Sights, sounds, other sensations

Slightly melodic chime of the alarm clock. Sun peeking in. Whine and rattle of our schizophrenic shower. From scalding hot to Antarctic in a split second; then back again. Odd fluorescent lighting in the apartment building makes it feel like a prison, vaguely. (Eco-friendliness has never been compared to incarceration?) Another whine and rattle, this time of the 4 Uptown. Quick peer around the subway car, shades and hues tell the tale - a majority become a minority.

More later, obviously, but it seems well evident that living in a city is an overwhelmingly sensory experience. Sights. Sounds. And other sensations. They're always there hanging on the background. One of the interesting side elements of city - City? - life.

On the life of a professional gay

Greetings from the fabulous, unpretentious, and (very, very) affordable city of Chicago. I am halfway through my thirteenth week as the Director of Community Relations & Outreach at the Center on Halsted, the largest center for the LGBTQA community in the Midwest. The work has been surprisingly challenging. The staff is amazing, thoughtful, and intentional. The experience has been a real education. Let me share three important lessons I have had to learn.

1. Community organizing is hard. I remember being very pretentious about how I was going to be a community organizer in Chicago during my last two months at Princeton. One of the founding tenets of community organizing is that people have solutions to their problems. Community organizers serve as catalysts who create solutions-driven synergies between different stakeholders. Well, guess what? People have different, and at times divergent, agendas, biases, and fears. In response to high-profile violent incidents and the resulting, and at times divisive, community dialogue, the Center decided to form a task force to think strategically about how to make our neighborhood, Lakeview, safer and more inclusive for all.

That was the first major project I was to spearhead. 30 + 1:1 meetings and three confidential strategy sessions later, we launched the Lakeview Safety & Inclusion Coalition (LSIC). LSIC is a neighborhood-based coalition of residents, business owners, elected officials, clergy, vulnerable young adults, and social service providers. Forming it was surprisingly challenging. Maintaining its relevance and expanding its potential is even more daunting. But every challenge around LSIC has been a learning opportunity. Now that the summer months are over, LSIC is working quietly on strategic initiatives to make Lakeview better prepared for next summer.

2. Living fully takes deliberate practice. I certainly miss the convenience and proximity to opportunities that my beloved Princeton gave me. But I have to say that I adore the life I am leading - or more accurately, I love the challenges that my current life is throwing my way. Yes, I still have to deal with some anxieties. But my anxieties are not based on letter grades, papers, or problem sets. I find myself anxious about how to know that I am making a meaningful impact, how to be creative without overstepping the boundaries of my job, how to give voice to the visions that inspired me to come to Chicago -- really cool questions, don't you think?

Don't get me wrong, though. I work very hard in order to excel at what I do. Yes, I have had a lot of 60-hour weeks. But the cool thing is that when I leave this Center that I love so much, I can leave it behind. In fact, I choose to leave my work behind. Not only because I can but also because I must in order to take care of myself. That's often hard, especially for those of us who belong to the passionate kind. But boundaries are necessary. After work, I will usually go to the gym (2 blocks away) -- huh huh, professional gay = gym bunny; it's inevitable. And when it comes to food, ouuuh HONEY. The Center is attached to a Whole Foods. Trader Joe's is not far, and my neighborhood, Rogers Park, has phenomenal fresh markets. And when I get home, I know that some great, fresh food and some smooth vino is always on hand. Living fully, taking our time to enjoy whatever we are doing and/ or whoever we are with takes practice, deliberate practice. But trust me, it's totally worth it.

3. Chicago is just fabulous. Don't even get me started. Yes, it is an egregiously segregated city. And no one in AlumniCorps is immune to the ramifications of that segregation on their work and daily lives. But I am SO grateful that all the fellows are aware, and experience some discomfort with the depth of segregation in the city. Discomfort is important. It keeps us grateful for our privilege.

But Chicago... this city has SO much to offer. We just love to get it in and have a good time here. I love Lake Michigan so much. I don't know how many times I have biked along it, or just sat by it on many evenings this past summer. The food is just fabulous. Take my upcoming birthday for instance. Once I leave the Center after work, I'll be going to Happy Hour with the Ivy League and Sister Schools LGBT Alumni Association. Then, I'm going to a dinner party thrown by the Regional Coordinator for AlumniCorps in a fab space that overlooks the Lake and the Chicago River. And this weekend is going to be full of brunch, jazz, food, workouts, and the good life. Living the life of a professional gay in Chicago. Oooouuuhhh.

How is P55? Awesome.
What do I like most about it? The challenge it is giving me to do what I love and live fully.
Do I recommend it? Yes. Yes. And YES.

Go P55.

