Community Definition Essay

How do you define “community”?

According to Meriam-Webster, community is defined as “a group of people who live in the same area (such as a city, town, or neighborhood)” and “a group of people who have the same interests, religion, race, etc”. Many people think of a community as a group of people interacting in a common location. However, to me, a community is a network of people with a common goal, agenda, or concern, individuals who collaborate with one another by sharing information, ideas and other resources. A community consists of individuals who look to form relationships overtime and help one another in their future aspirations. Furthermore, I believe there are three key aspects that define a community; geography, one’s identity and

The T2T community shares a common agenda, to help transfer students transition into the rigorous University environment by sharing resources, information and building relationships that can help one another progress in their future aspirations. A community that is defined by their identity defines one’s attributes. For example, I am a T2T student which states I am a transfer student and part of a community that consist of transfer students in the University of Maryland. Another example is that I am a National Honor Society member, part of community consisting of individuals who have great academic standing in the institute they are attending. Overall, a community can identify an individual’s characteristics, what they stand for and their stature. A community can also be based around individuals that share similarities; such as the various organizations/clubs in the University of Maryland, each are considered their own community because each individual that is in a specific organization is surrounded by other people who share the same affection towards the purpose for the organization. Whether it is to bring awareness to a conflict, get people

Many of the time people hold back their ideas that can benefit the community because they fear that other members from the community would ridicule them. Another key feature a community must have is presence from the community members, members in a community should have some sort of similarity or mutual relationship with the other members so that everyone sees themselves as part of the community. Participation is important for any community; the members need to be involved. A lot of transfer students come to Maryland but very few know about T2T and so as a member of T2T it is my job to spread the word about T2T and its various resources and events to other transfer students so they can know about our community. A community needs to have guidelines, expectations and values that define the boundaries of the community. An individual wouldn’t want to be part of a community that is seen as morally or ethically corrupt, what a community does also serves as an identity for its members. That is why it is important to maintain the community to a standard followed by all members who wish to be a part of the