Recently I was able to attend a community forum presentation called Connecting College and Community: A mutual learning enterprise.It was sponsored by the School of Business at Alverno College. I try to attend these open community forums whenever I have the chance to do so. This is because I like to be a college student who is not only an active learner inside the classroom but outside of the classroom setting as well. Luckily these community forums are open to all individuals who register to attend them. So it is a wonderful opportunity to do some networking with others from the Greater Milwaukee area and to also learn more about how Alverno College and the surrounding community impact each other.

Although these community forums are only held just two times each semester they help to bring together the greater community and Alverno College. In addition, they are a great way to have individuals become more informed about how various topics are discussed within the diverse disciplines of study offered at Alverno College as well as to hear more about the influence their impact has had on the surrounding communities of Greater Milwaukee and beyond. While at this specific community forum I heard a very inspirational quote that continues to make an impact on my journey to become an active learner. It was a quote which was shared by one of the woman panelists. The quote was originally used to show the purpose of helping to revitalize the Milwaukee urban neighborhood community of Amani with local businesses. But it can also be applied towards various life scenarios that deal with personal self-growth and the growth of communities.

The woman panelist stated, "Replace the word "I" with "Us" and the word "Me" with "We," which basically means think of others before thinking just about yourself. Overall this quote may sound simple but yet it is complex. It is a simple quote because the words "I," "Us," "Me" and "We" are simple pronouns used to describe a person yet they are words which belong to this complex quote. This is because these pronouns can show who is valued and who has been looked over. Before hearing this quote I did not think of these simple pronouns having a complex meaning.

Therefore, by attending this open community forum, I had a key mental takeaway. Words are powerful and how a person uses them determines how they are portrayed. As a student in college, it is best to be open minded towards revitalization and promoting change within ourselves, our communities, within others and within communities that are not our own. It is important to know that we must think of the greater "us" before only thinking of ourselves. Furthermore, we must learn to work together to accomplish tasks without just thinking of only our own results. Through the use of the woman panelist's quote, I and others as college students can learn to become more active participants within the greater communities we belong to as well as make sure to think of valuing others versus looking over people just because their ideas or their experiences seem to be invalid from our own. So remember to replace the "I" with "Us" and the "Me" with "We" because in a complex world we should try to value the various perspectives around us to become life-long active learners.

You can register for upcoming Alverno College Community Forums here.