"Welcome to Philadelphia" AlumniCorps Dinner

Last night all the Philadelphia fellows got together for a dinner graciously organized and hosted by our Philadelphia area committee coordinator, Carol Rosenfeld '05. Following a delicious meal, we all watched the movie Waiting for Superman. The movie provided some thoughtful after dinner conversation on the state of America's schools. It was great to hear all the different perspectives from the other fellows on what can be done to reform our broken educational system. I am looking forward to many more exciting conversations and seminars throughout the fellowship year on this topic.

Gearing up for the Forum

September has been an interesting month at CEP. With less than a month to go before the National Forum on Character Education, everyone has abandoned their official job descriptions and has become support for Becky, who is in charge of coordinating the Forum. No more grants, no more research--it's all Forum, all the time! For me, this means that my job has gone from being a writing-intensive position to a very call-heavy position. Initially, this was a little difficult for me. I've never loved the phone, and making dozens and dozens of cold calls to organizations and schools in attempts to get them to come to the Forum was not something that made me particularly happy. However, I am now INFINITELY more confident with my phone skills than I was before, and it's very satisfying to find contract on my desk from an organization that I recruited to exhibit at the Forum. So, September has been an interesting month, and a month of growth for me as well.

In other news, the president of AlumniCorps, Dr. Leahy, and his wife Mrs. Leahy hosted a wonderful dinner last night for the fellows and our mentors. I was so impressed by their hospitality (they have hosted this event for seven years!!!), and it was really nice to be in a real house for the first time in over two months! Members of the DC Area Project 55 Committee gave us a little preview of the seminars that we'll get to go to over the next couple of months, and they seem like they'll be exactly what I need, as someone who is getting a clearer idea of what career I'd like to pursue but is still keeping an open mind. September will certainly not be the last interesting month here in DC!

First Month of Teaching

I am coming up on the end of my first month at the Community Day Charter Public School in Lawrence, MA and it has been amazing. I am a generalist teacher in the lower school, which basically means I teach across grade levels and subjects where most needed. Basically, reinforcements called in to help the kids that are struggling the most, so that I can do a lot of one-on-one and small group work. My job description changed a lot right off the bat, though, because the new fourth-grade math teacher quit on our second day of orientation. There are two teachers per classroom, one who specializes in English and the other in math. So, I ended up taking up a lot more responsibility in the classroom that was missing a math teacher, at least until a new teacher could be found. It took a while to hire someone after the start of the school year, but last week a new guy was found, so I will now return to being a generalist once he gets settled in.

The opportunity to work solely in one classroom was actually a great way to begin the year, because I was able to get to know the 24 students in room 4B very well. I will now have to learn many many more names of students, but I have learned a lot about teaching already from my first month, and I think I will be better equipped to handle my responsibilities. Once the hectic start of the year dies down I will start working on a nutrition project to prevent childhood obesity, and it has been very helpful to first get to know kids and the challenges facing their health. Many of the kids do not get fed well at home, their parents can't afford healthy food, and many are not even allowed outside when they get home because it is too dangerous. There will be a lot to work around to encourage healthy lifestyles, especially if parents aren't on board, and I think it is important to continue to learn as much as possible before claiming to have answers.

The school is simply incredible. It is in the lowest-income school district in Massachusetts and a huge percentage of students are designated "English Language Learners," which means they struggle with English yet are still expected to learn in an English-speaking classroom. Despite the obstacles, last years' MCAS standardized testing results just came back and the results are extraordinary. 4th grade English was 59 out of 944 schools in the state. Even more impressive, 5th grade math was 3rd in the state and 6th grade math was 1st. Pretty amazing place.

I am loving teaching. I came in 3rd place in 4B's rocks paper scissors tournament last week, hoping to get a championship under my belt in the coming weeks. Also started coaching flag football at the upper school, which is great. I have a lot to say about it but get the feeling this blog is rambling, so more next time.

How do you spell "adorable"?

While there are seven AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter Schools around Washington, DC, AppleTree's central offices are not actually located at any of the schools. Rather, our offices are in northeast DC next to Catholic University, so (unfortunately) I see priests more often than our adorable preschoolers. Thus, I was thrilled last week to be able to join a tour of three of the school campuses. We started at our Columbia Heights campus, which has been open for several years, and then took a bus to brand new sites in southeast and northeast DC that opened in the middle of August.

