A few lessons I've learned.

Interns. Coffee-brewers. Copy-makers. These terms are all synonymous, right?

The age-old joke (idea? understanding?) that an intern's sole purpose at an organization is to make copies, brew coffee, and pick up his/her supervisor's dry cleaning is--thankfully--changing.

Just look at the Eternal Interns. These women have spent years interning. Sure, it was due to a tough job market. But they certainly didn't spend their 20s just making copies. It's been a part of their duties, but who of us in an office hasn't made a copy, or brewed up a potta joe, before?

I'm currently halfway through my second "internship". This is definitely not a unique thing; lots of people have multiple internships. But as I embark on the second half of this gig (I'll be a PULSEr for  a total of 23 months), I've realized that I probably have some tips--I won't be so bold as to call them wisdom--to give to interns who are just getting started.

Personal experience has taught (is teaching) me...

• Don't shy away from helping with a mailing. Stuffing, labeling and sealing are some of the most boring tasks I've ever completed at my internships (and my job during undergrad). But as the labels, letters, and envelopes piled up on my desk this week to mail out our Annual Report (my baby that is finally complete!!!!!), I realized that familiarizing myself with this mailing list was a great idea. Our report went to 170+ partners in the community and throughout the nation--what an easy way to associate a contact name to an organization and a physical location. And every other month when I send newsletters to our funders, I get to know even more names and organizations.
  
• Be intentional about building relationships with staff. Unless you're interning at your parents' company, you're most likely pretty new to the company. Everyone has different responsibilities, and one of yours should be to have a general idea of what's happening in the organization. Don't be nebby, but know enough that you can transfer callers to the right extension when you answer the phone (another tip: help out by answering the phone! It usually won't go unnoticed that you stepped up to the plate).
  
• Never 'fess up to being an intern. Who needs to know that the point person on the project is an intern? You are just as capable as the full-time staff to do your job, if you've been asked to do it. Even if you mess up, don't using being an intern as a crutch--some day, you won't have the "intern" title to fall back on. Can't blame your mistakes on being the director of your division, can you?
  
• Be prepared. This isn't the Boy Scouts and it's not a song from the Lion King (confused?), but it is common sense. Sort of. On your first day, be prepared for a lot of listening, and a lot of learning. Bring paper and pen, because you'll take lots of notes. On your second day and every day after, repeat. You'll learn a lot and you should remember it (something I regrettably haven't done enough of).
  
• Leave notes for those who will come after you. Eventually, your time as an intern will end. Hopefully, you'll be on to bigger and better things. And unless that bigger and better thing is your internship but paid, someone will come after you. In each of my internships, I've been blessed enough to have a predecessor that left me tips and tricks, and what to expect out of my experience. My duties have, of course, varied from what the women who came before my outlined. But having those road maps helped. Why not put some other nervous intern at ease on his/her first day?

Internships can be quite a rewarding experience, especially if you're willing to put in the work to make them that way. The interwebz are full of bits & pieces of advice to make the experience better, but hopefully these tips can give you another extra boost of encouragement, or calm some first-day jitters.

Oh, and one more thing? People will really like you if you bake for them. ;)

Surprised?

So am I, dear reader. So am I. I haven't posted two weeks in a row in a verrry long time. I guess I just have lots to say today.

First of all, I'll never complain about not being in the Christmas spirit again! I spent a good chunk of today sorting through holiday card lists, Googling businesses (isn't it funny how "Googling" has become part of our national lexicon?), and attempting to pare down the card list at work. No such luck. Tomorrow, I get to help sign/label nearly 200 holiday cards. Merry Christmas to ALL, indeed.

Onto my next topic, also work-related. I just feel blessed to be at my office. I've worked in a lot of places, and I've been fortunate to only have one (maybe one and a half) bad experience. But I'm just having a great experience this time. So supportive. That's all.

This weekend was Unwrapped at Union Project! In case you missed it, their stained glass restoration project was on the front page of the Post-Gazette on Saturday, just in time for Unwrapped. It was a great night, made better by the appearance of my dear friend from college Sarah who came up to visit/attend Unwrapped with me. So cool to see so many people (and so many former PULSErs, really) come together for an amazing community space.

Speaking of former PULSErs, a fantastically friendly and helpful alum, Kate, has started a crazy-cool blog. Yinzpiration. And it is just what it sounds like--inspirational folks, yinzer style. Her most recent interview was with my friend (and fiance to my wonderful housemate Beth), Jesse Landis-Eigsti. Jesse is super sweet and he has a blog where he reviews the world. Literally, he reviews the world. Parking tickets to marriage to himself, nothing is left untouched. Read up.

