Post 7: Have I met my goals?

In my second post of the Summer, I outlined two goals that I had for my internship. The first was to sharpen my writing skills, and the second was to gain insight into if I actually would want to work at a non-profit organization after I graduate from college.

Unfortunately, I do not feel like I have done enough writing for CityClub to meaningfully improve my writing skills. I know that I need to work often and consistently on my writing (like I do in an English class or a writing seminar) to really gain skill and expertise. At CityClub, I have written very sporadically. I a post for the CityClub blog early on, I have been producing a little bit of website content each day, and I have done a little bit of social media writing, but it is not enough. At past internships, I have done writing projects such as writing a grant proposal and writing a lot of blog posts/articles. Those two gigs are examples of the kind and quantity of writing that I need to engage in to get better at the craft. 

I've used my time at CityClub well, but I have not spend that much of it writing. I am as accountable for this as they are. It is and has been within my bounds to go up to my supervisor and say "hey, I'd really appreciate it if you guys could give me some more stuff to write," or "I'd love it if I could do another blog post," but I have been content with the work that I have been given, and I felt no need to do that.

As for the second goal, I am still unsure of whether the non-profit sector is for me. I do not think that I could work full-time at this non-profit. I am not passionate enough about the work being done to stay motivated. However, I have seen the passion that my best colleagues bring to work every day, and I have seen how dynamic a person fueled by that passion can be. The executive director of CityClub leads passionately. She works long and hard (I don't think I've ever seen her take a lunch break). She has been at CityClub for longer than anyone else. She shows no sign of slowing down. And, she accomplishes a huge amount for the organization. There is not anyone else at CityClub right now who could lead the organization as successfully as our executive director does.

I am pretty sure that if I could find myself a place that makes me feel that passionate about my work, then I could accomplish incredible things. So, I'll keep my eyes peeled for a non-profit that fires me up in a way that I cannot ignore. I still want to work in the non-profit sector. At the very least, this internship has shown me what I will need in a non-profit to really thrive as a full-time employee of it.

Post 6: Challenges: Reflect upon the challenges that you had during your internship and how you overcame those challenges.

The first challenge that I faced this summer was figuring out how to get to my internship. CityClub is nestled in the heart of downtown Seattle. As the city has grown in population and popularity, traffic has become so bad that infuriatingly locked gridlock is now inevitable at peak hours. Furthermore, even if you were able to defeat the ubiquitous traffic, parking a car in downtown Seattle for the day costs a lot of money.

I've become a very creative commuter. I've gotten to work using every method of transportation on offer: carpools, buses, my bike, my skateboard, and my own two feet are all fair game and have all played their part in making sure that I am always where I need to be when I need to be there. At this point, six weeks in, I have it all figured out.

The next challenge that I have faced is balancing my work commitment with my desire to spend as much time as possible with my friends and family. My dad, especially, has a lot of grand ideas for hikes that he and I should do, sports that we need to play, and (most problematically) family vacations that he sees no reason why I should not go on. He seems to think that my work is merely optional, and can be skipped frequently and without a backwards glance.

To overcome this hurdle, I have had to do some introspection and justify to myself and my father why I am committed to my internship at Seattle CityClub. I love hiking, I love sports, and I love family vacations. But, I have committed myself to an eight week internship with CityClub, and that is a commitment that is important to me for a whole bunch of reasons, I discovered. I think that so far I've done well to have an extremely fun, family-filled, and active summer while not compromising my commitment to CityClub.

Finally, it is never easy when I am assigned menial tasks involving excel spreadsheets and/or a lot of paper. These tasks do not seem like the best use of my time, and they are always onerous. However, I am lucky that CityClub does not assign me all too many of these tasks, and I also recognize that somebody has to do them, so it may as well be me. While it is never easy to buckle down and do the busywork, I always get it done.

Post 5: Work Environment: Reflect on the work environment at your internship organization. What are the expected dress, work ethic, and general behavior at this organization? Do you feel comfortable in this type of work environment?

