Maggie McDonnell ’19 completes most of her work for Hamilton Central School remotely, but occasionally works in the office.
Having immersed herself within the Hamilton community since her first days at Colgate, Maggie McDonnell ‘19 is now taking on the task of updating and streamlining Hamilton Central School’s process of information sharing, as a part of the Upstate Institute and COVE Community-Based Work Study program. Hamilton Central School (HCS) serves students and families in the Hamilton-area from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade. So far, Maggie has found HCS to be “an interesting place to work” because “teachers and administration work closely together and have their hands in a lot of different parts of the school system.”
In this position, Maggie usually works remotely on-campus and occasionally travels to Hamilton Central School, where she works “on a task by task basis” to “update information as the school year moves forward.” As the year goes on, Maggie hopes to “be a continuous avenue of support” for the school district through upkeep of their website. Most rewarding of her experience so far has been the realization that “while the tasks seem small at the moment, they all add up to keeping the parents and students accurately informed,” and thus prove to be more significant than they seem.
In addition to her position at Hamilton Central School, Maggie has been involved with Liberty Kids. During her time with the organization, Maggie traveled to Hamilton Central School to tutor and improve the reading skills of struggling students, whom she “loved working with.” Throughout the remainder of her time at HCSD, Maggie hopes to “create deeper connections with the Hamilton community” and “learn more about the area.”