| A day in the life of a Micro intern begins with a series of hellos and good mornings. Literally, everyone is so friendly when they are doing what they enjoy, we are happy to be helpful and there for each other when needed. We developed a team mentality from the start or perhaps inherited from the office staff we look up to…or we all met somewhere in the middle. Our weekly office meetings are a good glimpse at how we work together.
We start with an icebreaker, a creative idea or poignant question that spurs reflection, gets us talking, and usually laughing too. Nothing brings people together like laughter, no matter what age, experience, or job position. We all have different interests and tasks to take care of every day, every week, but we find a common ground around what drives us, and a passion in what we do.
The icebreakers help us learn about each other and teach us how to better collaborate. Learning what our colleagues experienced in school, and what they have done and hope to do. This helps make us feel more like a unit. Soon, various jobs such as e-mail marketing, finance, outreach, fundraising, and program design and management all seem connected by one big family, we interns have known for only a few months. Our own self image becomes clearer in the process.
This is our community. Our shared goal is to help other communities around the country, and around the world, come together. It is interesting to think how Micro headquarters is similar to a venture in a classroom. Elementary students working, say, at a smoothie stand, are not CEO’s with job security and salaries, but maybe we are all still students. Learning while we work, and learning how to care. There is something so humane about working for a nonprofit. Something in that driving love. It’s a vehicle for respect, understanding, and a connection to the larger world. Where little bits of people’s life lessons get shared, heard, and turned into something much more valuable than the money the world runs on. Our experiences become a shared goal, our personal efforts become one movement, our individual dreams become one shared hope, and all we have to do is believe in ourselves,and at MicroSociety, believe in children.
Interning at MicroSociety allows us to practice what we want to become, and it puts us in touch with enthusiastic and motivated role models-just like a community partnership does for Micro students. Today’s student will become tomorrow’s intern, today’s intern will be tomorrow’s enthusiastic and driven employee. These parallels are so pronounced, as if somehow they are resonating from George’s artwork we admire around the office, as if they echo from his invention and his colleague’s shared dreams. It seems that we are all finding our way to our dreams.
So, hello! |
A Day in the Life of a Micro Intern
