Commonwealth is very important for a community. If a community doesn’t have the 12 key commonwealth assets it will be hard for that community to grow and be enriched over time. When I look at my community, I can see the 12 commonwealth assets. In this blog I will talk about some of those commonwealth assets that are in my community and what assets I hope will improve in the future.
The first commonwealth asset that I see in my community is history. The Museum of the Great Plains in my town is full of history. Upstairs you can see the history of the town from when it was founded all the way up to the present. When you walk downstairs you can see history of the Wichita County High School. All of the events in school history are recorded down there. History in my community is preserved very well and people here take pride in tradition and remember the history that the town has been through. History is a key commonwealth assets because it is important to remember what has happened so the community can learn from it and improve the future.
Another commonwealth asset that I see in my community is education. In my community we have two schools, the Wichita County Elementary School and across the street is the Wichita County Jr./Sr. High School. The high school has a very good curriculum and scores above average in science and reading state tests almost every year. The high school also has one of the best student:teacher ratios with a ratio of 9:1. That ranks above 77% of schools in the state of Kansas.
The community doesn’t only push for academic excellence, but also sport excellence. The track and cross country teams are one of the best team in the state for the 1A-3A division. This past year the boy’s relay team in track won the state championship. Education is a very important commonwealth asset because people have to be educated in all kinds of fields to be able to enhance the community’s commonwealth assets.
The commonwealth mapping exercise helped me identify all of the great commonwealth assets that my community has to offer but the exercise also showed me the commonwealth assets that can be improved in my community. Health could be improved in my community by making medical care more accessible and more advanced. Art could be improved by getting more art around the city. Leisure and recreation could also be improved by building businesses that are there for leisure and recreation. Along with showing be what could be improved, the exercise also taught me a lot about commonwealth assets and showed me how I could help enrich commonwealth assets around my community to make more resources available in the future.
