RealStart Internship Post

Julianne Norman, MPIA-HS, 2014
Alison Waterson, MID-NGOCS, 2014

Hello out there!  Our names are Julianne and Ally and we spent six weeks of our summer performing a program evaluation for a non profit (RealStart) in George, South Africa. George is a picturesque seaside town located about 4 hours east of Cape Town in a region called the Western Cape, and sits right on the coast of the Indian ocean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 George is a relatively small town by South Africa standards, with a population of 120,000. Like the rest of South Africa, it is incredibly diverse and unequal with large affluent golf resorts backing onto poverty stricken townships.

 

 

 

We arrived in George on Thursday, May 16^th, after 48 hours of travelling, two upgraded first class tickets, one ripped pair of jeans and one coke stained pair of leggings…and one lost bag. All three of our suitcases managed to make it across three continents, yet somehow the journey from Johannesburg to George was too much of a stretch. Here, finding a lost bag is like trying to track a tadpole in a large pond.  All of the bags have labels on them, but no one knows where they are.  After numerous phone calls with the typical response, “um, we’ll look for it” or “let me ask my friend who works in the airport” (we know what that really means), and a day of sharing clothes, we finally decided to head out to the airport and wait there until they located the bag. They told us they had heard nothing of the bag since their last employee had called earlier that morning.  Their suggestion was wait for the next flight from Jo-burg landing in George in 15 minutes and see if it had appeared with the luggage. We waited for the flight and then watched all of the luggage filter through and no bag.  Then, Julianne looked across the room and low and behold her bag was sitting in the corner of the room...just chillin’.

A little bit about RealStart – RealStart is a South African based non-profit which focuses on the holistic development of impoverished young people. They currently run a year-long youth development program across two campuses, with the hope of expanding the program throughout the country. They also have a number of other exciting projects in the pipeline. I (Alison) have been affiliated with RealStart for a number of years and have known its founder for five years. This was Julianne’s first interaction with the organization.

The first week of our evaluation consisted of us finding out a little more about RealStart and what it was they wanted us to achieve with our evaluation. As non-experts in the field, we spent copious hours sitting outside in the sun reading a program evaluation textbook one of our professors had given us.

We soon discovered that we did not have enough data (RealStart is only 3 years old) to do a quantitative evaluation and thus had to focus on a more qualitative one. The next few days involved writing up questionnaires and contacting as many stakeholders as we possibly could in order to set up interviews to ask them questions about the organization and their relationship with it.

Our next blog post will be coming soon...check in for the next installment, which may contain a crazy adventure or two!

 

Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (Paid Internship!!)

Are you wondering how you are going to pay to exist while completing your internship this summer? Interested in working with under-served populations in the Southwestern PA region? If so, keep reading! The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship program is FOR YOU!

Don’t let the word ‘fellowship’ confuse you. This fellowship is designed to take place while you are currently enrolled in school, NOT after graduating. This is a one year interdisciplinary program focused on community service and leadership development.

Here are a couple of sample projects to get you thinking: One fellow wanted to increase self esteem in middle school girls in an under-served community, so she created a poetry program that fostered self expression. Another student conducted focus groups and administered surveys to assess environmental health dangers to people in an under-served community.
Here are the basics of the program:

• This is a service project with a minimum of 200 hours through an existing community-based organization in the greater Pittsburgh area or its surrounding communities. (In order to count this for the GSPIA internship, you’ll need to complete 300 hours, but we’re told that is very easy to accomplish within the year long project).
• A supervisor or site mentor, at the host organization and a faculty member at the student’s school will serve as mentors for the program. In addition, the fellow will have an alumni of the Schweitzer fellowship as an additional mentor.
• In addition to the service project, fellows are required to attend a monthly meeting with other fellows and the program administrator. At these meetings, fellows have the opportunity to chat with each other about their projects, and learn about community service and professional development from area experts.
• At the conclusion of the project, fellows submit a written report, including recommendations for sustaining the projects.
• The fellowship will begin in April 2013 and end in April 2014.

What this Really Means:

• You will write a proposal for a project that you would like to design and implement. For your application, you will need to come up with an organization that you would like to work with on the project. The project must serve an under-served population OR an under-served community.
• You will receive a $2,000 ($3,000 for environmental fellows) if chosen as a fellow. This stipend DOES NOT have to be used for project costs.
• If your project requires funding, the Schweitzer fellowship program can help with those costs. (Don’t forget about GSPIA’s Professional Development Funds as well!)

How to Apply:

• Fellows will be selected on the basis of their completed application, their service commitment, and their ability to articulate ideas and goals related to their role in addressing unmet community needs.
• Applications are available in the Career Services office, or here.
• The application includes demographic, project, and professional information, as well as three references and a resume.
• The application is due NO LATER THAN Friday, February 15th, at 5:00 p.m.

Heinz Endowments Fellow Program

If you could not make the Heinz Endowments information session, here is all of the information you will need!