The classrooms were so beautifully decorated, and it was evident that the students were excited to be there (as were the teachers). At first glance, it might seem like separate "learn" and "play" times were distinct aspects of the day. In reality, the students are both constantly learning and having fun. In one classroom, a teacher was guiding students through a picture book about adding vegetables to soup; students took turns raising their hands to enthusiastically say that they were adding carrots or potatoes (or as one student broadly labeled it, "food!") to the bowl. In another classroom, students were prompted to draw healthy foods and were eager to share with us and each other their crayon portraits. The clarity of their language when talking to us was amazing; it was easy to forget that the girl talking about her three dogs or the boy who insisted on drawing a picture of me was only 3 or 4 years old. It made me wish learning and having fun were more closely intertwined even after pre-k and kindergarten (and apparently, the MIT Media Lab believes they can be).

The best part of the day, though, occurred when a 3-year-old girl, whom I had yet to visit at her table, walked up to me and gave me a big hug around my knees. My heart melted right there. All in all, it was an inspiring day that I hope to repeat soon!

What Do You Wear to Work?

Hey Fellow Fellows,

I'm very curious to find out what all of your dress codes are like at work.  Here at Achievement Prep it's "business casual" which means shirt and tie for guys, slacks / skirt / khakis and a top for ladies, or a super casual dress with a cardigan is apparently acceptable.  I've also seen several returning staff members wearing sneakers.  Casual, indeed.

So comment on this post and let the world know what you wear to work.

Beginning at St. Marks

So I’ve now been working for about 3 weeks and living in NY for just over a month. I love my apartment and I was so lucky to have gotten it when I did. I was leaving for Asia in August and I had one week to find an apartment while attending training at my job with last year’s fellow. I only saw one apartment that was listed on the Princeton in NY list but I loved it. When I came back from China, I started working at St. Mark the Evangelist School one week before school came into session. We tackled some last minute registration tasks although with an almost entirely new front office (our principal is new too) we were mostly trying to figure out the logistics of the first few days of school. Since then my job has calmed down quite a bit. I meet with my principal every morning after school announcements and then again on Thursday afternoons for a weekly reflection meeting. Since the principal once held a position similar to mine, he’s very good at managing my position. I perform mostly administrative tasks including tracking donations and registration, updating the tuition collection agency, and setting up the enrichment programs and field trips for the classes. In addition, I am involved in high school admissions for the eighth graders and I tutor several students for the Specialized High schools tests. But I still have quite a bit of freedom in deciding what types of programs I would like to start or contribute to for the students. I’m thinking about restarting the school choir which disintegrated in the middle of last year or helping the students restart the service crew, which organizes community outreach at the school. This year the atmosphere at the school seems to be very different than in previous years. I think the change is due mostly to our new Principal, who himself is an alumni of St. Marks and has a lot invested in the school. Today is back to school night. I forgot about all of the traditions of elementary and middle school.

Hello from Harlem!

This is the beginning of my fifth full week as an AlumniCorps fellow – I can’t believe how quickly time has flown! Between my job and handling the nuts and bolts of settling into NYC, every day has been packed. This transitional period has definitely been challenging. I moved into my apartment the weekend that Hurricane Irene hit NYC, which definitely made my first week in the city a bit stressful. Thankfully, things are finally starting to calm down, and I’m finding the time to fully appreciate my new life in one of the greatest cities in the world.

I work as a grantwriting/communications associate for New Heights Youth, a Harlem-based nonprofit that aims to help at-risk NYC students gain admission to high school and college. We use basketball as a ‘hook’ to get our kids more excited about school and their future. New Heights currently runs 15 AAU basketball teams with girls and boys from all over the city. We serve about 200 kids total. Most of these kids are from low-income areas in the Bronx, Harlem and central Brooklyn, and about half are the first people in their family to go to college.

I don’t do direct work with the kids - I’m in charge of managing our organization’s grantwriting/fundraising efforts and social media. However, our East Harlem office gets frequent visits from New Heights coaches and kids. We also have a couple of program alumni that now work for the organization. On a daily basis, I’m reminded that my job has a direct (and significant!) impact on the community that I work in. Seeing all that my organization has been able to accomplish in just 6 short years (we became an independent nonprofit in 2005) makes me really excited for the upcoming year.

Two of my favorite things:

Wine tasting and networking! This has been a Princeton-filled week, and I've had a good time meeting new people, going to new places, and doing a bit of networking. On Tuesday I went to the young alumni trivia night at Laughing Man Tavern--I wasn't great at the trivia questions, but I think I definitely held my own. (Fun fact: Did you know that the Titanic was part of the Royal Mail Service and sank with tons of letters and packages?) Then, on Thursday I went to the PCW kick-off wine tasting event. My co-fellow Sarah and I arrived really early at the event (fashionably early?), so we got a chance to talk to a few of the organizers before the big crowd arrived. There were also a LOT of '11s, plus my mentor--tons of people to get to know better. It was nice to see new and old Princeton faces. Something I've come to appreciate throughout my fellowship is how lucky I am to have a community down here in D.C., even though I'm no longer in the automatic community that is college.

