Spotted: Mayor Fenty and Michelle Rhee!

Another month in DC, and I feel like I'm getting to know the better and better. I've moved on from those incredibly frustrating paper metro cards to the all-important Smartcard! I've cooked pasta for the first time in my very own apartment! I'm even following local politics! I've become pretty caught up in the mayoral primary down here, especially since education is such an integral piece for both candidates. Speaking of which, my co-worker and I randomly drove by mayor Adrian Fenty as he was campaigning for the mayoral primaries the other day (he waved at us!). I also got to see DC schools chancellor and ed reform celebrity Michelle Rhee speak at a Q & A for young education professionals a few weeks ago, which was awesome. Not did she answer some tough questions about education reform, but she also told us the color of her bridesmaids dresses (she's getting married in September) and listed her favorite movies.

Also winding down another month at the CityBridge Foundation, and the more I learn about education reform the more fascinating and intricate it all gets. My research at the foundation is focused on what it takes to turn around the worst-performing schools in the district; as part of that, I've gotten to travel around the city and see both very high-performing schools as well as historically low-performing schools that the district has handed over to outside management in the hopes of sparking dramatic improvements. In the last month or so I've spoken to over a dozen ed reformers across the country - in New Orleans, Boston, New Haven, New York - who are doing this work; basically, I call them up on the phone and get to spend an hour picking their brains about how they're tackling turnaround in their respective cities.

For those of you in education fellowships (or those of you who are just interested), my co-workers at CityBridge got me into this awesome blog called Eduwonk (http://www.eduwonk.com/) - it's great commentary, and has lots of links to current news in ed reform - so I thought I'd pass the info along!

Home Visits

On August Thursday 19th, we all pile into two cars to visit the different facilities that elderly people in the Norwalk area frequent. "We" consist of one attending, three first-year residents, one medical student, and two Princeton Fellows who work at the Norwalk Community Health Center. The attending had spent the previous half hour describing the different places our patients may be receiving care depending on their age and insurance. She mentioned that the elderly patients that pass through the clinic actually fit a very small segment of the elderly population. We discussed senior centers, rehabilitation centers, adult daycare, and nursing homes and the types of patients that might be found at each location.

Our first stop is at an adult daycare. The grassy area right outside the building is filled with slides, swings and other outdoor play equipment that one might find in a preschool yard. I comment, "Aren't those a bit too small for the adults?" Of course those play-sets are not for the adults, but rather for the preschool kids who come to visit the seniors once a week. The adult daycare center serve as a place were live-at-home adults who need constant care (many, with Alzheimer's) could go to during the day, while their relatives/primary caretakers could go to work. Apart from providing food, entertainment, and a social atmosphere, the staff at the daycare also monitor the state of the seniors. They provide showers, helping the seniors once a week to wash themselves. The caretakers at the daycare also alert health-care providers to deterioration of the senior's health or mental state.

As we enter the main common room, we see a lot of seniors sitting around, many with walkers. The senior population is severely skewed to the female gender. The attending turns to one of the male residents and asks, "you are still single, right?" Over to one wall, we see one of the seniors reclining on one of the couches. The attending comments this particular senior spends most of her time there and probably suffers from paranoia. We leave the common room and tour the rest of the facility. After meeting some of the daycare's staff, we head out to the next location.

We drive to a senior center which is based in a former school. We arrive as a bus pulls away. The seniors usually end their day at the center around 3:30. The center, similar to a YMCA, serves as a place where able seniors can find activities to occupy their time. There is a large room for group exercises. The many volunteer opportunities include meals-on-wheels, mentoring, etc. There are also message boards with postings for field trips (to casino, shopping centers to name a few). A couple of filled bookcases out in the hallway make up a free-for-all library: one can take any book and add any book at will. We step into a room to speak with four women who are playing a game of Mahjong before heading out. The attending mentions that the seniors that use the center often are able to afford to go to their own private doctors.

