From Norwalk

From Norwalk, CT

On Saturday, I finally took the MCAT, and after months of preparing I have at least a few weeks of peace before I find out my score. After all that time studying during the evenings and weekends, now that I finally have that time free I almost feel at a loss as to what to do with it! It’ll be nice to finally be able to participate in all those things I’ve been missing out on for a while.

Work has been going well. As always, the workload has been cyclical, with periods of relative calm mixed with periods of greater urgency. Right now the tide is coming in as we work to submit a couple of data-intensive funding applications, initiate a couple of quality improvement projects, and continue to see to the desultory series of minor issues that come our way. A couple of the major projects include the implementation of a new online module that will allow us to generate, send, and capture referrals to outside specialists electronically, and the commitment to a more sophisticated and rigorous process of tracking key data on performance and quality. It is an exciting time because our efforts now will pave the way for a significant increase in the capability of the health center to provide high-quality care to its patients, and the continued expansion of the health center.

Meanwhile, we have settled into Norwalk. It’s by no means the most exciting town in the world, but it’s a nice little place. Its main avenue is like Nassau Street on the water, hosting a fine array of bars, restaurants and stores. I have my set of favorite places to eat, I know the owners, and I know where to go to exercise and find a decent pickup game of soccer. On the weekend, the city still beckons.

Princeton Basketball in Philly

Last night, Princeton alums in Philadelphia went over to The Palestra to cheer on the Tigers as they took on Penn. Even though we were not victorious over the Quakers, it was still an exciting game and a good opportunity to meet some new fellow Princeton alumni.

Putting the Fun in Fundraising

Working in development definitely has its ups and downs. When I arrived at Angelwish, the organization had very little experience applying for grants, and as a result one of my primary jobs has been to lay the groundwork for our grant-seeking activities. Initiating something that will affect the organization for years to come was both an exciting and daunting prospect at the start, and after taking an invaluable class at the Foundation Center I dove into my first grant. However, once I finished that first grant and moved on to the next one on our seemingly endless list of potential funders, the sense of excitement quickly wore off. One of the hardest things for me to adjust to at that point in my fellowship was how monotonous grant-writing can be. It was not like Princeton at all with varied assignments for different classes, but rather I was pretty much writing the same thing over and over again with slight changes in format and length.

Nevertheless, I recently noticed that my attitude towards grant-writing has shifted again. I'm not quite sure what sparked this change, but I now approach grants as if it's a game and I need to "beat" the foundation by convincing them to fund our programs. Disclaimer: I am not actually "anti-foundation." - in fact I think collaboration between foundations and non-profits is very important to have effective and efficient programs. However, approaching grant-writing as a form of competition has definitely spurred me to make more tweaks than usual and really work to tailor each grant to its corresponding foundation, all without getting frustrated or bored. In addition to grants, I have also been working on planning some new fundraisers such as cornhole tournaments and events with high school students. Having these extra projects to work on is probably part of the reason my approach to grant-writing has improved- it's nice to be able to take a little break and refresh my thoughts. Angelwish was also recently chosen to be the beneficiary of a Grammy After Party in LA, and we are invited to go meet and greet the guests and tell them about the organization, so that should definitely be another great way to put the fun back in fundraising!

Has anyone else encountered this frustration with the monotony of grants? If so, any other suggestions for how to get past it?

Happy January!

In celebration of the new year (and in anticipation of colder weather to come, hopefully- it's been awfully warm this winter in Philadelphia!), I present a delicious recipe for stout gingerbread that I tried out over the holidays while back home in Seattle (which has proven to be a decidedly more wintry locale this year than my current place of residence).

This recipe is from a 2009 edition of The New York Times. Due to my sister's not liking lemon, we didn't make the lemon glaze, but I'm sure it would be delicious. The stout gives the gingerbread a nice denseness. Enjoy!

Butter for greasing

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, preferably fresh

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup, packed, dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons turbinado sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger (a 2-ounce piece, peeled)

Grated zest of 2 lemons

1/2 cup grapeseed oil

1 large egg

3/4 cup stout beer

3/4 cup molasses

1/3 cup brewed coffee

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons lemon juice.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8-inch springform cake pan and line bottom with parchment paper.

2. In a bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Set aside. In a large bowl combine brown sugar, turbinado, ginger, zest of 1 lemon and oil. Beat in egg.

3. Place beer, molasses and coffee in a deep pot, at least 3 quarts. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Mixture will bubble up. Allow to cool 5 minutes.

4. Whisk flour mixture alternately with beer mixture into brown sugar mixture, in 3 shifts. Pour batter in pan and bake 40 minutes without opening oven. Give pan a 180-degree turn and bake another 15 minutes, until cake is springy and a tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack. When cool, remove sides of pan, invert briefly to remove bottom of pan and paper and set upright on a plate.

