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| The Good, The Bad, and The Exhausting
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Almost seven months ago, I began a career with Junior Achievement. Before starting with the organization, I knew very little about what JA did. When I was in school, JA was not a fixture in our education much the way it is in many communities now. Within the first eight hours at JA of Eastern Iowa, however, I become sold on the concept of what we do: Inspiring and preparing students to succeed in the global marketplace.
I live in a community called Waterloo, IA. It is attached to the town of Cedar Falls, IA, home of the UNI Panthers, creating a unified population of nearly 100,000. Although many people from across the country would consider this a fairly small town, by Iowa, and Midwestern standards, Waterloo is a big city. Compared to the other metropolitan areas in the state: Des Moines, Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and The Quad Cities; Waterloo has a particularly industrial economy. There are many people who have made a wonderful living, becoming quite successful in an economic sense, and these people have become the foundation for the future life of our city. However, we also have some of the highest poverty levels in the state, and the group who serves as the largest victims of this poverty, is the children.
In Waterloo, we have over seven schools that post a free/reduced lunch percentage of over 65%. In one elementary school, over 80% of the children receive free/reduced meals. These children are in need of many things besides food, though. Many need role models, friends, and hope. Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa, Inc. has taken a leading role in providing these essentials for Waterloo's children.
This year, JA will donate over $300,000 in free programming to the children of Waterloo and Cedar Falls. Students will learn from over 350 JA volunteers how to be responsible, set goals for their future, and understand the value of money. In fact, the acting superintendent of the Waterloo Community School System, Dewitt Jones, actually mandated in 2006, that JA programming be required for all students in grades 4-8. That means that before entering high school, students will have had contact with at least FIVE community professionals, FIVE JA programs, and 28 JA lessons teaching work readiness, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship.
I believe in this concept, and that is why I dedicate my professional life to this cause. Although it has only been seven months, I often forget that I have not had this job forever. Anyone who has worked, really worked, for a non-profit understands how the culture can envelope your life.
There are always more people to help, more money to raise, and more things to do.
My office is ran by only two people: me and my marketing partner. As co-operators of our location, we work under a leadership team located out of our Cedar Rapids office, located 59 miles to the south. We are fortunate in that we have a great team of professionals to serve as our superiors; however, most days we work in solitude, keeping our market going with the power, and shear will, of just two, very tired, yet very motivated women.
My job is huge: I am in charge of meeting our student goal (which locally is 8,311 students for 07-08); recruiting, training, and maintaining over 381 volunteers; serving and training nearly 325 local teachers; writing nearly $100,000 in grants each year, and serving and collaborating with our local board of directors (population 28).
I love my job. Mostly because I love what we do, and I feel I am good at maintaining and expanding the strength of our brand in our community.
BUT, there are many, many times when I yearn for my past lives.
I used to be a teacher. Due to political circumstances, inherent personality conflicts, and a desire to move up the pay-scale a bit more quickly, I have retired from a life of teaching high school literature and composition.
I miss the kids, I miss the schedule, and most of all, I miss the books.
My experience as a teacher both in high school and in college, is what makes me good at my job. I understand difficult people, I am used to selling difficult concepts to people who are resistant to hearing them, and I can multi-task with the best of them.
Working for JA takes a very different mindset, though. When one works for a non-profit, one puts him/herself in a place of vulnerability. You have to trust the people you work with on a daily basis: your funders, your teachers, your volunteers, your board members, and your interns/co-workers.
The reality of any non-profit is that while there are many wonderful, heart-warming victories in what we do, everyday there are people who violate your trust. It is learning how to deal with this betrayal that takes quite a bit of skill.
Many people would probably think that betrayal is a pretty intense word for what we go through, but it is quite accurate for me. I spend my mornings while my son eats breakfast checking my e-mail. I work 9-10 hour days in my office. I spend my own money on many of the things I do. I write grants on the weekends and prepare power-point presentations at night. I remember when I was teaching, checking papers and writing lesson plans into the wee hours of the morning. But at least in the summer...it ends. There are no students to monitor, papers to grade, or books to read.
At JA...it never ends...and there are moments when I still forget this. So, with so much of my life invested in this still very new career, when people I work with/for violate my trust, it feels like a knife in my back, and in the back of JA. I know I cannot control people's attitudes, schedules, or intellect, yet sometimes, I think people forget that when they make mistakes, it very often reflects directly on me. This makes me very uncomfortable.
I am coping, though. I am learning how to deal with my weaknesses: patience, tact, polite communication. I am learning how to focus on my strengths: speed, my ability to persuade/sell, and organization. And, everyday I remind myself that what I do isn't about me.
When I leave my office, it is very easy to take my work home. I think about what needs done, how to correct the failures of the day, and how to make more money. The other day I realized that I never leave work thinking about what really matters...the nearly 30,000 kids we will help/educate this year with our programming.
On a smaller scale, I decided I should try to think about the children I taught in my own JA classes. The little boy who said he never wanted a job or money, but cried when it was my last day because I "paid attention to him." The girl in my junior high class who was only known as a slightly dorky girl who liked horses and books until she learned she had a mind for inventions, business, and profit analysis. The ornery teenage boy who sassed has way though every lesson, even getting put in the hall for one of my visits, who scored the highest score on the post-test in the entire class.
These children are who we help in our community. And although I know I will continue to bitch and moan about the hardships I face as a non-profit administrator throughout this blog, mainly because if I don't vent some of this crap I might just explode, I also plan to force myself to look at the small victories...the tiny bodies that in Waterloo/Cedar Falls will add up to over 9,000 futures changed with our programming this year.
www.JAEasternIowa.org
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Posted by bjungck on 2007-12-16 07:32:42 | Rating: | Views: 70
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