Resolutions and Reverberations

Happy New Year Princeton Alumnicorps! I hope everyone had a great holiday, and that all those on the East Coast are dug out after the blizzard.

As I start 2011, I want to make note of a few job-related resolutions for the new year.

1. I will pack my lunch at least 4 days a week. I've been pretty good about this all year, but there are times when I haven't gotten to the grocery store, or my Tupperware is dirty, or I snooze one time too many. Sure that $14 salad from Whole Foods is incredibly tempting, sure this means making sure I wake up 3 minutes earlier every day, and yes-this means eating a LOT of PB+J, but on my P55 fellow's salary...it's the way to go! Why not all 5 days? I'm only human, OK?!

2. I will learn more from the people at the Foundation Center. I am making it a resolution to talk to at least 1 person a week about his/her work. The Foundation Center has so many different initiatives going on simultaneously. I know I can learn a lot by talking to people who work outside my immediate cubicle area. This will also give me a better grasp of the Center as a whole, which I think will help me in my work going forward.

3. I will make the Foundation Center New York's facebook page more of an online community. The whole "if you build it, they will come" philosophy isn't working out so far. I can only put so much content on the page without people interacting with what I've posted. This is a challenge because obviously authentic online community can't be forced. But I'm going to do my best!

In other news, I've been keeping up with my sporadic blogging for the Center, posting features on the Philanthropy Front and Center New York and on PhilanTopic. This week, I posted a PhilanTopic post about the differences I've noticed between working for social change on campus and in the "real world".

It was pretty cool to see that my post, which was tweeted by the Center, was then retweeted by several Princeton affiliated organizations. I guess the Princeton network is just as strong online as it is in real life!

Obviously p55ers probably have plenty to say about the process of finding your way in "real world" public interest work. If you have a chance, let me know what you think in the comments section on PhilanTopic!