Also, I have sold my soul to the knitting powers that be. Next year, someone remind me to start making Christmas gifts in July! I think my fingers are going to fall off. Or perhaps I'll just start knitting in my sleep? That sounds like a great support group. Sleep-knitters Anonymous.

There are only 12 days until Christmas. So do the "Twelve Days of Christmas" begin today? Or is it for the 12 days following the holiday? I never know.

Dear Mother Nature,

From here on out, I am respectfully asking that you halt the rain between the hours of 8 and 9 a.m. and 5 and 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. Thanks.

Walking to work in the rain today was somewhat of a miserable experience. I had my umbrella and--of course--my Waynesburg rain jacket, but neither of those protected my legs. I was soaked from my feet up to my knees. I was trying really hard to be positive about the mile walk (that usually seems quite quick) but it, in a word, sucked. Hard. Luckily, the morning was not an omen to the day.

I have felt quite accomplished lately. Things are moving forward with the website overhaul, and I'm beginning to handle things with that on my own. I still need my supervisors, but I'm slowly taking the project on as my own.

I'm also slowly getting the rest of my projects under my control. I'm intimidated by the scope of the things I have to accomplish, but also grateful for the challenge and the opportunity to expand my skills. It's certainly not all daisies and roses. I still have to psych myself up to make phone calls and get nervous when I hear the phone ring, because it might be for me. But it's all about baby steps, people. Okay, maybe most of my job is about giant steps similar to Hagrid's brother Grawp, but some things deserve to be baby steps, just to balance everything out.

This weekend was all about Waynesburg! Friday night, John and Brett came up to visit and we ended up meeting up with Jillian and Jen (who I hadn't seen since she got married over a year ago!). Saturday, I had to talk to some first-year Pitt students about East Lib and all that ELDI has done in the past 10 years with all of our various partners. Then I went with Jillian and Jen to Natalie's housewarming party in Sewickley, where I got to see many more WU grads. It was also nice to meet some people who are outside of the East End. Not that I don't love having friends here, but I like expanding my circle as well. Jen, Aaron and Jillian all joined me for church on Sunday evening as well. So did Brett Probert! Hopefully, we'll see each other again in the next 6 years.

We went to the great race! My wonderful housemate, Laura, placed 11th out of all the women in the 10K. Eleventh over all! She's an amazing runner, and I can't wait to watch her run again. After her race, we went to Pamela's. SUCH an excellent decision, despite our 45-minute wait. Once we were there, our food came quite quickly.  Mmmmm. Sunday was a big day for a few other reasons--our housemate Beth got engaged, and Alicia found out that she's going to be an aunt! So a good day all around.

I can't believe we're on our 5th week already, and the 4th at our placements. It doesn't seem like much now, but we're one month down. Only ten to go! How did that happen? Thanks so much for all of your support thus far; your prayers are much appreciated! Continue to pray for us as we battle cases of the Mondays, making it through hump day Wednesdays, and enjoy the relief that comes with Friday. =)

On the top of the office...literally.

It's now been about two weeks since I began my grown-up job at East Liberty Development, Inc. It's hard to believe that I'm actually settling in there, beginning projects and following through on them.

I was pretty intimidated on my first day. My supervisor sat me down and gave me my list of goals, and told me in no uncertain terms that it's all my responsibility, and that if these things don't happen it will be no one's fault but mine. These are my projects and I have to follow through on them! It's great to be trusted, and I think I'm up to the job, but it was intimidating. My goals for the job include: overseeing the redesign of our website, facilitating email action teams of concerned residents, developing a communication strategy and compiling the annual report. I don't have a ton of experience with a lot of this, but I think I can combine what I do know with what I learn and make something really cool out of it. And learn a LOT.

I made a lot of great connections my first week, met a lot of cool people and learned a lot. But one of the coolest things I got to do was go on top of my office building to get an aerial view of the Target construction happening down the street. These guys broke ground in the end of July and it's amazing how much they have done already! I could gush about Target forever, but this particular store is awesome because it only takes up 1/3 of the land of a normal Target because the store is actually parked on top of the parking garage. And there are going to be windows. It's just going to be sweet and I'm really glad that I get to follow the development as closely as I do!

