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 10th
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 |