First Two Weeks in Review: Special Events and Little Work

“Life isn’t a mountain that has a summit. Nor is it—as some suppose—a riddle that has an answer. Nor a game that has a final score.

Life is an endless unfolding, and if we wish to be, an endless process of self-discovery, an endless and unpredictable dialogue between our own potentialities and the life situations in which we find ourselves. By potentialities I mean not just intellectual gifts but the full range of one’s capacities for learning, sensing, wondering, understanding, loving and aspiring.”

John Gardner
Commencement Address, Sidwell Friends School
Washington, DC
June 13th, 1986

First and foremost, I would like to preface the remaining blog entries with a very important note: My blog does not represent the views of CNCS or any other government agency or the current administration. In order to protect confidentiality rights, I will not mention names or details of my work assignments.

September 11: Day of Service and Rememberance
Before my first day at CNCS began, I decided to participate in the September 11th Day of Service by volunteering with a group of people at a church in Alexandria. It was a bit far, but it was the only service opportunity that wasn’t filled up! We collected food items from church goers and sorted them into boxes. After three hours of this, we took the truck load of boxes to the local food bank and stored them to be given out to the needy later that month.




The First Lady and President Obama, as well as the CNCS CEO were serving as well in Virginia (I think), so it was a great way to prepare me for my first week at work.

The first day
My first day was a little awkward because my supervisor had to be at jury duty (last minute!). So, I had to introduce myself to people and find my way on my own. She of course prepared me very well by giving me detailed instructions and telling me who to see and what to read while I was settling in. I was in a new employee orientation for the first half of my day, and I spent the second half reading, completing online training workshops, getting my name tag, and calling about securing my email address and phone. Highlights included taking an oath (led by the CEO) to protect the United States, and meeting the CEO briefly.

***It really was a good idea to send an email to my supervisor ahead of time because she had so much prepared for me. In the email I told her how excited I was to be there and asked her if there was anything I needed for my first day.




Two weeks later
As I reflect on the past two weeks, I have to say that I am slightly disappointed because I have oftentimes spent the whole day without tasks. I have taken it upon myself to read the Kennedy Act legislation, any and all online resources, and articles about my agency, but my tasks have included only small things like packaging materials to fedex, preparing letters, researching small items.

The reason for this, however, makes sense because everyone in the office is super stressed and preparing for the big Board retreat and public Board meeting fast approaching this Tuesday and Wednesday. By January 2011, the Board and CNCS will have to have a strategic plan completed to be approved by OMB, CNCS Board, and Senate that will ultimately affect at least the next five years if not more. So, each Board call and Board meeting is extremely important. This stress has caused both my mentor and other Office of CEO staff to be pretty busy. I expect and hope that after the Board meeting I will be able to have a sit down meeting with my mentor and supervisor to talk about the activities I would like to be involved in to reach my learning goals for this fellowship.

Positive notes
I do have one larger task which involved creating a monthly memo for the Board with current happenings (“the buzz” so to speak) about service and what CNCS is doing. I have been happy with this assignment but I cannot get into it as much until the beginning of October because I need information from different departments.

I have also had the opportunity to attend various events. In my first week I attended “Service Works” at the Capitol building and heard from various leaders and representatives in congress that support service as a solution, and the expansion of service opportunities for Americans.




I also attended “Big Citizenship” which was a dialogue held with the author of Big Citizenship, founder of City Year, and founder and CEO of Service Nation. I bought his book and I am almost done! He is amazing, and I hope to be a social entrepreneur as successful as he has been.



This past week I have been able to attend two meetings related to the strategic planning process. While I cannot go into detail on this process, imagine if you will, being able to sit at the table where all of the top decision makers sit. There, they discuss, argue, and challenge each other to look at how the agency is structured and how the agency will change to make the greatest impact to our whole country through service. They look at everything from measurable outcomes, to stakeholders and grantees, to disaster services, and education.

It was a moment in this meeting that I was truly connected to policy in a way I thought I never could be. The decisions these people make will affect non profits and volunteers and communities all over the country, and they are taking every precaution to make the strategic plan the best it can possible be with the limited resources they have. AND! I took notes, typed them up and offered them to my supervisor and she was very impressed with this gesture. As a result, I may be able to sit in and take notes during the private Board conversations next week! Yay!

Exploring my surroundings
I have also taken the time to go to events like the Adams Morgan Day festival, biking through rock creek, biking on a full mood ride with a local bike association, and happy hour with coworkers.







