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NEIGHBOR
SPRING 2024
THE NEXT STEP IN ‘BE A GOOD NEIGHBOR’ How a Pitt team is helping students navigate new neighbors and new experiences after moving off-campus One of the best parts of Anna MacKinnon’s job is getting to watch the University’s Oakland Community Ambassadors grow—as students, but mostly as leaders. The Oakland Community Ambassadors, a group of students that was originally co-created with the Division of Student Affairs and the Office of Engagement Affairs (ECA), now fall under Off-Campus Student Services (OCSS), a newly formed part of Student Affairs. MacKinnon, previously a Graduate Fellow in ECA, serves as the inaugural Associate Director of Off Campus Experience within OCSS. Under OCSS, the Ambassadors have spent the past year engaging in and with the Oakland community and Pitt students in a variety of programming and outreach activities, including trash clean-ups, tenant town halls, a Chalk the Walk competition, and more. They have also been working to increase their visibility and connections throughout Oakland, including getting more students involved as volunteers, so that they can hit the ground running in the Fall 2024 term. “[The Ambassadors are] the students who are already excited about and invested in this work,” said MacKinnon. “We’re working now on how they can be the leaders that bring that same excitement to other students who may not have thought about this work before.”
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