Most important thing? Ask Questions!

As the semester is wrapping up, with it, so is my internship experience. These past few months flew by so fast. At the discretion of my supervisor, there is a possibility of continuing my internship; but all the details still need to be worked out. Throughout these few months, I feel like I have learned a lot; and I mean a lot.

First of all, I learned to ask questions. Before starting the internship, I was very hesitant to ask questions. I was one of those people that can, or at least think they can, figure things out on their own. However, during my internship I had stumbled upon a number of problems, or just tasks, that I had a difficult time tackling. I would literally spend hours trying to figure them out on my own, which seemed to have me stuck in neutral, neither moving forward, nor backward. Looking back at it, I feel like there was some time wasted because of that - time which could have been used much more efficiently.

Although I liked my internship and all the experience that I have gained; I am not too sure if this is the career path I’d like to pursue. At this point in time, I feel like my interests are leaning more towards developing programs which would prevent poverty, rather than evaluating them. Don’t get me wrong, evaluating is fun, but I feel like there is much more to be done on the development side of the programs. I extremely value everything that I have learned during my adventure with HRA and I would definitely be thrilled to remain there for a bit longer and maybe take on more than one project.

I feel like I did everything I could to make the best impression. My first and foremost advice for every other intern is “ask questions!” There is a lot of things you still might need to learn, and as good as trying to figure them out on your own is, if you hit a brick wall ask someone to help you get on the other side of it. There will always be someone willing to help :).

Keep Doin' Whatcha Doin'

I've come to realize that public policy isn't where my future is. I got all caught up in the excitement of FoodWorks and suppressed my dream of being an urban farmer. That isn't to say I haven't had a good time, on the contrary I learned a lot and have really enjoyed working in Community Outreach. I feel appreciated and capable and better equipped for other jobs and interviews.

Something funny happened during my internship though. At one point I was put to the task of inviting some 3,000 fans of Christine Quinn to events through facebook (in addition to cold-calling, e-mailing, and faxing invites). The woman holding the position of "Web, Digital and Social Media Manager and Press Officer" signed me in to the Speaker's Facebook account and let me rip (or click) away at the invites. Now this is nothing new to kids these days, I personally grew up with a computer in the house, I started blogging when I was 14 and I'll admit I was a bit of a late bloomer getting on Facebook ( I logged in for the first time in 2005 but didn't really use it until 2008). Now I've got a twitter, a tumblr, a blip.fm "station", a flickr, and a foursquare. Since I started driving the ice cream truck, I've been pretty familiar with promotion using 140 characters. The point is I consider myself social-network-comfy.

So one day I arrived at my internship and checked in to "250 Broadway- NYC Council" on foursquare, as I had been doing 3 days a week. For some background, Foursquare is a social networking site that also works like a game, one can "check in" to a venue they are at, be it a library, restaurant, or even a cab, and earn points for each check-in. Checking in to a place for the first time gives you more points, as does creating a venue, and you can unlock "badges." The most fun is ousting the "mayor" of a venue once you check in more times in a month than the current mayor. Well thats exactly what I did, but the mayor I ousted was the Press Officer.

Of course I had selected in my settings to automatically tweet every time I oust a mayor. Whoops.

Within a few minutes I got an e-mail from the Press Officer asking for my in-house phone extension. Then my phone rang.

"I've seen your twitter and your tumblr... tell me about your experience with social networking," she said. I found myself in the middle of an interview (a lesson to always be prepared). By the end of the call I was offered an internship in communications and given some time to think.

A few weeks later she and I ended up at the same event together which was hosted by the speaker and we checked in to the event's "venue" together, which I created. That day I interviewed with the Director of Communications at the office of the City Council Speaker and was asked for my availability.

So it looks like I'll be staying with the Speaker for another semester! I'll miss Community Outreach, but web communications is just another way of reaching out to people, no?

“You like tomato and I like tomahto”

The season for Farming Concrete has rolled to an end and it has been a truly amazing season. True, we were a little short on staff and funding but at the same time, with little bureaucracy standing in our way, Farming Concrete was perhaps more productive in one trial year than many established organizations. Between December 2009, when the project got kicked off the ground, and the present, an incredible amount of work has been done. To provide a brief overview of the past year, we now have a small snapshot of how much food community gardens are capable of producing, and an interactive map is now in the making at harvest.farmingconcrete.com/. Farming Concrete has also been exposed in media and until yesterday, was part of an exhibit at the Parson’s New School for Design.

There were ups and downs to this internship. There were days when the sun was scorching hot outside and mosquitoes swarmed the air. There were gardens with giant beds and crops planted haphazardly, which made mapping frustrating and difficult. There were other days when I met gardeners who were overwhelmingly excited about the work of Farming Concrete and could go on for hours speaking about their garden. One gardener in the Lower East Side, who was very proud of his rainwater tank, provided me with a very detailed explanation of the importance of a rainwater tank in contributing to our water system. Yes, it was more information than I needed to know. Nonetheless, in speaking with gardeners and witnessing their strength and perseverance, I learned that not only are community gardens unique and special places, but even an individual could make a significant contribution to our urban fabric. Furthermore, I have seen how a citywide community based research project could be successful and now want to specialize in Community Development in Graduate School.