It's been especially nice to have these opportunities to socialize and relax this week since work has been getting more and more intense. The event I'm helping plan--CEP's National Forum on Character Education--draws near, and we're in the thick of preparations. Next month at this time I'll be traveling back to D.C. from the Forum in San Francisco!

Who Knew?

Who knew nonprofits could have corporate-style perks?

HDF (Housing Development Fund) has a partnership with CitiBank/Citi Foundation and we were invited to watch the Mets game last night against the Nationals - in an Empire Suite private box at Citifield! Even though the Mets lost, it was a really fun night (with great seats!) and the stadium is awesome.

I promised to talk about my organization so here's a bit of background info:

HDF may be small, but it's the nonprofit with the largest funding for affordable housing in Connecticut - one of the most expensive housing markets in the U.S. The income (and education) gap is huge here, which means too many families can't live in the towns that they work in. HDF acts kind of like a nonprofit bank - we finance developers of affordable housing, but we also have special programs to provide mortgage loans for low/moderate-income individuals and counsel first-time homebuyers to help them understand the complicated homebuying process and work towards achieving their goals. The people we help work hard and earn steady incomes, like police offers and teachers, but in this area, it's not enough to afford a house! All of our one-on-one counseling, classes, and clinics are free, and we even help people at risk of foreclosure (and victims of mortgage fraud) so that they can keep their homes - which is especially critical in the current economy. I really admire everyone at HDF for the work they've done assisting thousands of families, and it's so rewarding to see clients close on new homes every week because of our help, especially those that have worked with us for a long time to finally achieve their American Dream. :)

Reading these blogs, it's so cool to see all of the fellows opening doors at their organizations!

finally

After ten weeks of work here in the Bay Area, it's about time for an update about what I'm actually doing. I work for the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Peninsula (BGCP), whose vision is to have every member of our community graduate high school with a plan for post-secondary education or training. This scope of this vision is contextualized by a few basic facts about the neighborhoods we serve (which are East Palo Alto, eastern Menlo Park, and Redwood City): less than half the kids graduate from high school; less than 30% are proficient in math and writing; less than 10% of kids' parents attended college (and less than 4% graduated); and the median per capita income is less than $15,000. These numbers paint a basic picture of the difficulty an organization like BGCP has in making a meaningful impact on a community while practicing an open door policy that accepts any child that wishes to attend.

My work at BGCP is firstly in outcome analysis for grant writing and reporting, as well as fundraising. I'm responsible for overseeing the databases for our donors and our club members; for our club surveys for new and existing members; for our "On-Track" indicator program, for which we partner with our members' schools to collect grades and disciplinary records to help design more individual programming for our at-risk kids; and for fundraising research. These, however, are only a handful of my day to day tasks -- my position places me at the intersection of several departments, and it's the constant juggling of different projects that keeps this work interesting. Just now I'm off for a 5pm meeting at a school site about the results of their summer programs data. More posts to come about what I've learned so far and how things have changed in the workplace in just a couple of short months.

My Year

At the New York Orientation last weekend, we talked a lot about hwo our fellowship years are really "our years"-- years intended to help us develop professionally and instill a comittment ot civic service. Of course, we are all simultaneously trying to beneft our organizations. But at my job I have been impressed by the extent to which people want to make my hear here enriching. When I emailed my supervisor about having to take time off for medical school interviews, she excitedly respnoded saying that these interviews were very important. When I expressed interest in hands-on work with children, she arranged for me to help in the classrooms. I have definitely had some boring tasks and lackluster days, but most of the time I feel that the people at my organization are trying to make my job beneficial to both me and NYCCD. This is especially striking when I compare my job to my friends' in the private sector.

Unrelated, but if any applicants have questions or want to talk generally about PP55, feel free to contact me. It was really helpful for me ot talk to fellows while I applied last year, so I hope I can be equally helpful to future fellows.

I Wear Many Hats

Over the past two months at Achievement Prep here in DC I have already done an unbelievable number of different things for the school.  I’ve done basic administrative things from filing and alphabetizing to consulting student files to answering the phone and making phone calls to parents about upcoming events.  I’m also self-titled queen of our Enrollment Records database (which is really just an enormous Google Document) in which I keep meticulous track of whose DC Residency is updated and which schools have sent us their scholars’ cumulative academic records.

On Wednesday last week I had my first taste, so to speak, of what it’s like to be a lunch lady.  Our Cafeteria Coordinator was out for the day so I stepped in to make sure our scholars got their breakfast and lunch.  I also did the grossest part of cleanup, which is dumping all of the half-drunk milks into a big bucket and dumping that down the sink.  I find myself appalled at the way some children mutilate their food.