The last facility we visit for the day is a nursing home. A former patient, “Edward,” greets the attending doctor by calling her my lady and kissing her hand. We spend over an hour talking with Edward, learning about how he got to his present circumstances. Edward has a severe form of sickle-cell anemia. His college years were interrupted by bouts of illness. He went back home to California and lived by himself for a while. However, a sickle-cell crisis brought him back to the East Coast, where a majority of his family had moved. When his family could no longer take care of him, Edward spent some time living in a home for psychiatric patients, a place he did not like. Luckily, he was moved to the nursing home a year or so ago. Although, at 35, he is one of the youngest people at this facility, he seems to have embraced it as a sort of home for himself. He goes out of his way to help the other patients and eagerly befriends everyone. At the same time, he does not sugarcoat his situation. According to Edward, he is constantly in pain enough to know that there are different flavors of pain. Despite his difficult situation, Edward projects an open, and even happy, outlook on life.

Too often, the profile of the typical geriatric hospital patient or the nursing home patient paints our view of elderly people. Our visit to these different facilities opened us to the wide spectrum of elderly people in our communities, and their varying levels of health and independence.

My First Month at Bethel New Life

By my third week of work on the Westside of Chicago for the community development organization Bethel New Life, I was stringing up a makeshift volleyball net from the pole of a chain-link fence and the sagging limbs of a dead tree. In the backyard of an abandoned house, it’s windows boarded up and bits of its roof’s shingles strewn around in the grass, we were getting a volleyball game together, marking out our boundaries and choosing teams. When I took this job months ago, back in what feels like a different lifetime at Princeton, I never thought that part of my duties would include high-fiving teammates and trash-talking across the net in the shadow of an abandoned building. But now, here I am, four weeks into my life as a Chicagoan, and a lot of my afternoons have become playtime again, sinking plastic battleships and running the nubs of well-worn Crayons across newsprint paper.


I didn't expect for the mentoring program at Bethel New Life to become such a large part of my life here in Chicago, but almost immediately it did. Bethel New Life is an organization that has been working to strengthen the community of West Garfield Park on the Westside of Chicago for thirty years, and in doing so has become recognized as one of the most influential Community Development Corporations in the country. Created in the aftermath of the destruction caused by race riots of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the subsequent loss of population and industry as well as the degradation of community infrastructure, Bethel New Life has become an all-encompassing neighborhood organization, with arms in education, elder care, real estate and asset management, and a number of other community services. When I arrived in Chicago, I imagined that my duties would solely consist of the things that I had studied in college: urban development, architecture, and planning. But the breadth and scope of Bethel New Life's programming has pushed me into areas of work I never would have imagined back when I applied to be a part of P55. Before the end of 2010 (if all goes as planned), I will have helped to create Bethel New Life's flagship Christmas Store (providing new toys, clothes, and food to families during the holidays), been a major contributor to a new urban plan for West Garfield Park's commercial district, and played a few hundred games of Chutes & Ladders.


I don't quite feel at home yet in Chicago (subletting an apartment will have that effect -- it feels like being a squatter in someone else's abandoned home, like at any moment they'll come home and kick you out) but I can feel my life settling into this city and into my work. At first, I had trouble dealing with the many obstacles that come with working in the non-profit world, in a world where state and federal funding is frozen without warning, where some community development is as much powered by the political machine as it is by passion, and where the need absolutely always overwhelms the impact. But Bethel New Life is an inspiring place, and every single person working here has amazed me with their dedication and their commitment to West Garfield Park. Seeing this commitment, and having such amazing experiences with the children of the mentoring program, have made me more idealist than cynic, and have excited me for the possibilities of the coming year.

It has helped tremendously to feel as though I belong here, and that what I'm doing is impacting something larger than me. While non-profit work can often be slow going, mired in bureaucracy and halted by budget restrictions, being a part of the mentoring program at Bethel New Life eases those feelings of frustration. It is nice to know that even if the scope of a project becomes overwhelming, or funding for a program dries up, there is a way for me to still make an impact, today, right now, by being a positive, and constant, force in these kids' lives. Yesterday Ava learned how to bump and serve overhand, and we practiced passing under the telephone lines as the light outside began to fade. Sometimes all you can do is give a high-five and play another point of volleyball, and a lot of times, that's enough.