The Road to My Internship

In my case, finding an internship proved to be very hard. At some point, it seemed like I would have to drop the class because nothing was working out. I had applied for many things but I was not hearing back from anyone. It has made me question whether I was even qualified for the positions that I was applying for.
However, I had another way out. Thankfully, I was awarded with Federal Work-Study, as a part of which I could work for a government agency. Since nothing else had worked out, I resorted to that option. When I went to my Public Service Corps, a branch of FWS which deals with working for government agencies, my counselor provided me with a binder which contained all available jobs. I sat down and looked through it. Most of them were very clerical in nature, and that did not make me happy because I was looking for something more challenging; not just pushing papers.
After about fifteen minutes, I found something interesting. It was a researching job with the Human Resources Administration. I've always liked researching things, so I was excited to go and interview for that position. Another incentive that was attached to it was learning SPSS- statistical software that I wanted to learn. Therefore, this internship sounded like something I'd love. The interview for the internship went very well and the next day I was notified that I was accepted for the position.
The first days were extremely scary. Most of the time, I felt like I did not know enough for the position, but I was doing the best job I possibly could. From the first day on the job, I was told that I'd be working on a project of my own- the Databook which lists indicators of poverty for New York City and New York State, and compares them with the entire United States. It serves to inform the Human Resources Administration about the changes in poverty over the last 10 years, and how education and marital status affect it. The research I was to do would be available to HRA internally, and will hopefully influence future decision making and policy changes.
This is when I was to be trained by my supervisor to use SPSS. However, it took about a week for me to be given a work computer, along with my login information and email. Until that happened, I was sitting in the library, updating my knowledge or lack thereof, about welfare. Once I was given a computer to work on, and some basic SPSS training, I started the project.

But that's something for another post :)

The Foodworks Report!

Read and download the FoodWorks Official Report on Scribd.com!


Click here to download a copy of Speaker Quinn's FoodWorks Speech!

"It's Crunch Time"

These last few weeks have been pretty hectic at Cancer and Careers. To start, they are in the process of doing some renovations around the office as well as hiring new people.Therefore, my lovely little desk and room space has been moved over to the conference room. All interns are now required to work in the conference room until things are settled in. The downside of working in the conference room is that I am constantly having to step out when a meeting is taking place. Lately, it’s been happening more frequently since their biggest end of the year fundraising event is approaching. The annual Beauty of Giving Luncheon takes place at the Waldorf Astoria during this month of December.

I have been helping out with preparing the invitations, updating the board members guest list, sending out invitations via Facebook and other tasks for the Beauty of Giving event. This charity event is sponsored by Shiseido cosmetics and other beauty companies. The proceeds from the event and the live auction prizes will be benefiting Cancer and Careers. Therefore, spreading the word and doing as much outreach to the community about this event is crucial. Some of the other projects I have been working on is updating the Cancer and Careers website en Español being that I am fluent in Spanish. I have also been in charge of doing Outreach for 2011 to other other organizations throughout the country. Most of the time I’m doing research online, making phone calls and sending out the Cancer and Careers newsletter to other non-profit organizations and hospitals.

Since my work at Cancer and Careers is nearly coming to an end soon, I am now looking for another internship possibly for the Spring 2011. The other day I happened to be at a local bar with some friends watching the football game and somehow met a girl who works for the DOT. I put my networking skills to use and exchanged emails with her. She works for the DOT as a Public Space Planner for the Capital Project Planning and Initiation division. I had mentioned my interest in Urban Planning and she offered to meet me next week during lunch time to give me a tour around the DOT offices downtown and answer any questions. I’m looking forward to finding out more information about the programs and divisions at the DOT.

THE SEASON OF GIVING.

The past couple of weeks, Scan Laguardia was the busiest especially with the holidays approaching. In these tough economic times the staff of Scan including myself were working hard to make sure that every participants in the program including family members enjoy their holidays. As the yearly Thanksgiving dinner was coming every staff had a project they were working on including from cooking for about 300 families to making sure all orders were received. Part of my duty was ordering the ingredients needed for the dinner and making sure all payments were transferred to the companies. The Thanksgiving dinner took place on Monday November 22, and parents, siblings and family friends attended the event as it turned out to be one of the most successful dinners ever.

In the theme of giving, last week was my turn to operate the food pantry and distribute them for residents with proper papers. Residents in need of emergency food come to us with a referral paper and the agency that sent them with the number of people in their family. In return my duty was to make copies of their referrals along with a proper identification in order to be filed later for future references. Depending on the number of people in the family, an individual received a variety of balanced diet from the different food groups. Additionally residents received copies of recipes for a healthy diet and nutrition guide which I researched online prior to pantry day. At times the work load can seem overwhelming but watching the looks of the people is rewarding when you know that you are making a difference in these hard economic times near the holidays.