5. Place confectioners’ sugar in a bowl, whisk in remaining zest and salt, then lemon juice. Spread over top of cake, allowing glaze to drip down the sides.

Working on a Saturday

Well it is a beautiful Saturday morning in New York City and I am currently writing this blog post from my office at ABC. Now normally I don’t work on Saturdays, but today is a special occasion. One of my biggest projects so far has finally come to fruition. In the beginning of January, I received information in a newsletter about the American Italian Cancer Foundation’s Mobile Mammogram Van. The AICF provides free breast cancer screenings for women, including those who are uninsured. I thought that our community’s population in East Harlem would greatly benefit from such a service, so I scheduled a visit.

Little did I know, this would turn into an enormous project. I had to arrange a minimum of 30 appointments, and the women had to be over 40 years old. Considering my main contacts in the community are the parents of our Head Start students who are all very young, I soon realized that I was going to have to step out of my comfort zone and reach out to the wider community.

I started slowly by posting flyers at local libraries, laundromats, and schools. When we were still short on appointments with less than two weeks to go, I realized I had to get more involved. I went to the local Salvation Army building, reached out to East Harlem’s City Council representative, and formed linkages with several of the other service organizations in the area. I went back to the laundromats, libraries, and schools, but this time I tried to engage any women I met there. I learned their stories and they helped spread the word through word-of-mouth in the very close-knit community. Suddenly, the appointments were pouring in.

Before this project, I was definitely an outsider in East Harlem, but now I feel genuinely connected to the community. It has been a really special experience in my fellowship and totally worth coming into work on a Saturday.

Loan Advisory Committee Meeting

Today we had a Loan Advisory Committee meeting, where the LAC approved a new loan for a health center in New Orleans. New Orleans is an exciting place for investment; in Louisiana there remains a market ready for new projects but folks are still recovering from Katrina all these years later. Remarkable. Friday capped a busy week of sending funds to borrowers, revising some closing documents for another health center loan that is closing in February, and reviewing the financial performance of the loans in our portfolio. Thankful for a great week.

Life at CEP with a New Boss!

Here we are, midway through our fellowship years, and I feel like I can finally say that I have fully adjusted to working a 9-5:30 schedule. However, my routine at the Character Education Partnership has been shaken up quite a bit over the past month with the arrival of our new President & CEO, Mark Hyatt! It has been quite interesting to have the opportunity to directly compare the two very different leadership styles represented by Mark and Joe, our former president. Joe was a very detail-oriented, hands-on leader--always in the office, making sure everyone stayed on task and represented CEP in an exemplary manner. Mark, on the other hand, is more of a big-picture, visionary leader. He has a seemingly endless number of ideas and projects that he wants to see CEP take on, and he is usually in the office only three or four days per week so that he can go chat it up with potential donors to fund these proposals.

I am working with Mark much more closely than I ever worked with Joe, mainly because he has essentially filled the role of my old boss (the Director of Resource Development) in addition to serving as President (Joe has stayed on in a part-time capacity to help him keep track of the details). And, so far, I am happy to say that I am really enjoying working with him. He has been so receptive to my ideas for how CEP can further its mission, and he has really emphasized to both Carol and me that he wants us to use our fellowship year to pursue our interests and do work for CEP that we find engaging and, when possible, relevant to our future career path. For example, Carol and I went to a panel this week that reported on the progress of the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative, which was inspired by the famous Harlem Children's Zone. While it wasn't directly related to CEP's work, I found the panel to be a fascinating opportunity to learn more about early education and child development in an urban setting. And in general, I am extremely grateful for the effort Mark has put in to get to know all of us on staff and to make each of us feel like his equal, and I sense that the future fellows at CEP will have a large say in how they want to contribute to the organization.

That being said, I am also very appreciative for the time I had working with both of my other bosses. I feel like I am having almost two different fellowships in one, because while my role has stayed the same in some major respects (I still do a lot of writing for grant proposals and other fundraising efforts and I am still planning the Exhibit Hall for the Forum), I am working with new people and learning to adapt to their writing styles and their expectations as supervisors. For instance, Mark has encouraged me to pursue my interest in working more directly with students, so I came up with a rough proposal for an essay contest that would bring more students to the Forum--an idea that he is now trying to find a donor to sponsor. I am also working closely with Arthur Schwartz, one of our newest Board members and the former #2 at the Templeton Foundation, to research organizations that serve parents so that we can expand our own outreach efforts to this highly influential but underutilized population in the field of character education. Learning to work closely with and for all of these different people has been a significant opportunity for me to grow as a professional, and I'm looking forward to seeing how my fellowship continues to change and offer new experiences in the months ahead.