AlumniCorps Love

As a second-year fellow, I oftentimes evaluate the differences between my current fellowship and my previous one. How are the organizations structured differently? How do the office cultures compare? How is the fellow being utilized differently at each organization? What do the different PP55 steering committees do to bring all the fellows together? And, perhaps most importantly, how can I use my experiences from last year to add more value to my organization and my experience this year?

A really wonderful answer to this last question hit me full force at the New York PP55 Welcome Dinner this past week: always remember and leverage the staple of support that is the broader AlumniCorps community. I never fully appreciated the value of networking until I met some very helpful contacts at the AlumniCorps social events during my time in DC, and this week I was nicely reminded of that generosity and desire to help the fellows succeed that always characterized my interactions with other Princeton alums last year. Earlier in the day, two members of the New York PP55 steering committee (including one of the PP55 founders) brought the new AlumniCorps Executive Director to visit my supervisor and me at New York Center. It was really nice to have the opportunity to talk to all of them about my work and my organization's mission and to see firsthand how much they care about each individual fellow. I was struck yet again by the passion that drives this program at the Welcome Dinner, when Scott Taylor and his wife opened up their lovely home to all of the New York fellows, mentors, and steering committee members. Everyone I spoke to was genuinely interested in learning about my fellowship, my interests, and my career aspirations. Not only did I enjoy getting to know one of my two mentors (yes, I have two--did I mention how much I love the support I'm getting?!), I also exchanged emails with another fellow's mentor who, like me, is also looking into serving on a nonprofit junior board and offered to send me some information on it. I left the dinner feeling truly fortunate to have such an incredible community of smart, successful, and above all, caring individuals who really just want to help me in any way they can. It was definitely a nice way to end the night!