Sharing

Yesterday I took the LIRR to visit a foster family on my first solo "home visit." The foster parents run a daycare out of their home, so there were about 12 toddlers zooming around, in addition to the little guy I was there to check on--I'll call him Joey. Joey and his foster mom and I went into the living room to chat. (Our agency has to check on every foster child at least once a month to see how things are going, if there are any major concerns, if the house is still safe and comfortable for the child, etc.) During our chat, Joey retrieved a bag of Sunchips from the snack bin and started eating them and sharing them with me. The foster care system can be such a tangled, frustrating one that it's small interactions like this that remind me why I'm here and give this work meaning.

Pushing the Limits

I would first like to say that I very much enjoyed reading these high-caliber blog posts! I've had some interesting adventures of my own recently, but I confess that I will have to relate them in a less lyrical fashion.

Like many of the P55 fellows, I've passed the "settling into a new city" stage and I'm now moving into the "what adventurous things can I do here" stage. Strangely enough, that has meant pushing the bounds of DC. This is geographically simple seeing as Maryland and Virginia are so close, but there are so many things to do in DC that you would never have to leave.

So the point of this is that I've had some really fun times in Virginia recently that are definitely enhancing my experience of DC. Lured by the promise of fresh air and wooden boats, I ventured down to Fishing Bay, VA to go sailing with a complete stranger a few weeks ago. I spent Monday and Tuesday deliberating after a co-worker presented me this opportunity and I was surprised to find myself thinking that I didn't want to miss out on all the fun stuff that was going on in DC that weekend. Still, I took the plunge and I couldn't be happier with the results because I met a whole group of DC people in Virginia. They gave me all sorts of recommendations about how to find other sailing opportunities closer to DC and it seems like I've tapped into a great resource.

In general, there are a lot of awesome things to do outside the city limits if you know someone with a car. My roommate and I plan to take some hiking trips to the mountains and my office is going on a tubing trip to Harper's Ferry, WV this Sunday. I'm looking forward to that so I can get to know EDF people better. The last two weeks of August have been slow because people are taking vacation, but it's a good chance to make friends with co-workers when things are less hectic!

Making the Pitch

That which seems too good to be true, usually is.

We've all heard this old maxim, and most of us have adhered to it at one point or another in our lives. It echoes down from the same center of higher reasoning that narrows the gazes, furrows the brow, and flouts our most emphatic desire to believe that yes, one can in fact eat three square meals of ice cream a day and still obtain the figure of a Brazilian supermodel. "All you need is this little pill!"

Right.

We are hardwired to be skeptical, and as late-night infomercials prove, with good reason. A plethora of products and services attract business by attempting to offer something for nothing. Even sectors typically wrapped in the trappings of legitimacy are not immune (mortgage-backed securities anyone?).

In any case, the recent financial crisis, and a pervasive sentiment that the American public was more or less duped, has done little to increase the amount of goodwill and institutional trust in circulation lately (see Gallup).

With this in mind, imagine making the following pitch the executive director of national NGO...read the rest of this post

Alas and alack...

Cruel Fate, the harsh mistress, has again placed me after Mark in this divine spindle, this twisted carousel that we aimlessly have seen fit to call... The 2010-11 Princeton AlumniCorps Project 55 Blog.

(That is one heck of a moniker.)

Seriously, though... I hate to invoke one of those dusty cliches, but... okay, get ready...

I've only been here a month and a half, but it feels like a year and a half.