Starting this week, I am now a key person in our dismissal process, in charge of using my walkie-talkie to get children from inside the building to their parents waiting outside.  We can’t just open the doors and let the children out into the world, we want to make sure we know who is picking up every scholar.

Also starting this week, I’m an art teacher!  A 5^th grade math teacher, Ms. Arellano, and I are now the co-leaders of the APA Art Club, which is basically a mixed media art class for 4 through 6 graders, planned and executed by the two of us.  Last week, in my sometimes role as school ambassador, I attended an orientation for the DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative’s Arts for Every Student program.  AFES sponsors schools to send students on field trips to a variety of art-related shows, exhibits and programs to make sure that art is included in their education.  Not only that, but this week happens to be Arts in Education Week and the DC Collaborative is holding a sidewalk chalking contest for art classes.  Whoever makes the best chalk drawing in the theme of butterflies or the arts gets at $50 gift certificate to the Utrecht store (aka fancy art supplies), so I’m having the scholars plan their ideas and then tomorrow or Friday we’ll head outside and chalk it up so I can send in our contest submissions before the 18^th.  What I like about art class through the enrichment system is that since each scholar can only be in one enrichment program, he chooses which one he wants.  This means that the vast majority of our Art Club scholars really wanted to be in the art enrichment.  When asked on the first day why they choose art, the scholars gave us some really advanced and impressive answers about outlets for creativity and the ability to express emotion through art.  It’s going really well so far!

My other ambassadorial role is to the community at large.  This job is a combination between that and being an event planner.  Yesterday, my boss and I went to meet with two local property managers about the series of community engagement workshops I am developing.  It’s actually going to happen, ahh!  The first one will be on October 11^th.

I’m also a cheerleader in the sense that I am on our pep rally committee, planning activities for our weekly community gatherings called Preppy and Proud, which take place at the end of our early dismissal Wednesdays.  (Remember, we’re Achievement Prep.)  We’re developing ideas for how to fit 204 scholars into our limited indoor space and do something fun and meaningful as a community.  We want this to make those scholars who earned Wednesday extension and therefore miss Preppy and Proud jealous.  As our Head of School would say, we want to “spur them on with envy.”  This is fun, and you’re missing it because of your behavior over the past week.  Get it together for next time.

I am also basically a general school go-fer.  Whenever people see me they know that they can count on me to quickly and competently do whatever small but important task they suddenly need completed right this very second or else!  I make copies, I use the paper cutter, I hand out announcements to go home with the scholars.  I man a post in the stairwell during transitions to make sure they are silent and respectful.  I share an advisory in the morning with a 5^th grade English Teacher and the Scholar Support Coordinator named after SUNY Cortland, which two of our Platinum Teachers attended.

I do a little bit of everything, some things more than others, but even though I feel fairly certain that I’m working the longest hours of any PP55 Fellow (6:45am to about 6:00pm every day, and much later if we have a night time event), the days go quickly.  They are filled to the max and there’s always something to do.  I’m never bored.  This is going to be a very intense year.

ETM Academy

For many of the PP55 fellows who are working in education, summer is a strange time to begin work. On the one hand, school is not in session, so it allows a fellow to ease into the position, learn about the organization, internalize work flow, and determine what the job entails before the school year begins. On the other (or same!) hand, school is not in session, which means that during the early weeks of the fellowship, the mission of an organization may seem abstract or at least far removed from the everyday happenings in the organization.

I can certainly say that I have felt both of these points. Especially as I work on grant proposals for Education Through Music (ETM), I have felt somewhat disconnected from the words on the computer screen; I ask myself, “what is 'ongoing professional development?'” “What does computer-assisted instruction look or sound like?” Or even the more basic, “who are ETM music teachers?”

I recently attended the first day of ETM Academy, a professional development series for ETM music teachers. The workshop was held at M.S. 180 in the Co-op City area of the Bronx. Although the students had not yet returned to school, this was my first opportunity to see the music classroom at one of ETM’s partner schools. Our music teachers were buzzing before training began, and I could only imagine what the first day of music class would be like for students heading back to school.

The morning session included discussions and hands-on activities focused on topics including classroom management and lesson planning. There were even a few sing-alongs (cue "Hip Hop Turkeys") to give examples of how to coordinate music class curricula with holidays, geography, etc. Because ETM Music Teachers are largely trained as music educators, ETM Academy is meant to reinforce their previous training and help them find creative ways to teach the ETM curriculum.