PULSE isn't all about work, though. I've had a great time getting to know the other girls and meeting former PULSErs. There are a lot of PULSE alumni living in the area; in fact, we had them over for a barbeque last night! It was great to meet some people who had gone through similar experiences and that are still living out their faith in Pittsburgh.

I've also been getting to know East Liberty a lot more. I work about a mile away, so I walk there and back every day. I probably won't enjoy it as much in the cold, but it's really nice to walk through the neighborhood every day. Sometimes I take different routes to see new things, but even when I walk on my "main route" I am still learning locations and streets, and that has been really helpful.

I feel like I'm not doing a good job of conveying my experience on the blog, but I promise that I'm really, really enjoying it. I am learning A TON at my placement: about communications, social media, PR, urban planning, development, nonprofits, trees....all of it. I'm even beginning to understand their acronyms. This is a big step! I don't know if this is all non-profits or just the ones with which I've worked, but it seems that every place I work has a ton of acronyms!

I just ask that you continue to pray with me and for me as I continue living in Pittsburgh and learn what it means to be a grownup Christian in the city. Pray for my housemates and our program's director and his wife as well! Thanks so much--if you'd like to be on my email or mailing list, email me at graham.margaret(at symbol)hotmail.com!

Orientation & placements

I just realized, I didn't write about my placement in my last (first?) post. I'm working at East Liberty Development, Inc. ELDI is a 501c3 Community Development Corporation dedicated to the revitalization of East Liberty. I will be working as a Communications Coordinator for 35 hours/week. Basically, my job is to manage communications between ELDI and basically everyone in East Liberty--residents, community leaders, developers, funders, service partners, shoppers, all of it.

Specifically, this includes working on a redesign of websites, digital and social media, e-blasts, developing communications strategies (for both the residential and business districts), marketing, compiling/writing the Annual Report, writing press releases and articles and (finally) event coordination. For those of you who know me well, you're probably thinking..."PR? I thought Maggie hated PR."

Well. I do, but when I interviewed for this position I was actually EXCITED about this job. I don't know if it's because I have a greater understanding of my skills set and the role they can play in restoring the kingdom, or if it's due to my passion for the mission of ELDI, but I am EXCITED. About Communications. Obviously, God is behind this! All three positions for which I interviewed told me straight up that my job would include some PR. Basically I had this feeling like "Okay, God, I get it. PR it is". He's not done with me there, yet.

But before I can actually be at my placement, we have to do orientation! We've gotten to see a decent amount of our neighborhood thus far. Our first day included going to Highland Park (beeeautiful) for some orientation games thanks to our friends at the CCO (it follows me everywhere! ;]). Then we went to the farmer's market and came home to find fresh peaches on our table from one of our board members. Not a bad way to start the year, right? Tuesday was a lot of basic paperwork kind of stuff and getting to know the program. On Wednesday, we went to my placement and met with my supervisor who took us on a sort of guided tour of East Liberty (wikipedia has a pretty decent history, actually). We learned what it was, what it is now, and how it can be in the future--if folks like ELDI continue to make the right decisions and partner with the same organizations and residents. Then we had lunch at Abay, an Ethiopian restaurant. We also went to the Union Project and helped some folks at gTech--both amazing organizations!

Today, we went on a bike ride. Most of us drove down to the South Side and went along the river trails up beside East Carson, across the Hot Metal Bridge, then down up the Mon to the Smithfield Street Bridge and back to East Carson. And then most of us did the loop again. My butt is pretty sore but it was a beautiful way to start the day! We did a lot of paperwork this afternoon and had dinner with last year's PULSErs. It was great to speak with them and learn more about their experiences and what they're doing now.

My favorite thing we've done so far, however, has been just hanging out with my fellow PULSErs. They are all amazing women, and I am so excited that God put them here in my life for (at least) the next 11 months! I really feel so blessed to be a part of PULSE. I'm already learning about all of these connections with various Christian communities around Pittsburgh and all of the opportunities we have up here. I have no idea what God is going to do next July when this whole gig is over, but I can just feel that His plans are pretty amazing (aren't they always?). I wish I could put down in words how excited I was to be on our tour of East Liberty yesterday...it was just really, really exciting.

Now that I've finished this ridiculously long post...keep us in your prayers, please! Many of us are worried about transportation to our placements and all of the other stuff that comes with the first-day jitters. Prayer would be great--and communicate your prayer requests to me, as well!