Work is at times stressful, at times confusing - I'm still learning the dictionary of education-related acronyms - also at times frustrating - darn it, Illinois really should have gotten that Race to the Top grant today - but all the time, what feels like a fantastic experience. I am doing a mix of writing (research briefs and grant proposals, mostly) and communications (let's get that new website up, and those Facebook and Twitter accounts running like a smooth fleet of Segway tourists (I know you've seen them, fellow Chicago Fellows)). Again, it's been really nice thus far.

To give credit where credit is due, I have been extremely impressed with the P55 network out here. Enjoying living with two present/future Fellows, getting to know other Fellows, and meeting fellow (not Fellow) Princeton alumni, my mentor and otherwise. Cohesive, warm, welcoming... each adjective verges on the staid and well-worn, but, again, they all ring pretty true of the P55 Chicago community. Big kudos to whatever selfless individual is responsible for making this run smoothly.

Finally, more kudos to Alejandro and his always enjoyable posts, which at times border on truly lyrical. You may be describing the "quotidian" but I think your writing ability surpasses the everyday. Sweet stuff.

First Business Trip

I had my first business trip with the Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago last week. Four of our team members went to a conference in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to meet with the international partners who implement our program materials. The conference put us up in hotel rooms with decks that led straight to the beach, so we were able to spend our free time in the water when the forecast wasn't predicting monsoons. Countries such as Lithuania, Serbia, Romania, Macedonia, Azerbaijan, and eight other U.S. sites were represented, and we were able to oversee and participate in deliberation discussions such as state sanctioned use of torture and juvenile punishment. There was a conference miniature golf tournament in the middle of the week where each country or state was represented. I represented Illinois and took second place to New Jersey. (If I just didn't hit that darn sand trap on the second hole...) We're looking to expand the program to include partners in South America as well as Eastern Europe, so if a major grant goes through in the next month I may be taking another trip very soon.

I have been meeting up on a regular basis with Mike Laidlaw, my P55 mentor. He's a great guy with an awesome taste in music. He invited me to The National concert on September 26 at Riviera Theater, so any Chicago fellows should look into coming too.

I'm flying back home tomorrow morning to take part in my sister's wedding, but I look forward to hearing what you all are up to.

Gremlins, pugs, rice, peanut butter, and Tolstoy

"Did you know that gremlins are based off pugs?" she remarks. Only moments before I sat on a straw stool by the bar in a chic restaurant, waiting for someone who I only knew by name and occupation: Kathryn Reimann, Citibank lawyer. I looked at the menu to pass the time, and failed to notice the blond woman in the striped blazer checking in under a name that sounded vaguely familiar.

"Hi...Alejandro?" she asks. I shake her hand, unsure of what to expect out of the lunch meeting. We sit and look at the menu for a moment before asking each other what we are ordering. "Paella, cold soup, and pot de creme..." I tell her. "That is the same thing I'm ordering," she reveals, and I only hope that it's a good sign.

"During law school, I learned to live off of rice and peanut butter," she explains as we talk about her law school experience at NYU. We wander from subject to subject, eventually settling on some like our favorite books (we are both avid readers) before drifting to other ones like the family tree of gremlins that includes pugs and Yoda.

By the time we reach our typical days, I am eager to ask if I can shadow her at work. "I don't know if it would be too much to ask, but maybe I can go with-" "Shadow me at work, of course." I walk out with her in the blazing summer sun, and we walk a couple of blocks before saying goodbye. She smiles before continuing down Lexington to an afternoon full of meetings, and I turn around to return to New York Center thinking about the next book I would like to read: Anna Karenina, her favorite book.

In a city like New York, there are just so many 'worlds,' as she described it, and it is reassuring to know that two people from completely different ones can meet and realize that there are similarities, connections that bridge seemingly foreign lands. More importantly, it is comforting to know that these p55 mentors are invested in building a commited relationship with their mentorees. Thanks P55 staff!

Center on Halsted!

Hello Bloggers and Followers!

