Places Matter

Posted on 09/28/23 by Kate in A Note from Kate Borders

June of 2022 I knew nothing about University Circle, not the place or the inc. behind the place. I was busy inside my challenges of managing a college bar district in the desert. A year later I was here, draped in a frock with a dragonfly on my shoulder, dancing around Wade Oval with a drum troupe as a soundtrack. Parade the Circle was my first official day as the new President of UCI and it couldn’t have been a more perfect launch. Since that day, I have been on what many refer to as a “listening tour” but I would argue it is more of an “absorbing and digesting” journey. I have been sitting with people, from all the University Circle intersections, and taking in their stories.

I am three months into my tenure. I am both wishing I could speed up the learning and feeling grateful for the luxury of slowing down to really hear people. Places matter. We feel a tether to where we were born, where we grew up, where our families call home, and where we experienced transformations like education and better health. We feel a connection to places that brought us core memories … first dates, first concerts, empowering exhibits, celebratory family milestones, childhood music lessons. And we are comforted by places that offer us moments to laugh with family and friends without rushing to the next event. University Circle is all these things and so much lmore. And, like all meaningful places, there are also some who have felt rejected rather than welcomed, injured rather than healed. Places matter, and how everyone is impacted by them, matters.

University Circle Incorporated was born in 1957 and will be celebrating 70 years in relatively short order. The organization has a significant history and I feel a humbling responsibility to shape, with all of you, a path for the next 70 years. The next six months we will be continuing a process of focusing on your voices to inform our direction and I hope you will be a part of this journey. Please let us know if you would like to participate in a small group conversation and please join us at our next community meeting at 5:30pm on October 17th at University Circle United Methodist Church. 2097 here we come!