Elementary school - here I come - Part II

Early next week, I was ready bright and early to go visit the school the returning team leader was assigned. Although we hardly had much chance later in the program year to stay in touch regularly, I realized she was one of the most thoughtful and perceptive team leaders. She talked to me about the program, her school and the challenges she had faced the prior year. Her team leader had quit in the middle of the program and she was forced to take up the position. I sat there thinking to myself - Why would someone, especially a team leader quit the program mid way.. I say this specifically since at the time of writing this post, more than 50% of my team has quit the program and we are still 2 mos from completing the program! Frustrating, huh?

By that afternoon, I was a little more informed and little more confused and one of the reasons for my confusion as I would later discover was that the school I was assigned to followed a very different implementation of the reading improvement program than what this colleague of mine had to implement in her school.

That afternoon, my FC brought me to my school - Cool! My workplace for the next 9 months! The school was in a part of town I had not yet driven by but atleast it was easily accessible and looked great from the outside. We had a hurried up introduction with the site contact who  seemed to me that she was not very thrilled to  meet someone from AmeriCorps and mumbled something to the effect of - as long as you do a better job and are more professional than your predecessor, you will be ok! Great! This was unlike anything I had expected. We were given an alternate contact in the school who the site contact said could be our everyday site contact as she did not expect to have much time for my team or the program. This person she pointed us to immediately excused herself of anything to do with our program as she was going to be pretty busy with other things.. With more things unclear than I first entered the school, I broke for the day deciding to come back in a day or so to meet the teachers. Although we were two weeks away from starting the program officially, all team leaders had been encouraged to  start visiting their school sites, introducing themselves to the site contact and teachers and getting the place ready for their team members.

In the next day or so, I was back again at the school and introduced myself to each of the teachers in classrooms we were going to support. Teachers knew what this program was about and I had to tell each of them that I was yet to see my team but I was going to bring them by as soon as they started coming in and of course we were going to do our best to support each of their classes.  With all the introductions in place, I started coming to one of the classrooms on an almost daily basis to get to know the teacher and the kids. At the same time, the trainings from the program were happening and each one of them had been so carefully planned and timed

A week into these visits to the school, I felt very differently about the place. The site contact and the teachers were one of the most courteous and hard working bunch of people and I was looking forward to meeting my team and hoping they would enjoy their stint as much as I was.

One of the highlights of my first few days in the II grade classroom was how the kids made me feel welcomed in their classes. In a matter of couple of days, I had received a bunch of notes and pictures they drew for me that basically said how nice I was to them. I was thinking to myself - I've never stepped foot into an elementary school in the US before this and here I was already impressing the 7 year olds in just a few days... I must be doing something right. The instant gratification and the sense of happiness I felt each time when I helped a kid solve a small work sheet or taught them how to read a couple of sentences was just amazing. Most of these kids, I would learn throughout the year had very tough personal lives and faced challenges in more ways than one. There was a 7 yr old in my class who left the school over Christmas break and when she was there in this school had to take every Fri off so she could watch over her 2 yr old sibling since her mom had to go to work. Most kids in this school which was a Title I school received free breakfast and lunch which goes to prove the economic conditions of the families they came from. At this point the school deserves a mention. The principal and the staff and teachers worked so hard to bring in mentors and volunteers and shows and training for music and dance and sports that most of the times, I would forget this was an inner city Title I school.

Another one thing that always stood out for me on a daily basis was the inner strength and resilience each kid possessed.  They had a maturity beyond their age at the same time getting into petty fights with their 7 yr old classmates and bursting out in tears suddenly. There were few kids who left the school during the school year and some who joined and every time, I would miss the kids that left and I could never tell what the other kids felt. Did they miss their old classmates, did they understand why they had to leave, did they still keep in touch? I never discussed any of this with the kids or the teacher for fear of stepping over my limits as a volunteer in the school but I always wondered what the kids that left this school may be doing and if they were able to find such a good school and such good teachers.

Elementary school - here I come - Part I

The first meeting where I would meet other team leaders for the program year and be introduced to the Field Cordinator (FC) did not happen until the second week of September. By this time, I had grown tired of the summer in Richmond and whoever said that the weather would get better once we hit Labor Day weekend was wrong!