Despite being in Chicago for almost two months now, this is my first post but I have lots to share! I moved to the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago at the beginning of July with fellow AlumniCorps member Halcyon Person and spent the entire month enjoying the city and exploring places around our apartment. I've lived in Chicago the past two summers while participating in the Princeton Internships in Civic Service (PICS) program, but have never lived this close to downtown and all the amenities of the Gold Coast. After visiting most of the usual tourist attractions and enjoying Oak Street Beach on an (almost) daily basis, I was thoroughly rested and ready to start my fellowship at Center on Halsted.

Center on Halsted is an LGBT community and social service center in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago. The mission of the organization is to "serve as a catalyst for the LGBT community that links and provides community resources, and enriches life experiences" in a safe and nurturing environment. In addition to being a community center - complete with a Whole Foods grocery store in the lobby, art galleries, a gymnasium, a 160-seat theatre, computer labs, and conferences rooms - Center on Halsted hosts a variety of programs for the LGBT community. These programs include everything from speed dating events to free HIV testing and mental health services to culinary classes for young people. Everyday there is something new happening at the Center and I'm still learning about all of the great services and programs we have available.

I am in my third week as the Director of Special Events at the Center. My job (so far) is three-fold. First, I am helping plan a series of annual donor events including the Center's Oscar Party and the Human First Gala, which attracts around 1,500 attendees, and is being held at the Harris Theatre in Millennium Park in May 2011. There are also several smaller, private receptions for major donors over the course of the year that I will be overseeing. The second part of my job is planning smaller events to familiarize people with the Center and bring in new patrons. I am in the process of planning an event at one of the bars in Boystown (as it's called) for World AIDS Day on December 1st. The third (although probably not final) part of my job is partnering with the staff in our Community and Cultural Events Department to host events at the Center. I am in charge of all of the art gallery openings (including the one tonight!) and theatre/dance performances in our theatre in addition to a few smaller projects we're planning. So, all in all, lots of stuff keeping me busy but I'm really enjoying it here at the Center and have a great group of co-workers, so I'm sure it will be a great year!

Check out the website for Center on Halsted!
www.centeronhalsted.org

Subsiding summers

I have been at New York Center for over a month now. By this time, you would imagine I have become a New Yorker, a flaneur following in the footsteps of the great Parisian poets, and a part of this is true, even if I still get confused at what happens to the avenues after Lexington Avenue. I discover that the city always marvels, never ceases to awe in its rhythmic movement that some find overwhelming.

In the office, we are getting ready for another year. The teachers are on vacation for two weeks, and there are no kids hopping up and down the steps or roming around in the gym. Surrounded by the strange silence broken only once in a while by the ring of a phone, I prepare forms for the parents and translate documents. How do you say pink eye, wheezing cough, or low-fat milk in Spanish?

The clinic is also relatively quiet given that most of the parents take vacations to their home countries at the end of August. Despite the lull, the few families that do not leave trickle in asking for physical forms and prescriptions. I have made all the necessary preparations for the school supplies donation drive we will be having at the start of September, and I have finished the back-to-school brochures for parents that contain useful information about sleep, food, and school anxiety.

Beth Kastner, the psychologist at Settlement Health, is helping me to find a research position in order for me to get more experience for graduate school. I have sent my resume to Mount Sinai Hospital, and certain departments have emailed me back requesting a phone interview. Being able to research in a hospital setting would give me the opportunity to assess whether research is something important to me.

As the autumn chill overtakes the summer heat, I venture out to new corners of the city: Coney Island, East Village, and Washington Heights. In a city such as this, my small-town eye focuses on the quotidian details: the slight tilt of the N train as it turns toward Astoria, the little girl at the clinic who always want to color a picture of Little Mermaid, the farewell between teacher and student at the close of another year, the lonely wanderer in the morn that seems to herald the beginning of another day.

meta-blog post

I am just finishing up my second week at The Foundation Center. These first two weeks have gone by so quickly! I can already tell that I'm going to learn a lot here. The Foundation Center does so many different things to advance the nonprofit sector that it's almost hard to keep track of! In fact, the senior staff recently created an "elevator pitch" to help employees of the center explain their employer to others. (The Foundation Center is the leading source of information about philanthropy worldwide. Through data, analysis, and training, we seek to connect the people who want to change the work to the resources they need to succeed).

