Institutional Baggage

So just to center community in this piece. I think there is a perception and I think it's important to know that Yale is "bad." I heard to both Dottie Green and then another mom kind of reflect on, I think another organizer reflects on New Haven's relationship with Yale and it came about not in thinking about Science Haven and their park there, they were just talking about this other community, about the upcoming mayoral election, about politics and really this idea of like, literally, which mayoral candidate is here for Yale, and which one is here for the community? So there is this tension that I know, Rick, you know, I know, I know, I know, I feel. I at least feel it when I go out into the community to do research or to engage in any way, but I say that to say there was still such a warm invitation towards Rick and his volunteers and the Science Haven space at this event. So I think that just speaks a lot to the relationship building. So I want to name both, that there is this tension with Yale, but what success looks like when you're intentional about building strong relationships.

as soon as people hear you say you're from Yale, it's an immediate off switch almost, people don't want to hear what you have to say, which I'm not trying to say that isn't like what was me, but it's just knowing your audience and not obscuring things but meeting people where they are and knowing that to get the most out of the things, the really cool things that you have to do interact with them with, that you may not want to talk about your pedigree coming from, I'm a graduate student at this prestigious institution, because that's not who we are at that event. I'm just a neighbor that happens to have a table with some slime.