The Land of Acronyms: Finding NSOC's for CEP in DC

To be entirely honest, I spent the entire summer dreading July 18th, which was the day I started working for Character Education Partnership. Not that I wasn't absolutely thrilled to have a fellowship there—from my initial interview at CEP, which involved meeting the entire staff, I knew that I would love to work in an office that places such a heavy emphasis on practicing what it preaches and treating all coworkers with kindness and respect. It was simply that I was just not looking forward to adjusting to a 9 to 5 schedule and losing the fun and freedom so deeply associated with college life. However, July 18th rolled around despite all my wishes to the contrary and so, half an earlier than necessary, I nervously made my way via metro for the first time to downtown DC to begin my new life as a working girl.

Fortunately, my fears quickly subsided due to a number of factors. The first has been my coworkers. Because CEP is such a small organization (though with very widespread national outreach), I directly interact with every staff member on a daily basis, from the president/CEO to the summer interns. Everyone has played a role in ensuring that I was warmly welcomed and that right off the bat I felt like I was part of the team. Without a doubt, however, my main source of reassurance in the office has been my fellow fellows! CEP has two fellows this year—Carol Dreibelbis and myself—and Leif Johnson, one of the fellows from last year, has overlapped with our fellowship year for the past two weeks to finish up his work here. It has been so wonderful to have someone to ask my stupid questions to and to escape the frigid industrial air conditioning with to soak up the sweltering DC sun during our half-hour lunch break. I love both of them, and I was very sad to say good-bye to Leif on his last day today!

The other major factor has been the work itself. Going into my fellowship, I had only vague answers to the relentless questioning regarding what my plans were for the upcoming year. I knew CEP was dedicated to helping schools develop comprehensive character education initiatives, but I was not entirely clear how they went about doing so, nor how I would contribute to their efforts. Two weeks in, I am much more knowledgeable, slightly overwhelmed, but very excited by the work I will be doing. On my third day, I learned that I would be taking over Leif’s position as the fellow concentrating on fundraising and development. I report directly to the director of resource development, who tells me which foundations and corporate giving programs we should be targeting and how much money we should be asking for; gives me a skeleton for the grant proposal; and leaves most everything else up to my discretion. It is an enormous amount of responsibility: I essentially write or edit everything that leaves the office, from letters of inquiry to grant applications to position papers to donation appeals to thank you notes. Needless to say, I am never bored, and at times I have wondered how I am going to be able to do all of the work I am assigned, especially when told that I would also be expected to find all of the vendors for the Exhibit Hall at CEP’s National Forum on Character (which requires an entirely new post to explain). But I am also excited to be entrusted with such important work in my first year of work and to be developing new, practical skills as an English major! (this was another source of concern for me…) So, despite all of my fears, my second week flew by, and I look forward to learning more and meeting new people in the coming weeks.