On a very warm Friday morning, I was back at the AmeriCorps office for this program - a bit earlier than scheduled and the first person I met was the FC. She was a very interesting person and we chatted up while she and I set up some tables and materials for the meeting. I still cant remember what my first impressions about her but I was thinking to myself that she would be the first female boss I've had! I would later learn that most other members and team leaders had been interviewed by the FC and so many members in the Corps including the ones that  were returning for a second year of service knew the FC more than I did.

The meeting was more of a training session for team leaders who the program staff wanted to be prepared and informed about the program, so when we met our members (for the first time) a couple of weeks later, we knew (sorta!) what we were doing. The day went by pretty quickly with lots of fun activities and team building exercises (By this time in my life, I had been through dozens of team building exercises and yet everytime, I ejoy them) and a smattering of information and thoughts from the program staff and past members about the challenges they faced the last service year. I kept a very open mind and my goal was to absorb as much information as possible and not make any conclusions or assumptions yet. I quickly learnt the names of the other team leaders and realized I had much more real life work experience than all of them. I didnt know if it was a good thing or bad thing.

By the end of the day, we had a big binder with program documents and manuals and we knew the schools we were assigned to. The FC had tid bits of information about each school, what worked in years past, what didnt work, who our school site contact would be , whether there would be a work area/ office space for AmeriCorps members etc. It was one of the most valuable piece of information that I received that day. When my turn came, I was eagerly waiting for some exciting information about the elementary school I was being assigned to (since I could not figure out from the map where it was even located!!).. In summary, my school site contact for me would be the Asst Principal of the school who required a lot of professionalism from the members and in the last couple of years, the program members and especially the team leader had left a lot to be desired in that department. So, inputs from my FC to me was - Dress professionally and be professional always and I was thinking to myself - how do you do it otherwise? I would later learn in bits and pieces that the school had not had a very good experience with the members and one of the things I had to do during the service year was to reverse the reputation of AmeriCorps at the school. GREAT!
One other thing that happened at the end of the day was that each new team leader was paired with a returning team leader based on the similarities in schools they were assigned, the challenges they might face during the school year etc. Also, our FC was going to bring us to each of our schools in the following week to introduce us to the site contact who in turn could be our main point of contact for most things in the school

With all the information and a date set with a returning team leader to visit her school, I was all set to begin my journey ...

I want to touch human lives - How I joined VCU AmeriCorps...

It was a few days after the longest road trip of my life and I was spending the warm June morning in the Richmond Public Library.  I was officially still on my break although I was beginning to think about volunteering and non profit organizations.  The one thing I knew when I was searching for non profit organizations to volunteer with was - I wanted to work on something that touched human lives - Right! Wasn't the very essence of most non profit organizations to touch human lives?? Ok, I needed something more focused and a little more concrete than that although I realized that I had a good enough reason to start off.   Since I was on my break, I had every reason to take my time to figure out things! Over lunch, that day, my husband brought me a bunch of printed material that contained a list of non profit organizations in Richmond and little did I know that one of it was going to take me very soon to a step closer to touching human lives! Ofcourse the first thought that came to my mind was (remember I had lived near Boulder for several years...)Why did he have to waste so much paper? He could have just sent me an email with all that information!! I was looking through the sheets when VCU AmeriCorps caught both our attention and by that evening I had application forms from the organization.

I had never heard of AmeriCorps and what was this VCU AmeriCorps?? After several hours of research that would cause my head spin with information, I was convinced that this was a good organization to atleast send my details to. What was the harm in sending them my details and so I promptly did exactly that.

The first thing that impressed me (in a long list of things that would impress me about VCU AmeriCorps) was the application form. Very thorough and to top it, I was asked to write a short essay on why I chose to apply. Neat..In the next few days, I was at the VCU AmeriCorps office interviewing with the Program Director and a team (now former) leader! The office was very different from the work place I was used to and I kept telling myself - this is where my journey to touch human lives is going to start! The interview was very pleasant and for the first time in a few months, I was actually excited about the kind of professional opportunities this (volunteering) gig would provide me with!! I came away thinking - Wow - I never knew these things about education, especially elementary school education and two thoughts I left with  after the interview were - I dont really know all that I will be doing but I think it will be pretty cool to be doing something related to elementary school kids and boy is this program  pretty structured  or what and thats what I needed - a structured introduction to working in non profit organizations!

