Prepaing for my fellowship

As I prepare for my fellowship at the Character Education Partnership, I've found that looking for my first apartment is certainly stressful. However, preparing for the first real phase of my adult life, as well as my first job brings a unique and rather joyful set of stressors as well. I'm visiting DC this weekend to start the housing search in earnest and also to gain some sense of what DC is--clearly it is difficult to truly know a city over the course of two days but I've found that it is enough to give you a distinct sense of atmosphere. Unlike some fellows, who have lived or worked in their cities before, I've visited DC only once, as a tourist. I'm familiar with the Smithsonian and the Washington Monument but am extremely excited to figure out those parts of the city that a tourist visit doesn't allow you to access.

To prepare for this important year, I've made a list of priorities, both professional and personal. Above all, I hope to make a meaningful contribution to CEP's work and to use my fellowship to clarify what my aptitudes are in a professional environment (Princeton can teach you how to write and think but I suspect that the valuable lessons I've learned there will be less applicable to my future than those I learn this coming year) and how I can use them to help both myself and others. CEP's work is generally somewhat hands-off, rather than engaged in direct service. I currently believe that this is more in line with my abilities than more direct work but I am eager to find out whether this is true, both by throwing myself into my position and by volunteering independently in direct service organizations.

I am very eager to document my experience of my fellowship here and hopefully, to provide some useful insights for future fellows.

Goals for Summer

Like many of you, I’m pretty excited to head back to Princeton for Reunions next week. After Reunions, I’ll be doing some traveling for work – first to Jefferson City, Tennessee and then to Chicago! Between all of the travel, it looks like I’ll only be in my office for 12 full days in June, which will be a shift after the past two months.

I’m excited to report that I will be staying on at Echoing Green past my Fellowship which would have ended in August. My title changed recently to reflect my current role at Echoing Green; I’m now called the coordinator of Work on Purpose. When I was hired, Work on Purpose was a book and my role centered around tracking its sales and building partnerships with organizations that could use Work on Purpose, but now Work on Purpose is a fully fledged program at Echoing Green. I look forward to being part of some of the strategy conversations as we think more broadly about how Work on Purpose fits into Echoing Green’s mission and how we scale the program to increase our impact. This summer I’ll have the chance to work with our Work on Purpose intern and also dive into some research projects for our team.

One of the things that I love about Echoing Green is the incredible office culture we have. We passed around a study recently that suggests that one of the best ways to develop employee retention is to allow staff to bring their ‘whole selves’ to the office and our managers do a great job of living that practice. At the end of our recent staff meeting, we went around the room and shared a personal goal for the summer. It’s a great way to be held accountable for growing ourselves outside of the office and it was really energizing to hear about my colleagues’ amazing side projects, hobbies, athletic feats, and more. One of my goals is to start volunteering again and hopefully get involved in some art projects.

Looking forward to seeing you back on campus!