After lunch, we got a sneak peek of a brand new, state-of-the-art Music Technology Lab at M.S. 180. This classroom houses 30 student work stations that are completely decked out with Mac computers, keyboards, electric guitars, and all kinds of music software. The ETM Music Teachers were introduced to this amazing technology. While only two ETM partner schools anticipate having technology labs this school year, the session also introduced various websites that host free activities, games, and programs that music teachers can incorporate into their lessons by reserving computer rooms at their schools.

All in all, I learned so much about ETM through the Academy. In the days that followed, many of our music teachers visited the office to pick up supplies to decorate their new classrooms. Rolling out sheets of colorful paper for their bulletin boards or cutting out letters to spell "I love music," the teachers were so excited and inspired to start school.

This is the first full week of school, and we have already heard some great things about the first days of music class. I can't wait for my first site visit to observe our programs in action!

Reason number 3,562.........

.......why I love New York City.

Wonderful animal statues pop up out of nowhere, and no one even bats an eyelash.

Tons of transitions

[x to y ...]

Chicago to New York. Advance Illinois to CASES. Spring to summer to fall. Three-person office to two-person office. Two roommates to one roommate. Old court setup to new court setup. Old mentor to new mentor. And so on..

All this's to say, this is definitely a time of tons of transitions. And, honestly, I haven't quite gotten it all straight yet. Haven't figured out how to best articulate (not to mention in the context of something like the tenth anniversary on 9/11; crazy to be in NYC for that today(. Looking forward to getting some more clarity, and to sharing more pieces on this blog.

Where has the time gone?

Time is something that I have never been able to master. I remember when the beginning of August rolled around, and making a mental note that I need to blog for PP55. Unfortunately, between searching for an apartment, dealing with management once I found an apartment, packing, dealing with stubborn apartment managers that are only in the office twice a week at the most inconvenient times, trying to reserve apartment elevators, and trying to figure out why on earth a moving company is asking me for a certificate of liability and insurance, I was needless to say somewhat distracted. Oh yeah did I mention that there was also an earthquake and hurricane (both in the same week thrown in there?)

It is amazing how much of difference it makes having a rental, as opposed to sublet apartment. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that renting an apartment would be as stressful as it was. Fortunately, I was able to find an apartment easily by using the NYC Princeton alums listserv. After securing my rental, the complications really began. First of all, I couldn't move into my apartment before the current tenant was out. This was further compounded by the fact that the girl who was moving into my sublet room had to be into my sublet room since she had people moving into her previous apartment. To say the least, it was a mess. Fortunately, everything worked out in the end, and I am now situated at 89th and Columbus on the upper west side.

Even though I am 56 blocks north of my sublet apartment, it is an amazingly different lifestyle. As much as I loved the vivaciousness of Murray Hill and Mid-Town, hearing ambulances whiz by what seemed like every minute on the minute transporting people to the NYU hospital quickly grew tiresome. The Upper West Side has a much more residential feel (I love passing fathers and mothers walking their children to school as I am walking to the subway to go to work in the mornings), and is reminiscent of my life at home in Ohio with all the green trees. Also, in addition to the calmer, quieter, feel, the location is still prime since I am close to the Metropolitan Museum and Natural Museum of History, as well as my current favorite flea market at 77th and Columbus.

Work in Appeals at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office is really picking up. I now have a better appreciation for why I was required to start in June since it took me about two months to master not only my responsibilities, (which consist mostly of exhibits, proofreading, citechecking, and writing ES briefs,) but also gaining the recognition of how to properly prioritize my responsibilities, (a vital skill especially leading up to filing day-which occurs only once a month, and is strikingly similar to Dean's Date with all the lawyers trying to get their briefs to the courts on time.)

Looking forward to this month's adventures. It is amazing how fast time flies when you are no longer in school.

My Adventures with Tommy

During my first few weeks of working at the Association to Benefit Children, I learned very quickly that even though I love kids, I am relatively clueless about how to handle them. With this realization in mind, you might be able to understand the fear that ran through me the day the teacher from the Little Wonders classroom (2 year olds) asked me if I could be a one-on-one chaperone for Tommy (name changed for confidentiality) on their trip to the Children’s Museum. Tommy is that infamous student who is continually acting out, throwing tantrums, and causing havoc. Everybody at ABC has a story to tell about his outrageous behavior. And he would be MY responsibility for the whole trip. Despite my apprehensions, I decided to go. At least it would get me out from behind my desk for a day.

When I met Tommy on the day of the trip, his adorable curly hair and big, sweet eyes lulled me into a false sense of security. He was so cute, surely he couldn’t be as bad as everyone said! When we arrived at the museum, our first stop was an awesome Curious George themed room. Tommy and I played, we laughed, we ran around. Everything was great—until it was time to go to the next room. Tommy did not want to leave, so he started running. You think that playing four years of Varsity soccer would have given me an edge over a 2 year old, but I couldn’t catch him or get him to stop running. The head teacher, Aaron, had to help me corral Tommy like a loose chicken. It was quite the scene.

