The San Francisco Trip!

Finally, the day came for the big culmination of my internship: the trip to United Way of the Bay Area’s San Francisco Office! My manager, Rachel, and I left San Luis Obispo around 7:30 am to begin the drive up. Our meeting was scheduled at 1:30 pm, so with a stop for lunch we got there just in time!

When we got there we met up with Kelly, the Program Coordinator of UW Bay Area. She started by giving us an office tour, and I was immediately struck by the stark differences between the Bay Area Office and the UW SLO office. It is much larger, with far more workers; it is on the 10^th floor of a 15-floor building; the office members seem to interact in small quiet groups within their own areas, rather than interacting across the office as we do in SLO. These differences seem expected and obvious for an office so much larger, yet I still found myself surprised that this was a United Way, just like San Luis Obispo’s. With only 6 office members, the San Luis Obispo office is tiny and in the basement of a 1 story building. It amazed me how simply being in a large city versus a small town can change not just how the office feels but also how the people within the office interact with one another. My first impressions were excited because I could already see the variations and possibilities within this one nonprofit: now put that on the larger scale of all nonprofits, and the possibilities seem endless. It made me feel like there is probably a nonprofit that could fit every part of what I see myself doing, from where I want to work to how I want to interact within my job.

Next up for our visit Rachel and I were scheduled to meet with Kelly so I could interview her, followed by a meeting with three Program Leaders for me to interview as well, and finally another meeting with Kelly so that Rachel could ask a few questions herself.

Ahead of time, I constructed a loose outline for the questions I wanted to ask the interviewees. I tried to think of questions that would help answer questions I have myself: what should I major in? What would it really be like to work full time in a nonprofit like United Way? The questions I created to ask all my interviewees were:

1) What did you major in in college? Did you expect to end up working in a place such as United Way when you majored in _________?

2) What led you to working at United Way?

3) What does your position at United Way entail? How did it vary from or stick to your expectations when you started here?

4) Describe a “day in the life” as a (Interviewed Person’s Title) here at United Way.

5) What is your favorite thing about working for United Way/ working for a non-profit?

6) If you could change anything about your job what would it be and why?

7) How can you see United Way changing as an organization in the next 10 years/ long term?

8) Do you have any advice for someone like myself, an underclassmen in college interested in pursuing a major in/ pertaining to human rights?

Then, I also came up with a few program-specific questions for each of the Program Leaders individually:

2-Gen Approach

What specific actions does UW Bay Area take to provide for both generations in a family? How does UW Bay Area stay focused in such an all-encompassing approach model? What statistics or other indications show how this approach has been effective?

MatchBridge

How does it work? Are the jobs that students are matched to with companies that United Way Bay Area has direct relationships with, or is it more of a system to efficiently find pre-existing job listings that youth may be unable to find themselves? How did the program start and how has it grown? Do you think this program can work on a smaller scale in a United Way like San Luis Obispo’s, or is it more of a big city project?

Realistically with the limited amount of time Rachel and I had, I did not ask every interviewee all the questions, but I got an immense amount of information and answers that I am so grateful for.

Once all the interviews were over, I felt so grateful to have had the opportunity to travel to San Francisco and meet these inspiring and driven people. I genuinely left feeling a lot more confidence about my future, and an ever-increasing interest in eventually ending up in a place like United Way. I cannot thanks the Mgrublian Human Rights Center enough for providing me with the funds to make this trip happen!

I plan to include a detailed summary of the interviews I held in my final reflection paper.

Me with Rachel, Larry, Katherine, and Kelly at the UW Bay Area Office