I am working in the Educational Services arm of the Center, so I'm focusing on the resources that the center offers to people who want to learn about nonprofit management, getting grants, etc. The center offers free and fee-based courses on topics like "proposal writing basics", "grantseeker training", "grantseeking for individuals in the arts", and "Fundraising in a challenging economy". So far, I have taken some of these courses to get a sense of the curricula.

There are also special events. For example, last week I went to an event called "U R What U Tweet: Social Media for Career Advancement", which was about how nonprofit professionals can use social media tools to advance their careers. I actually covered the event for the Foundation Center's blog...so in a sense, this blog entry is kind of meta.

(newyorkblog.foundationcenter.org/2010/08/u-r-what-u-tweet-social-media-for-career-advacement.html)

I also helped edit the audio recording of the event for what will become a podcast on the Center's website.

My next project is compiling data from all five of the Foundation Center's offices (NY the Headquarters, San Francisco, Cleveland, DC, and Atlanta) about the attendance at free courses in the last quarter of the year (April through June). I'm also using some survey-processing software to analyze the evaluations that participants filled out after their courses. The data is housed in several different places and is labeled differently by each office, so this project is requiring some sifting through folders and some flexing of my (not so strong) excel muscles. I hope that in the end, though, the product will be a cohesive and comprehensive database.

I have been riding my bike to work (about 30-35 minutes from my apartment on the upper east side), which is a bit of an adventure everyday. I'm getting to be more saavy and bolder when darting between taxis, buses, and oblivious tourists. My office is also about one block away from the Union Square Farmers' Market, which is the largest farmers' market in NYC. It runs every M/W/F/Sat and it's so nice to wander around and troll for free samples. I'm think I may pick up some fresh crusty baquette for the weekend on my way out today. Looking forward to week 3!

Having a Great Time at Umoja

I've enjoyed reading about everyone else's fellowship experiences so far! At the end of the work day tomorrow, I will have completed three weeks with Umoja Student Development Corporation in Chicago.

I've been having such a great time! The move from New York City was not stressful at all. I'm living with another PP55 fellow. I flew here with my mom about a month ago. We packed three big suitcases (clothes, shoes, toiletries, etc.) and bought everything else in Chicago. We did some touristy things like the Architecture River Cruise by Navy Pier. We also did some more important things like food shopping. Chicago is a great city. It has been fairly easy to navigate, the weather has been good, and the people I've met so far have been really friendly.

I'm enjoying my fellowship with Umoja. I've had three very different weeks so far. My first week was spent at Umoja University which is a week long professional development conference for staff and teachers from schools and community organizations from across the city of Chicago. They participate in Umoja-led workshops which help them "build a positive, youth-centered school culture." During that week, my boss would pick me up around 6/6:30AM to go to Dominican University where the conference was held. After helping out with setup, I got to spend mornings and some afternoons attending/participating in workshops. My favorite workshop was "Creative Expression" where we got to look at the poetry in rap lyrics and then we wrote our poems which we later shared with the group. The facilitators were so engaging and I got some great ideas for the Writing Workshop I might help run this year with Umoja. On the first day, I met my PP55 mentor since she is President of the Umoja board and came to the opening address. It was nice to put a face to the name/emails.

My second week was spent at Peace Circle training. A big part of my job will be in restorative justice. I will explain that at a later date! The training was great. Some of the participants were around my age and we've made plans to hang out.