A couple of reflection points I want to note:
- Take every opportunity to learn
- Be grateful for the opportunities you have
- Meeting people can be awkward, and may involve moments of silence. Always smile and you can always say how excited you are to learn more about X,Y,Z. Or say how interested you are to hear about what that person does in the agency
- Always say yes to every task, no matter how small it is (at the beginning...)
- When attending special events, do not be afraid to talk to the speakers or event heads. People love to share what they are doing or why they are there.
- Think before doing things, use your intuition, and trust that you are more than capable of figuring things out. If you don’t, others can read that on you.
- Establish yourself as your own person- whatever relationship your supervisor/coworkers have with others does not have to be the relationship you have with others. What kind of a person do you want to be?

Upcoming…

Latino Festival
Board private retreat
Board public meeting
NATs game
2010-2011 Gardner Fellows meet at my place for dinner

Finding Housing in DC: EEK!

You can say that again! EEK! Weeks before I arrived in DC, I went through various methods for finding housing: former Gardner fellows, friends of friends (who were on housing listservs), facebook, and even craigslist. I made a little blurb about myself and sent it out to these networks because I wanted a group house experience (5-6 young professionals living in one house). Part of the reason I wanted this was because of a former fellow whose house I stayed in when I interviewed in DC. I am a huge family person, so it made me really comfortable to live in a place with many people and a family-like community. I also loved the Mt. Pleasant/Columbia Heights neighborhood. But even though I sent out my blurb to over 15 posts, I got one or two responses which led me to a very sad predicament.

Crestwood House:
To my surprise, I received an email about a group who wanted to turn in an application for a house in the Crestwood area (just north of Columbia Heights). That same day, while I was dropping off my sister in San Diego, I faxed an application in along with three other young professionals applying for the house. Two days later, I was flying to DC with my mom, excited for the opportunity to live in a great house. They were still processing our applications when my mother and I arrived, so there was no rush to stay in DC.

Mom and I took a week drive to Atlantic City, Boston, West Haven, Niagara Falls, and a couple of towns in between. During this time, our application was still in progress! There were many more complications than I expected.

LESSON #1: When explaining to your house/apt. that you are paid for by a fellowship (not taxable), you need to provide them with the name and number of the Gardner Fellowship Administrator, and you need to provide an offer letter from your employment (or letter of acceptance into the program). This can be confusing to them so make it clear up front.

Long story short, they took too long to process this application so one of our expected roommates found another living situation which broke up the group application.

Fort Totten Apartments:
At this point (September 2nd), I was more than annoyed with the whole process, and just wanted a place to call home early enough before my start day to settle in. I went on the hunt with my mother and we walked at least ten miles from metro to apartment to find a place. When I finally came across an apartment within my price range, all was good. We (a friend and I) filled out and turned in an application in hopes that it would go through by September 7th and so it did!

Our apartment is pretty awesome, ~$1650 + $?? utilities (1 bedroom, 1 den, kitchen, bathroom, washer/dryer, carpet, new appliances, etc!). Other amenities are included: state of the art fitness room, BBQ and gas for grilling, business room with free internet and free printing, pool, lounge area with foosball table, pool table, large TV, and free parking.

LESSON #2: Know what you want and have a back-up plan.

In conclusion, finding housing sucks! But, if you stick to what you want, you are bound to find something that fits your needs. Keep at it, and use your networks as much as you can. My roommate was awesome at finding cheap/free furniture for our apartment and we are now comfortable and able to focus on our work and having fun in DC.

And this is what we have in the end :)


Driving a large Budget truck for the first time!


Moving in…(by the way, we had to move that couch- which has a pull out queen bed in it- from the truck to the elevator, up two flights of stairs down the hall to our room)


When it is all said and done, our place is simple, but great!


Our kitchen is ready for cooking!


My room (all furniture free!)

Orientation: Review and Important Tips!

Wowee! So, it had been quite some time since I have written- my apologies. The orientation, held this year at the Stanford campus, was a fantastic two day experience that allowed new fellows to meet old fellows. Most importantly, it was a chance for us to really get a feel for how to go about preparing for (and having) a wonderful fellowship experience.

On the evening of the 18th, I was rushing from the SFO airport to make the dinner and lecture. I made it just in time to mingle with many former fellows and other public service staff of the Haas Public Service Center. That evening, I stayed at my brother’s apartment in San Jose.