A few days later, I had an offer for a part time team leader position. I was pretty excited - a volunteering job that actually paid a stipend and educational reward, the opportunity to work with and manage a team, work with school kids and to top it all off - it was part time!! I had lost much interest in going back to the stresses of my 15 hr work days which used to be a norm in my previous job and felt this opportunity was great and the timing could not have been better! But what was I going to do the next several weeks until the service year with AmeriCorps actually began.. Continue my break and enjoy the summer doing the things I had always wanted to do but never had time for!!

While on my break, I read a few interesting books on non profit organizations and volunteering but one book that actually inspired me and convinced me that I had indeed chosen the right thing to do by making a move from Corporate America to the social sector was "How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas". I would recommend the book to anyone who needs insights into the challenges and successes of the non profit world. 

Just after the July 4th holiday weekend, I received a very nicely written up offer email from the Program Director and it struck me that if I took this position, I would be starting my journey towards a potential career in non profit organizations and most people I would work with in this position would be less than 10 years old! I knew I was ready for a change but as with all big decisions for most people, there was a lot of excitement and ambiguity for me although in my gut, it felt that I was going to make the right decision by going ahead and accepting the offer. Within a couple of days, I had accepted the offer and YES I was going to touch human lives and make a difference! 

Cary Street (Town)- not quite Pearl Street (Mall) for me!

Not that I have widely traveled the world nor do I claim to be an authority in reviewing tourist favorites, but I can confidently say that Pearl Street Mall aka Downtown Boulder must be one of the most beautiful and  interesting places in this world. It was a quick drive from where I lived in Colorado and the sight of the Flatirons when one drove towards Boulder was breathtaking year round for me. I could never get enough of Boulder, its mountains, its coffee shops, restaurants, its people and their views.

View of Flatirons while walking along Boulder Creek!

Boulder, CO is a vibrant place known more  for its beauty and Bolder Boulder and not as much (I think) for the interesting people you would run into at the small coffee shops and with whom you could pick up conversations on topics as varied as astrology to solution(?) to the Prime Number Problem to Indian / Hindu scriptures to world philosophies and history. The kind of people you would meet ranged from people who had  visited parts of India  and the world that I had only heard of  to people who were training to climb the world's tallest mountain peaks to people and groups practising their music / dance impromptu on Pearl Street mall!

When you would walk out of a theater after watching the world famous percussionist  Zakhir Hussein, you would not find it surprising to find a group of drummers trying their hand on some old buckets and drums to recreate the music or groups of people playing African music out of nowhere!

In the 9 years I lived in Colorado, I almost became the unofficial tour guide for Pearl Street Mall in my social circle :-). I loved every bit of the experience of living close to Boulder and driving there every time to enjoy nature and relax. The amazing thing about Colorado was you lived amidst nature but Boulder was something different!

Boulder Creek!

Another favorite pastime of mine was to walk along the Boulder Creek along which one could walk  on Canyon Blvd  from Boulder downtown into the mountains A perfect Saturday afternoon / coffee for me was to walk on the Pearl Street Mall, catch up on some of the street performances and there were quite a few (the zip code man was very cool which I will let the readers look up on google!), look at the new stores that have opened, the ones that have closed, ones that were always changing names and things they sold,  walk along the creek for a bit leading into the mountains and walk back for a cup of hot chocolate or latte and some reading at one of my favorite coffee shops in Boulder - Trident or Book End or grab a bite of my favorite snacks and tea at  the Dushanbe Tea House!

Fast Forward to Spring 2010  and here I was in the River City! I instantly took a liking for Cary Town but for me, it was quite not Pearl Street. My mind kept looking for a glimpse of nature while walking :-(.  My attempt at finding a coffee place that stayed open late has not yielded much results yet although I did find a couple of places that I thought I would like to go back to for coffee and pastries albeit a little away from Cary Town - CrossRoads and Globehopper. Something about these places reminded me of my favorite coffee shops in Boulder - almost but not quite.. So I am still looking for a favorite coffee shop in Cary Town just to hang out or catch up on some reading while sipping some latte or hot chocolate. I love walking on Boulevard which I have done a few times, looking at some of the statues and taking in the history of Richmond but I still miss the vibrance, beauty and energy of Boulder! While I call myself a Richmonder, I think it will be a while more before I stop missing Boulder and the wonderful place it is!