My third week has mainly been at Manley (the high school where Umoja's main office is located). This has been a week full of meetings! - from orientation meetings (HR, technology, supervision) to meetings about what Writing Workshop will look like this year. My supervisor is really nice and has been great at making sure I'm not overwhelmed with too much information but also not bored from lack of work. This week has been my favorite because I got a chance to interact with some of the highschool students Umoja works with. I spent yesterday at The Museum of Science and Industry with students from ACE highschool. I definitely want to go back to the museum on my own since our time was so limited during the trip. I went back to ACE highschool this afternoon and the highlight of my day/week/summer came during the afternoon debrief with the students. The students were each asked to "give a shoutout" to someone in the group who they thought did something great for the day. The students' answers were so thoughtful. I was genuinely surprised when one of the students gave me a shoutout for "being so cool."

While I've had a great week, I'm really looking forward to the weekend!

First week: Chicago and CNT Energy

I packed up my car and drove over to Chicago a little over a week ago. After lugging my stuff up to my second floor apartment in Wicker Park and amassing/assembling furniture, I started my first day of work at CNT Energy this past Thursday. My first few days consisted mainly of figuring out a lot of administrative stuff (getting my email/login accounts set up, meeting with the HR person, learning about the various software used for energy auditing and organization, finding out whom to talk to for what, etc). My job title is "Energy Analyst," and I'll be working with the Energy Savers team within CNT Energy. So far I've found that everyone in the office is extremely knowledgeable and willing to help. Tomorrow I'll be tagging along on an energy audit and later this week I'll be attending a six-day training course to become certified as a Building Analyst-- lots to learn!!

Outside of work, I had some time last week to have lunch with my Project 55 mentor, explore Wicker Park and downtown Chicago a bit, to go the Lincoln Park Zoo and visit the Art Institute. I'm looking forward to the picnic tonight in Millennium Park to see what everyone's first few weeks have been like!

Better Boys Foundation: The Beginning

It's Monday morning of my third week of working at Better Boys Foundation in North Lawndale, Chicago. The first two weeks have gone by incredibly fast. I was lucky enough to overlap with last year's fellow, Jocelyn Drummond, for the first week, and she helped ease me through the transition from spending my days sleeping and eating to working my first nine to five job of my life. I've had plenty of jobs before this, but never one where I couldn't call in last minute and feign illness or simply admit that I had been up until 4AM the previous night watching Intervention reruns and couldn't come in at 10AM like planned.

I'm still trying to define my role here at BBF. Officially, I am the academic support coordinator. Supposedly this means I'll be in charge of recruiting tutors and scheduling tutoring sessions, making sure our kids give me their grade reports on time, and partnering with local schools so that we can help each other help our kids better. Since it's August, and school doesn't start until September, I haven't quite had the chance to implement any of my vast tutoring plans. BBF partners with a program called After School Matters (ASM), which help provide after school apprenticeships to high schoolers, where they learn a skill and are paid for their attendance, like a real job. Last Friday was the last day of two of the summer sessions, film making and tap dancing. Bike repair will continue through August, and I've been supervising that twice a week. We're welcoming an Americorps volunteer in September to manage the apprenticeships, and I'll be working closely with him, since we're making tutoring a mandatory part of the apprenticeship. We're hoping to offer tap dancing, film making, gardening, a literary magazine, and knitting in the fall; I'm most excited about the knitting, since I'll be teaching it!

One of the most important things I've learned in the past two weeks is just how flexible Project 55 / Alumni Corps fellowships can be. Jocelyn's role here was completely different than mine; she worked mainly behind the scenes, in the development office, and while I'm officially employed by the development office, I'm throwing myself into the melee of YouthLAB, the official name of the high school program. I think that's a real strength of both Alumni Corps and BBF, that both sides are able to tailor positions that fit both the needs of the organizations and the fellows. Tonight is the first unofficial Alumni Corps get together, at Millennium Park; I can't wait to see how everyone else is doing!

Investing In Communities- Bringing Social Enterprise to the Real Estate Sector

Above is the link to my blog. I'll be posting periodically about my experience in Chicago and my role as an AlumniCorps Fellow with Investing In Communities, a real estate-based social enterprise.

I will post links here as well whenever I update the blog. Cheers!