On the 19th, I woke up bright and early to take Caltrain back to Stanford for a full day of Q&A and listening to both the experiences of the former fellows, and to the rules regarding logistics of the fellowship. While there were many lessons and short stories the former fellows gave us, I will include only the main tips and notes I took away from this session:

In your 1st month:
- Be Proactive
- Establish yourself as a "fellow," not intern (you can correct people by saying something like, "As a fellow, my goal is to," etc.)
- Go to happy hours and other such networking events
- Manage your workload
- Don't talk to coworkers about anything that causes "drama" or involves "gossip-like" activities. Keep whatever special privileges you have to yourself.
- PROVE YOURSELF IN OTHER PEOPLE'S TERMS FIRST!
- Cater to their expectations
- When you have down-time, peruse through the server, read online articles about your agency/org, etc.
- BE DELIBERATE BUT HUMBLE, FLEXIBLE BUT ASSERTIVE, and modesty goes a long way...
- Don't discount your ideas, but don't speak in the first meeting as if you know everything about the content you are working on.
- Be observant, read between the lines, read personalities, evaluate the environment, and see where you fit into the culture.
- Show your willingness to receive feedback (do not make excuses)
- Pick your battles.
- Be extra careful about your work (even emails!) because they are judging your work ethic straight from the start.

Mentor Relationships
- Look at everyone as your mentor, and learn from everyone
- Try to schedule a meeting of some sort within the first two weeks
- Emphasize that you are a quick learner and take feedback well
- Be open-minded
- Email before your first day to tell them how excited you are and that you are happy to be working there
- One month into your fellowship, create a learning plan with your mentor- try to look at what is reasonable, create expectations, and a timeline to stick by your goals.
- Do not underestimate other mentors.
- Take advantage of even "car/elevator" time to tell them how your are doing or hear what advice they have on any particular issue (always have a topic ready in your head or a question that can break the ice)

Networking
- If you have downtime, look at it as a time to network- introduce yourself to people, look up people in your office and reach out to them.
- Join the happy hour scene
- Create a list of names and people you want to know.
- Stay in contact with the people you were most fascinated with.

Office Politics
- Take good "read-outs" or notes during meetings and offer them in a types version to your mentors/fellow staff after the meeting. (Four main points, then details)
- Volunteer for meetings
- Be transparent about your projects (be professional, take personalities out of the picture, "pause before sending" in an email)
- If someone tries to take to you about gossip, just respond with "I don't know anything about that" and start a different conversation topic.

Worklife
- Try to keep your work at work and your life at home. Combining the two can cause some drama, unless you stick to these rules.
- Write/create a journal (hence, this blog)
- Follow HR policies when it comes to time off/sick days, etc.

What I wish I would have known (from 2009-2010 Gardners)
- Wear sandels/tennis shoes to work, heels are a pain
- Use the fellowship as an excuse to ask permission to attend relevant conferences in your area.

All very awesome advice, and notes I will revisit as I begin my fellowship.

We then had lunch and asked our last questions. For me, I was sad not to have known these fellows for a longer period of time, but hopeful that they put everything out there for us to be ready for our fellowship. It is also exciting to think that in one year, we will be sitting in their exact same shoes, giving more tips, and feeling more confident about where we will move forward in our careers and lives. After one last group picture, it was time for logistics and a movie of John Gardner’s life. Logistics included how we would be paid, ways to find housing, brief notes over taxes, healthcare, etc. It was great to know that all of our travel (flights, etc.) associated with the fellowship would be paid for.


2009-2011 Gardner Fellows


2009-2011 Gardner Fellows with UCB and Stanford Gardner Administrators

Lastly, we watched a documentary of John Gardner’s life and took away with us a book that will guide me for the next ten months.

John Gardner. Wow.

When I applied for this fellowship, it was not the top post-undergraduate experience on my list. I took the time to look up this “John Gardner” guy, but I didn’t really read into his life and what he did for others. If I had, I think it most definitely would have been at the top of my list. This man has thousands of life-changing quotes, many books surrounding leadership and service, and just a good heart. While I may not have met him, I have seen through others who have, through his works, and through documentaries that he is exactly the type of public servant I aspire to be: always learning, always humble, always creating community solutions, and always giving others the time of day.

Let’s hope I have it in me to be as amazing as he was.