From there, our day alternated between moments of fun and times of complete chaos. Here are some highlights: I ended up with a wet spot in a most unfortunate location at the Splash City exhibit thanks to a large bucket of water I didn't see coming; there was an embarrassing plastic banana throwing incident in the Dora the Explorer room; and in the last room, Tommy climbed up to the top of a space rocket slide and then refused to come down, trapping several other kids inside. Eventually, it was time to go home and I was exhausted. At the same time, I felt proud that I had survived and I knew I could handle any kid after this. Also, Tommy and I had bonded during our day, a fact that was proven when he ran up to me the next day and gave me a big hug. Now, everyday Tommy and I spend 30 minutes playing together in the morning to tire him out a bit and he is behaving much better. He might be hard to handle, but I’m pretty sure Tommy is a good-hearted kid who just has too much energy and a pretty serious mischievous streak. Even so, I wouldn’t try to change him into one of the "well-behaved" kids for anything.

A few weeks in...

Hi everyone!

I’ve been working at Echoing Green for just under a month now. Echoing Green is a social entrepreneurship nonprofit and for the past 25 years it has been known for its fellowship program that provides seed funding to individuals starting nonprofits and for-profits with a social impact mission. I’m working in the Communications department, which is developing a new branch of Echoing Green’s work surrounding the book, Work on Purpose. The book and accompanying workshops aim to guide Millenials (us! - people ages 18-32) towards following their passions and finding a purposeful career. In many ways, this overlaps with the mission of our Princeton Project 55 fellowship program which is offering us viable opportunities to work in a field or community that is important to us.

Besides the incredibly friendly staff and the great work environment, I’ve enjoyed learning about the range of responsibilities and opportunities that fall within my purview as Communications Associate. Three weeks into the semester at Princeton, it felt like I’d been taking that set of courses my whole life, but at Echoing Green I feel that I’m constantly learning and the more I am able to accomplish throughout the day, the more responsibility I’ll be given. It has taken longer than I expected to learn the ropes, and I’m definitely still learning, but I’m also starting to get the hang of all of Echoing Green’s systems.

I lived with a friend in NY for the first three weeks of work and it was a lot of fun to sample city-life, but for now, until I find an apartment/roommate, I’ll be commuting from home (Princeton Junction). It’s strange to pass by campus and know that all of the new freshmen are getting ready for OA/CA [or getting evac-ed because of the rain, as the case may be], but I suppose that’s how the cycle goes.

Looking forward to reading about your experiences.

Rebecca

Two months in

One of the things I enjoy doing most in my job is sitting in on meetings--not that my personal tasks aren't exciting, but meetings are a nice break in the routine and a great chance to learn more about topics I'm unfamiliar with... like how an organization works. Even though Aeras is a nonprofit, it has a budget and a certain set of goals like any other business, so I'm getting introduced to concepts like how to promote investment and efficiency. A new vocab word I've learned is stage-gating, or a standard of criteria for deciding what products should continue to be developed. With limited funds, not every vaccine product will undergo proof-of-concept trials that cost millions of dollars and involve thousands of participants. Last week, I got to sit in on some stage-gating meetings for current products, which made clear how the process works and highlighted specific clinical benchmarks that have to be passed for a vaccine to progress in development.

One thing I remember past fellows enthusing over was how much free time they had in the evening thanks to working nine-to-fives with no homework. I have yet to experience this feeling, but to be fair, until recently I've been dedicating most of my free time to dealing with plans for next year. I think what it comes down to is that I need to force myself to schedule some extracurriculars into my weekly routine to ensure that I get all that I want out of this fellowship year. There's time for it if it's planned; otherwise, making dinner, hitting the gym (Sarah, don't rat me out for this being a lie) and relaxing with some high-brow reality T.V. (ahem- The Bachelorette) can easily consume an evening.

Tomorrow I'm going to attend the TB Vaccine Scientific Symposium, co-sponsored by Aeras and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). I will be taking notes all day in order to later write up summaries of the talks, so I'm going to turn in early in order to be awake enough to do a good job. That's one thing that's certainly different from college: you can't live like a night owl because there's no such thing as an afternoon nap in the working world!

First Week Finished

Roosevelt intersects with California as a boarded-up warehouse. There’s a pothole you have to avoid, and then you’re running down south next to the park. At 19^th Street you take a right. After a few blocks, you pull up in front of one of three branches of the Carole Robertson Center for Learning.