The longest summer...

I had to go to India for almost 2 months in very early 2010. I went from freezing winter weather in Colorado one day to the peak of summer in my home town almost over night. What I did not realize that it was not the only summer I would endure in 2010. After I came to Richmond for real (see my earlier blog), we made a trip to Colorado yet again to bring my car back. Over the memorial day weekend, my husband and I drove through 7 states; almost non stop, breaking only  for the bare essential sleep and nature calls.  We made it to Richmond in one piece 2 nights and 3 days later and  me vowing never to do such a trip again!!! The constant theme on our drive back from Colorado was the humidity in the air through the states we drove which turned out to be just my peek into the real summer I was going to face in the River City.

Summer 2010,  many Richmonders would admit has been a very harsh one even by their standards. It was long, harsh and I endured the heat and humidity and the allergy headaches (still need to find out why!) almost on a daily basis. Something to note at this point would be I was still on my break from work and trying to figure out what I wanted to do professionally! I was taking the summer off (June to Sept was going to be my time to relax!) However, me, being me, I was already starting to network in this new town and had met some executives from hi tech companies (even before I went to Colorado to bring my car back) to share details about my background. Everyone I met was quite interested in my experience and background and gave me some hopeful directions in which our discussions would proceed.

At the back of my mind, something was still holding me from being totally excited about going back to Corporate America! The adrenaline rush of deadlines, technology, working with lots of people were enticing but I was not entirely sure I wanted to continue doing it. With the long road trip, my professional transition was once again put on the back burner but not for too long... One thing that became clear  to me right after the road trip was I wanted to spend some time volunteering with an organization with our without a job in Corporate America! I had volunteered during my years in Colorado and had told myself that I would like to get a real job in a non profit organization when I grew older. My years in Colorado had gone way too fast - too many priorities and life events that did not even give me a chance to pause and take a break; let alone think about how I would start working in a non profit organization..

Summer was getting worse by the day and one weekend in early July, I made the mistake of convincing myself and my husband that we should go on a hike! It was the toughest 'easy trail' I had ever done. The humidity of walking uphill by a stream and the 100+ degree weather was too much to bear. I learned one more thing about Virginia - fall would be a better time to hike unlike in Colorado where you hike mostly in summer! GREAT! I was making progress on a different front; I was slowly starting to enjoy Richmond; especially evening walks in Cary Town. It was not Pearl Street Mall in Boulder - my favorite place in the world but it was definitely a vibrant place with interesting things happening.  The summer also provided bright blue skies and the river (every time I crossed it) was providing me with a therapeutic effect like the mountains in Colorado did.  I was actually starting to like this place although I ran the risk of definitely getting lost wherever I drove on my own :-)

It was almost end of October by the time the temperatures cooled off in Richmond and I had also made my transition to the non profit world by then.. It was the longest summer I had endured, was living in a place where I hardly knew anyone but one I hoped would shape my future and perspectives in more ways than one!!

I am in River City - for real!

Longmont, CO

Richmond, VA

Fast Forward to Spring 2010.






