is comprised of a great group of girls who work every day to contribute to the success of the team and the rewards that come with being a part of such a close-knit community.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hey Rebecca, great post! I thought you did a really nice job of combining a firm idea of Haythornwaite's thoughts with your soccer team example. I immediately from your descriptions could make the connection. Additionally, I am on an athletic team here at school, Crew, and have experience a lot of what you are talking about. For example something that you mentioned that I did not think about at all before reading your post was the role of CMC on my team. It is so true that my coach will send us out last minute emails and reminders in addition to using the medium to have important team discussions. I remember last year the varsity captain would send out angry emails about team intensity at times to the entire squad and as a freshman I did not appreciate these emails because my novice team (separate from varsity) was working extremely hard and getting great results.
Another great point you made was the use of CMC interaction over the summer with the new incoming recruits. This also rang true to me because just this past week one of the recruits sent me a facebook message asking me about Cornell. So CMC is definitely a way for teams to maintain their strong and weak interpersonal ties between coaches, team members, and perspective members.
Hey Rebecca!
For this particular option I’ve found a few topics similar to yours – team sports. They require strong interpersonal ties and dedication in order to perform cohesively and effectively. I agree that relationships with teammates are different from other relationships you have, but I’m not sure if they are never the same; I consider a few of my teammates family. I like how you said that your team sends out emails about bonding activities; my team does the same thing, except sometimes the “reply all” button gets a little overused and my inbox is spammed with 20 emails with at most a few words, haha. Great post!
Post a Comment