The Center was named after one of the victims of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. When I showed up on Monday for orientation (which consisted mostly of six square blocks of forms, occasionally livened up by the seriously friendly staff members in charge of making sure I understood what I was signing) I was handed a brief article by Angela Davis. Davis writes,

…it occurred to me that the way the memory of that episode persists in popular imagination is deeply problematic. What bothers me most is that their names have been virtually erased: They are inevitably referred to as ‘the four Black girls killed in the Birmingham church bombing.’ Another traumatic moment occurred in 1964 when James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were killed in Mississippi. A decade earlier, Emmett Till was found at the bottom of the Tallahatchie River. These boys, whose lives were also consumed by racist fury, still have names in our historical memory. Carole, Denise, Addie Mae, and Cynthia do not.

Part of my work at Carole Robertson will be an oral history project. This week I talked with Michelle, the teacher I will be working with most closely, about how we might go about it. She was very excited when I mentioned the possibility of such a project, especially when I floated the idea of one focused on the Center, which is celebrating its 35^th anniversary this year. She told me about how, right before I arrived, the director addressed students and parents and asked whether anyone knew who Carole Robertson was. None of the students did.

I’m at the Center in a very vague capacity as a “School Age and Youth Literacy Specialist.” I perch in various locations around the building and do my thing. On Tuesday, “my thing” consisted of helping to inventory and organize roughly ten million books provided to teachers through a grant. Wednesday, my thing was a different thing: hanging out in classrooms and getting to know the kids I’ll eventually be working with. Thursday was more meetings and lesson planning and getting to know more about the Center as a whole. Today: more kids, ice cream, games, and teaching approximately sixteen teenage and preteen girls how to fold fortunetellers, which they called cootie catchers. Next week and into the foreseeable future, the real thing: theater and creative writing and oral history oh my!

We’ll see what the kids like best—I’m guessing theater, and I’m trying to plan accordingly—but I’m going to try very hard not to lose sight of history. It’s the reason any of us are doing what we’re doing right now.

For now, I’m looking forward to the Labor Day weekend, as I have been throughout this first (exhausting, confusing, awesome) week. Like many other Fellows, I’m not sure that what I’m doing this year will be something I want to pursue for the rest of my life, but I’m trying to make everything I do meaningful, from lesson planning to helping clean the floor after snack time. The sense that the Carole Robertson Center is part of history helps.

First Post

Hi everyone,

This is my first post, after having just finished my first month at CityBridge. CityBridge is a family foundation that works to build and sustain a high-performing public school system in DC. CityBridge has two major areas of focus. One is our stewardship and engagement work, which involves engaging local philanthropists and civic leaders in the DC education reform space. The other is research and investment, which involves best practices research on education reform and making investments in high-performing organizations in DC. As a research analyst, I'm working primarily on the research and investment side of things.

It's been a great first month. The work that I'm doing at CityBridge is fascinating, exciting, and challenging all at once. I've been learning a lot about DC education reform, as well as about all the different work being done by my colleagues at CityBridge. I've gotten immersed in some of the projects I'll be working on, including our work on school turnaround in DC as well as the newly emerging work of ours on community engagement around education reform.

One of the most exciting parts of my job so far has been the chance to sit around a table with my colleagues on the research team and strategize about the direction of our work. I'm looking forward to many more of these conversations going forward. I've attended several interesting panel discussions so far, including one panel at the Fordham Institute with Rick Hess and Randi Weingarten, two big names in the education reform world. And lastly I can't fail to mention my first staff outing, which was a fun day of kayaking on the Potomac and hiking around Roosevelt Island. Thanks to everyone else for such interesting posts!

A Learning Experience

I've been in New York working now for almost two months and I'm just now writing my first blog post. Why? Because honestly, I've felt overwhelmed. Between trying to figure out how things work around the office and what is expected of me combined with trying to settle in to a new apartment in a new city with new roommates, I haven't felt like I could write a blog post that contains the kind of stories that I imagine the PP55 staff and community would like to hear. I've decided however that sugar-coating my experience would be a disservice to all.
To be honest, my attitude about my fellowship varies dramatically. Overall, I think I'm much happier than during the first few weeks when I felt totally clueless but there are still some days when I come home and say "Wow, that was rough." To clarify, by no means I am saying there is something WRONG with my organization or my fellowship...I just don't think what I am doing right now is what I want to be doing long-term and sometimes it's difficult to feel excited about the work. But hey, that's what a fellowship is supposed to be about right? TRYING something new and evaluating whether or not it is something that you would like to pursue further. For me, what I'm doing on a daily basis is not what I would like to be doing forever and I think that's OK and important to figure out. I also think it's important to be honest about!