There really is not much of an expected dress or dress code here at CityClub. I show up dressed very casually. I often wear athletic shorts and a T-shirt. Nobody seems to mind, and while my coworkers don't wear athletic shorts, nobody dresses much fancier than me. 

At CityClub, it makes more sense to talk about the "necessary" work ethic rather than the "expected" one. There are only five full-time employees at this non-profit. But, I swear, it feels like each of them does enough work to match two normal people (or maybe just two of my college peers! Haha.) They are all creative, efficient, and committed. They don't work hard in bursts; they work hard for eight hours a day, five days a week. This work ethic really is necessary, not just expected, because CityClub operates by being very active, throwing a lot of events, and maintaining a large presence on the Seattle political scene.  

One of the things that has most impressed me about CityClub is that while all my colleagues work very hard, the workplace does not feel stressed. The office is calm, quiet, and everyone feels comfortable in it. I think that my colleagues here at CityClub have gotten very used to being busy and having long to-do lists. I think they have embraced it, and are so comfortable with their backlogs of task that they would not be quite sure what to do without them. Occasionally, being merely an intern with a busy supervisor, I sometimes run out of things to do. Whenever I head to my supervisor to tell her that I need something new to do, I get the feeling that she can't quite empathize with the fact that I have nothing on my plate.

As I kind of insinuated in that last paragraph, I think that I would feel a lot more comfortable in this environment if I were a full time employee. It does not quite feel like there is a real place for an intern at this organization. Each of CityClub's employees is absorbed in their work, and while I can help take the edge off sometimes by doing a variety of tasks, I think I would only feel wholly comfortable at CityClub if my load was as heavy as everyone else's. 

Post 4: Leadership: What type of leader is your supervisor? Has your supervisor has been effective in guiding you and assisting you in your internship so far? Does this style of leadership motivate and resonate with you?

My supervisor is the second-in-command at Seattle CityClub. She is comfortable in her leadership role, and leads in a way that is not imposing, but still commands respect. She has been effective in guiding and assisting me throughout my internship thus far. She is always able and willing to explain to me how my work links to the larger picture, she works hard to create a well-rounded experience for me, and she does not monopolize my time.

Some of the tasks that I have done for CityClub have been very mundane and tedious. If you look back to my previous blog post, you can read about how I actually do not mind the fact that I am doing some low-power tasks for CityClub. However, on the occasions that I have asked my supervisor why what I am doing is necessary, she has always been willing to take me through her thought process and explain to me how the spreadsheet I am making or the list that I am compiling will be crucial in the long run. This kind of patient, articulate, and empathetic leadership does a good job of reminding me that although sometimes it may not seem like it, I am contributing meaningfully to what goes on at Seattle CityClub.

My supervisor has made the effort to make sure that this internship is not one-dimensional for me. In addition to assigning me my own work, she has given me an open invitation to all of CityClub's board meetings and made me welcome at all of CityClub's events. She recognizes that I will have a better experience at CityClub if I am not sitting at my desk the entire time.

My supervisor's to-do list never gets short; she could easily occupy all of my time by delegating tasks from that list to me. But, she ensures that I have the freedom to help out the other people in the office. I have really appreciated this liberty, and made good use of it. I have had the autonomy to decide to help the web design/marketing manager at CityClub. I wrote a blog post for CityClub's blog, I have learned how to navigate through the website, and I have written some social media content for CityClub. My supervisor made it possible for me to have such a varied work experience.

My supervisor is a good leader, but I don't think that her style of leadership (in response to the question in the title) "motivates and resonates" with me. I think that the really great leaders have something extra that enables them to really capture the motivation of their followers, and galvanize them to operate on an unprecedented level. I think that this something extra is a combination of ingenuity, intense empathy, and a heck of a lot of charisma. My supervisor is great at what she does, and she is an awesome leader, but I do not think that she has this extra special spark.