Post 3: Value: Why is your internship, in particular, important? What value do you add to the organization? What value does it add to you personally beyond gaining experience to list on your resume?

Well, I kind of feel like the first two questions are redundant, or at least overlap to the point that I can answer them both with the same statements. My internship, in particular, is important because I add value to the organization. I add value to the organization by acknowledging that my time is less valuable than CityClub's employees, and by thus being content to spend my time doing whatever needs to be done. I also contribute to CityClub by being a fresh voice able to produce content for  its blog and website.

While the fact that I am most valuable to CityClub because I do whatever needs to be done may sound bad at first, I can assure you that CityClub does not abuse/waste my time/energy by assigning me meaningless tasks like the classic intern duties such as the "coffee run" or  doing filing. The key word in the description that I gave is that I am valuable because I do what needs to be done. My supervisor assigns me a lot of tasks that if I did not do, she would almost certainly have to do herself. For example, we had a list of 200 potential partner organizations from around the state of Washington. We need partners. Somebody had to go through those organizations, do some research on them, and decide which ones were worthy/suitable partners for CityClub. This work is important, engaging, and thought provoking, but any way you slice it, it is also time consuming. My supervisor is the CityClub's Progam and Operations Manager. Every hour that she spends researching these organizations is an hour less that she has to devote to organizing, planning, and running CityClub's organization. Wisely, my supervisor realized that this was a task that I - with my limited experience and skillset - would be able to do, and she passed it off to me. I spent about two whole days chugging through the list of 200 organizations, got some practice researching, and learned a lot. Furthermore, the fact that I did the researching does not mean that my supervisor can't engage with the work. To get up to speed, she reviewed my research, and made corrections where necessary. I am valuable to my organization because I am willing to devote myself to the tasks that my superiors do not have time for.

I am also valuable to CityClub because I can contribute fresh thoughts and words to their website, blog, and social media. I have written a blog post, some tweets and Facebook posts, and some content for their website already. I have a few new things to say, and I think that the way that I recast CityClub's message along my own slant makes it just a little bit fresher.  

Post 2: Setting Goals: What do you expect to gain from this internship? What are your goals for this internship? Set at least 2 SMART goals (Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely).

Goal 1: I want to sharpen and improve my writing skills and, perhaps more importantly, gain confidence in the writing capability that I already have. I've done what I would consider a reasonable amount of writing in the last years outside of coursework and school assignments. Spring of my senior year of high school, I volunteered extensively with Boyer Children's Clinic, a Seattle non-profit early intervention clinic that works with developmentally delayed toddlers. I wrote them a grant asking for 3,000 dollars of programming funding, and that grant was approved. I also wrote for the CMC Forum this year at school. However, I am still an amateur writer in every sense of the word. At CityClub, I want to find opportunities to do writing for the organization. My goal is for the work I produce to benefit CityClub by being useful to them, and to give me a chance to continue to improve my skills. I think I have taken a couple of steps in the right direction, fortunately. I have already produced some fringe content for the CityClub website, and written an article encouraging the citizens of Seattle to tune in to the upcoming local elections for CityClub's blog. I want my written work to be a force to be reckoned with and to be something that I am proud of.

Goal 2: Right now, I think that when I graduate from CMC, I would like to work in the non-profit sector. I think that by spending my days helping people and changing their lives for the better, I will be making a positive difference in the world and guaranteeing myself a lot of personal fulfillment. My goal is to, by spending this meaningful chunk of time at CityClub, gain some insight into if the non-profit sector is a good fit for me, and perhaps also to start to narrow down/focus in on what area of the non-profit sector I would want to work in. I will pay attention to my work environment, how happy, satisfied, and fulfilled my coworkers seem with their work and their lives, and how the job is making me feel. By the end of this internship, I hope to have at least some clue whether I belong in the non-profit sector. Also, by the time I leave CityClub I hope to know whether I could/would want to spend my career working in politics/political advocacy/civic engagement. I recognize that one can never truly "know" these things, but really all that I am hoping for is some understanding of myself. Hopefully, I can get to know myself over these next six weeks that I have left. Only time will tell, I suppose.    

Are these goals specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely (SMART)? I would say that they probably aren't. But, they are important to me.

Post 1: Communication Styles: What communication style have you observed in this organization, in other words, what communication methods are most prevalent among supervisors and employees? Is this communication style effective?

This summer I am going to be spending eight weeks interning for Seattle CityClub. Nestled in the heart of downtown Seattle, CityClub is a political non-profit dedicated to inspiring civic engagement and nonpartisan dialogue about local politics. CityClub keeps the public and its group of loyal members engaged with panels, individual speaker events, and other programs such as civic "boot camp". Seven passionate, hardworking, and especially kindhearted women are responsible for anything and everything that is Seattle CityClub.

The first two things that were handed to me on the first morning of my internship were a copy of the most recent edition of CityClub's longest and most renowned(published once every three years)  civic health report, and a branding/marketing manual. I was told to immediately read these documents comprehensively and thoroughly. CityClub is a well oiled machine. Work gets done properly and efficiently. It is shocking and humbling how many events and how much online content CityClub's seven dedicated employees are able to produce. As I started to read through the civic health index and the marketing manual, it became very clear to me that, at CityClub, the employees all share a broad and deep knowledge base that makes it possible for the organization to run as smoothly as it does. And, it also became clear to me that if I wished to become a cog in such an efficient and optimized entity, I was going to need to get up to speed. So, for the next two hours, I studied those guides like a textbook before a final exam. The effort paid off. I now understand about 75% of the office jargon, and am able to contribute by doing the right work at the right time in the right way.

It is intuitive that effective communication is crucial in a large work environment, but I think that the importance of clear communication in a small work space is often overlooked. Since CityClub has only seven people making it run, the consequences of leaving even one of them out of the loop are enormous. If even one out of seven CityClub employees is misinformed, then at least one seventh of CityClub's output will be in jeopardy of being wrong or redundant, and such error could quite easily have repercussions on the work of CityClub's other six employees. Everyone knows that you are only as strong as your weakest link. And when the chain only has seven links, even one weak link can and will drag the whole chain down.

I've been very impressed with the synchronicity, connection, and understanding present between the people who make CityClub what it is. To be great, communicate!