I flew into Richmond on a  rainy spring morning 4 days after my Big Day back home -  this time on Phase 1 of my actual relocation! My relocation itself would not be complete until the very beginning of June but atleast I had visited this place before and had been driven around the city, shown a few suburbs etc. However, everything from the names of roads to directions seemed very new and confusing to me ( I blamed my jet lag and definitely not my sense of direction or lack thereof for this :-))! On the ride from the airport, I told myself - this place should be called the Rainy City or the Cloudy City and not the River City; its either cloudy and dull or cloudy, dull and raining! The humidity and jet lag were getting to me, I was feeling pretty out of place and missing Colorado.  For the next few days, I spent getting over my jet lag and extreme tiredness and moved on Phase 2 of my relocation. I had to go back to Colorado and decide what I wanted to do with my job. I had worked out a few options in my head but on April Fools Day 2010, I informed my bosses at the company in Colorado that I had worked at for close to 9 years, a place where I had gone from being a recent grad / new employee and being bossed around by quite a few people to managing people and technology across the world; a place where I had enjoyed going to work most of the times, a place that had been kind to me most of the times, a place that had shown me its most ugly face at the lowest point in my life, a place where I made some friends for life, a place which taught me that career growth in the corporate world happens by associations as much as sheer hard work and talent, a place which made me realize that I would never belong in the old white boys club, a place which surprised me with very good bonus pay checks but a place which I felt by the time I left had a strictly one way loyalty street!! The resignation process was quick, painless and without any excitement. Infact it was so low key I almost found it surreal. I had never worked at any other place. This had been my first real job. Something inside my head was telling me at the same time that I should take a couple of months of break and then decide what I wanted to do with my career. I was back in River City a couple of days later with a suticase of mostly clothes to settle in my new home. GREAT!
The third and final phase of my relocation would happen over the Memorial Day weekend in 2010 to bring my car which was still in Colorado, so my goal till then was to take a break from work, relax and catch up on some much needed rest which I did in good proportions. But I was also getting to know the city (or not!) that would be my new home. It was a little challenging without my car but with my husband's help, his GPS and google maps, at least I was starting to know the name of the roads.
I quickly realized that directions in Richmod were very CONFUSING. Almost no roads went east - west or north-south!! Coming from a small town where pretty much every road was on a grid to this bigger city where most  roads went in all different directions,  many streets; even major ones not having a sign and the same street known by two different names depending on where you were didn't make my life easy!!! How can a gal who was brand new in the place and pretty challenged directionally make it in this city? The only good news for me was - any place I needed to reach was less than 30 min drive from where we lived!The bad news was I didn't have my car yet to actually test my knowledge of directions in this city.

Where are the mountains?!?

Just another winter day in Colorado!

My transition to the River City began in the Fall of 2009 in very unexpected ways. It still is one of the 
most interesting stories in my life! I had been on a  touristy trip to Washington DC a few years earlier and when I first knew I was  visiting Richmond, I thought - why not? After all, the place was close to DC and in my mind, I had somehow mapped Richmond as east coast !! I would realize later that it was more south than east; atleast in the pace of life , culture and history.  I had always had a little thing for living in the east coast after my trip to DC.. Call it the love for politics or love of history or just the great museums or just the pace of life I had witnessed as a tourist in DC; so when I was planning my trip to Richmond for the first time, all I could think of was - east coast!  A little reminder would serve everyone some good here.. I had spent a little more than 8 years upto that point in 2009 in a small town in beautiful Colorado. I had taken for granted snow clad mountains in winter, bright sunny days all through the year, beautiful fall colors , great spring weather and awesome hiking trips  in fall and summer. I will not take this opportunity to brag about the dry weather all year long or the fun part of a snow storm for adults - clearing up the snow from your car and driveways :-) or the popular saying in Colorado - if you dont like the weather, just look through the other window. Weather changed rapidly in Colorado!  To me, being able to see bright blue skies, mountains and vast expanses of land  every day was just something natural.. So, in the Fall of 2009 landing in Richmond, VA after almost a day long trip, it turned out to be a cold rainy Fall day in Richmond and it was dusk by the time I settled down for the day. I was truly terrified. I kept asking myself what in the world was I thinking when I agreed to move to this place, a place where there were no mountains for directions, a place where I could only see dense trees from the highways and a place that was humid and cloudy all the 3 days I spent there that weekend.. People who know me and know me well know that I am a little (read it 'very') challenged when it comes to directions and I had just about come to terms with the directions in Colorado with the help of the mountains and my GPS (my GPS losing its mind in the mountains at times and sending me in a loop is a totally different story). So, what was I going to do in a city where there were no mountains to look at ?!? I had grown up in a place in India where the town I lived in was at the foothills of a mountain range and I just was simply used to seeing mountains albeit from a distance everyday! Thus started my relocation to the River City, with me bracing  for a life without mountains in a city that would have more cloudy and humid days than I would prefer. When I left after the weekend trip, I kept telling myself that spring and summer would be perhaps better in this city.. I had just forgotten a little detail. - my sinuses flare up at the slightest increase in humidity and Richmond was a HUMID place as I would discover a few months later.