The Heinz Endowments is based in Pittsburgh, where it uses our region as a laboratory for the development of solutions to challenges that are national in scope. Although the majority of its giving is concentrated within southwestern Pennsylvania, the Heinz Endowments works wherever necessary, including statewide and nationally, to fulfill its mission. That mission is to help our region thrive as a whole community, economically, ecologically, educationally and culturally, while advancing the state of knowledge and practice in the fields in which it works. The Heinz Endowments fields of emphasis include philanthropy in general and the disciplines represented by its five grant-making programs: Arts & Culture; Children, Youth & Families; Community & Economic Development; Education; and Environment.

The Heinz Endowments is recruiting for a graduate fellow for summer 2013. The graduate fellow is responsible for coordinating day-to-day activities of three teams of 15 interns participating in The Heinz Endowments Summer Youth Philanthropy Internship Program and interfacing with three or four additional teams of interns who are hosted by community agencies. Each team of interns will identify a grant-making area, draft a request for proposals offering $25,000 in grants, and complete short media projects in partnerships with other non-profits. The graduate fellow is the first line of support to the interns and will work closely with the Program Officer who manages the program. Additional tasks and projects may be development based on staff needs at the time. The graduate fellow is a perfect position for anyone interested in project management and grant-making.  

Useful Skills and Experiences:

• Familiarity with grants and fundraising
• Understanding of the nonprofit sector and, in particular, youth development
• Confidence, self-motivation and leadership
• Ability to navigate the Pittsburgh region and neighborhoods
• Professionalism, flexibility, maturity
• Ability to use MS Office and Google Docs
• Knowledge of grant-making (or the desire to learn more about it)
  

Details on the Position:

• Full-time, 9am to 5pm, Monday-Friday (40 hours a week)
• Mid-June to Mid-August
• Paid position!

The application is available online! You will need to fill out the application online as well as submit a resume and cover letter. All of the instructions can be found online at the link above. It is due February 1, 2013!

International Flare in Pittsburgh Nonprofits

The Office of Career Services is excited to announce that we’re offering our first ever Career Panel on Local Nonprofits with an International Focus!
Whether you are interested in nonprofits, International Development, or local organizations, this is the session for you! Representatives from a number of local organizations that work internationally will be speaking. The representatives will have information on various career opportunities, events, and more!
Panelists will include members of the following organizations:

• Cameroon Football Development Program
• Global Links
• Global Pittsburgh
• Global Solutions Pittsburgh
• Haitian Families First
• Office of Refugee Services, Jewish Family & Children Service
• Pittsburgh Cares
• Vibrant Pittsburgh

Cameroon Football Development Program is an unique nonprofit. CFDP uses the game of football (soccer) to improve kids’ lives in Cameroon. Transforming the soccer field into a classroom creates an environment for experiential education where youth are free to learn and grow. We integrate focused discussions and skill-building activities into regular “soccer practices” to achieve the following objectives:

• Reduce petty theft and delinquency
• Reduce incidence of teenage pregnancy
• Reduce incidence of HIV/AIDS transmission
• Provide organized, structured recreational activities
• Increase the accessibility of professional skills development and training
• Promote self-reliance and self-employment

Global Links is a medical relief and development organization dedicated to promoting environmental stewardship and improving health in resource-poor communities, primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its two-fold mission provides hospitals with a socially and environmentally beneficial alternative to sending hundreds of tons of still-useful surplus materials to landfills.
Global Pittsburgh improves global competitiveness by promoting the Greater Pittsburgh Region, attracting international leaders, influencers and students, and engaging them with regional leaders, companies, educational institutions and organizations.
Global Solutions Pittsburgh provides nonpartisan, internationally-focused education to schools and communities throughout western Pennsylvania. Its goal is to:

• Cultivating global awareness and engagement in our region through innovative educational programming and strategic partnerships;
• Supporting global education in schools through direct student engagement, curricular support, and teacher professional development;
• Promoting respect for human rights by educating citizens and facilitating collaboration within the regional human rights community.

Haitian Families First was established in 2010 by Jamie and Ali McMurtie, two sisters from Pittsburgh, PA who have spent much of their adult lives working in Haiti. Haitian Families First is an American non-profit organization dedicated to Haiti’s most vulnerable children.
Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Pittsburgh (JF&CS) mission is to improve the quality of life of children, families and adults of all ages throughout the Greater Pittsburgh area by providing psychological, employment and social services. JF & CS is an acknowledged leader in helping immigrants and refugees resettle and successfully build new lives in our community.
Pittsburgh Cares mission is to maximize the impact of our regional nonprofit partners by mobilizing volunteers and engaging the community through positioning Pittsburgh as a national leader in growing a sustainable culture of volunteerism and community involvement.
Vibrant Pittsburgh is an organization that believes a more diverse and talented workforce means a more vibrant future for the Pittsburgh region. So, Vibrant Pittsburgh does things in support of that mission.

This great career panel is open to all students, both first and second year. It is being held on Wednesday, November 14 at 12pm in 3610 Posvar.
We look forward to seeing you there!