Site Lead Training Reflection

Participating in Raising A Village Foundation’s Site Lead Training during the last couple of weeks since the onboarding process in late August / early September has been a wonderful experience. I knew from the moment I first interviewed and researched who Jaleesa was and what RAV was, that this would be an organization that felt like home, and it has definitely felt like that during the whole training process. We have been able to explore our identities as individuals and as Site Leads during our asynchronous and live Zoom meetings with Ana, Eva, Jaleesa, and all the members of RAV. During the last couple of weeks we have been able to learn about what being a leader means to our organization, to ourselves and to our mission of partnering with students, scholars, and families in D.C. Our role as AmeriCorps VISTAs is to team up with non profit organizations to help alleviate poverty in any sector of society, however, what attracted me to the role of Raising A Village Foundation specifically was our impact in classrooms as conscious agents of support and partners in education for children. Our position is dependent on who we are as young adults, having gone through the same challenges or similar experiences as our students. Learning how to channel these experiences and utilize language that can express these shared experiences to others during training has been extremely beneficial.

Currently, our training emphasizes learning about DSG recruitment. Like Site Leads, our DSGs play a huge role in our program. We have all been working in small groups and individually to communicate with students from universities throughout D.C. Recently, I teamed up with Kubie to complete interview sessions and go through the hiring process together with our incoming DSGs. We are focusing our efforts on interviewing American University students. This experience has allowed me to directly practice using all of the programs we were taught to use such as MailChimp, Alchemer, Canva, and Trello. We are also compiling a list of American University contacts such as Deans and counselors who can share our Federal Work study opportunity to students directly. Additionally, I worked on a team with Matthew and Sean to communicate our DSG Referral Incentives to former DSGs as a way to receive more applications. For this project, I created university specific flyers and a general flyer on Canva that would communicate the incentives including an Uber and RAV swag gift cards. We completed calls to our former DSGs and applicants to verbally inquire whether they had any referrals. Aside from phone communication, we sent mass texts and emails to former applicants and former DSGs. As a result of these communications, we had a couple of referrals shared through our referral form and we will be working to extend the incentives to all those who have referred other students. 

A highlight from last week was getting to interact with all team members and learning about the type of leadership styles we all exhibit. The seminar where we learned this information was spearheaded by two inspirational individuals who have worked as professors and as leaders in their respective fields. I loved how dynamic this training was and getting to hear a bit more about what Jaleesa sees as our specific leadership strengths. I loved sharing how I am a person who connects easily to the emotions of others and how this can be a tool for my mission at Raising A Village Foundation. I also enjoyed listening to how others viewed their roles, and what Jaleesa saw in each one of us. As a person under the S category of leadership, I tend to value teamwork and partnerships with all members of the group. I liked learning how other members, like D category types or I category types value leading strongly and getting to express their ideas individually. 

 I am beyond excited to begin working directly with everyone because having listened to the stories of my coworkers and to the stories of our school partners, I know this is the type of work I am passionate about and connected to on a very deep level. I come from a family of educators, who have worked and lived in conditions of poverty, who have succeeded and advocated for their respective communities. My grandmother was a teacher at a Catholic school in Medellin, Colombia for 50 years where she taught at-risk youth including children of drug dealers and prostitutes from Medellin’s most dangerous communities. Because of her experience, my mother studied to become a teacher in Colombia but came to the United States and changed her career to nursing and has served the community especially during the COVID pandemic. 

Joining Raising A Village Foundation for me, was a response to a personal call. Having also come from conditions of poverty, having gone through the school system as the child of a single parent and first generation student, and learning to seize every educational opportunity awarded to me, I know that connecting to children in similar situations is something I am passionate about fulfilling. It also makes me happy to know that I am working within a community of like minded people who, in their own way, share values such as enforcing education and wanting to help others because they enjoy it on a personal level. 

I am excited to continue developing professionally as a Site Lead and as a person during the next year. The areas I hope to grow in are the areas of verbal communication and effective public speaking. I know that these areas will be addressed everyday during my time as Site Lead. Furthermore, I hope to continue harnessing my organizational abilities, and creativity in terms of finding new ways to either receive more DSGs, share our program to others, and anything else that is needed to aid Raising A Village Foundation. I am looking forward to implementing many of the skills taught to us during our training, like the trauma informed lessons we received, and the lessons on leadership. With such an amazing team, I am sure we will surpass all of our goals for this coming year!