After Hicks’ keynote, staff members scattered to embark on the day’s events, spread across morning and afternoon sessions. Between sessions, employees enjoyed lunch at the Sharpe Refectory, and also perused and shopped at Leslie’s Farmers Market set up on Wriston Quad under white-tented booths featuring everything from hot sauce to holiday ornaments.

Underpinned by this year’s theme, “Cultivating self: Nurturing community,” Staff Development Day offerings emphasized events that supported personal growth and facilitated community engagement. Sessions ranged from service activities, tours and trainings, to discussions about topics like race and ethnicity through the lens of hair types, and accessibility in higher education.

In Brown's carpentry shop, about 15 staff members gathered to build a Little Free Library and whimsical bookshelves, which will be donated to the Brown Fox Point Early Childhood Education Center and the Mount Hope YMCA. Little Free Library is a global initiative designed to provide free, community-wide book exchanges to increase access to reading.

Working with Andrew Avery, supervisor of structural trades in Brown's Facilities Management department, employees learned what happens in the warehouse-style carpentry shop — which fielded 10,000 work orders in the past year — and that the two Little Free Libraries were being constructed from recycled materials from other campus projects.

Jorge Muñoz, a member of Facilities Management's service response team, was excited to learn carpentry techniques that he could use at his newly purchased condo. By helping to build the Little Free Library, he was grateful for his newfound knowledge of power tools and the impact he was making on the community.

“Books can really expand someone’s world,” Muñoz said.

While waiting her turn to use the wood sander, Winnie Gier said she felt particularly connected to the Little Free Library project since she and her husband want to build one for their neighborhood. 

“Reading is super important for kids and having a resource for kids to get books and give books just when they’re walking to school or playing with their friends will be really nice,” said Gier, a communications and outreach coordinator for the Department of Visual Art.

Event attendees also had the chance to build commemorative Staff Development Day picture frames and learn epoxy techniques.

Off campus, in Providence’s Jewelry District, staff volunteers were greeted by the sound of enthusiastically barking dogs as they arrived at an afternoon Staff Development Day session at theh Providence Animal Rescue League. Brown employees broke into groups and took turns touring the shelter and giving some love to kittens, guinea pigs and rabbits.

Just outside the shelter, other Brown staff members walked dogs around the neighborhood and donned gloves to create enrichment pet toys covered with wet dog food.  

Rachel Snider, Providence Animal Rescue League's community engagement manager, also introduced staff to the Pet Food Pantry, which provides pet food to families in need so they can keep their pets. As pet owners themselves, many of the event participants felt a special kinship with the animals and the rescue league’s mission.

“To be able to give back to the community and help our community neighbors, including our furry ones, is great,” said Kimberly Abbott, financial operations and customer receivables manager in Student Financial Services.

In just his second week at Brown, Alex Minder, an associate director in the Finance Division, appreciated the chance to get to know his new colleagues through the day’s activities.

“It’s been really nice to see the people who work here and get a sense of the community,” Minder said. “It’s really great to be giving back already.”