State – MIIS Experiential Learning

Empowering Work in Partnership with Local Monterey NGOs [Yanyan Wang IPD ’18]

Yanyan Wang working on her practicum project with a friend in the library.

Yanyan Wang completed a practicum project with Professor Mahabat Baimyrzaeva in her fall semester. She was consultant to two local NGOs: Monterey Museum of Art and Patron of Encinitas Park (PEP). In this article, she describes her experience and outlines what she found most beneficial from her EPL.

This EPL experience with Professor Mahabat Baimyrzaeva is to provide consulting service to two NGOs. One organization I am working with is the Monterey Museum of Art. Monterey Museum of Art is a local NGO that focuses on the region’s visual arts and demonstrates California’s vibrant and diverse spirit by connecting art and community. Together with another MIIS student consultant, I work on a group consulting project on marketing strategy for the Monterey Museum of Art. The other NGO I work with is Patron of Encinitas Park (PEP). Patron of Encinitas Park is a grassroots organization formed by local business owners and residents to support Encinitas residents and their interests in enhancing city’s parks, beaches, trails, and open spaces. Similarly, I work on a group fundraising consulting project for Patron of Encinitas Park, and I was also invited to be the grant adviser of the PEP board.

It has furthered my understanding of the knowledge we learnt in class and take it to a higher level, which enables me to better apply in my future career.

My practicum project of providing consulting services to the two NGOs is a very good practical training opportunity for me that has contributed to my education at MIIS and benefited me considerably. I have three main reasons that this opportunity has benefited me.

First, this immersive learning opportunity has enabled me to demonstrate, integrate, apply, deepen, and reflect on core competencies of my degree. It has provided me with a very good opportunity to apply what I learnt in my International Policy and Development program at MIIS to practice. It has furthered my understanding of the knowledge we learnt in class and take it to a higher level, which enables me to better apply in my future career.

Second, during my consulting service to the two NGOs , I have got the chance to partner with the other student consultants from MIIS to complete meaningful research that directly influences methodologies on marketing and fundraising of the two organizations.

Third, I have received tremendous help from my professor Mahabat Baimyrzaeva during the whole consulting project. It has improved my understanding and skills, and it is very helpful to my future career. Moreover, as a Stillwell Scholar at MIIS, I am planning to help with marketing and fundraising to increase the influence of Stillwell Scholarship and carry on the aim of the scholarship in building the relationship between China and US and between the people of the two countries. At the same time, I also want to do some work for MIIS in the future if possible. What I have learnt and practiced during this immersive learning opportunity with the Monterey Museum of Art and Patron of Encinitas Park has got me closer to these goals.

Anyway, this EPL experience is a great experience that has deepened my professional experience in consulting and has contributed to my education immensely.

Creating Opportunity for Oneself at the Monterey Bay Aquarium [Lawrence Garber IEP ’21]

Lawrence hard at work as GSRA Fellow.

Lawrence describes how he created the Global Seafood Ratings Alliance (GSRA) Fellow position at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He outlines his experience in a such a way that it assists in students to follow suit at their own organizations or opportunities. In this article, Lawrence shares what skills he leveraged and further developed to create…

A smoke infused fog blankets the sky as I reflect on the past months of learning about the realm of seafood rating organizations. While the skies over California, will hopefully clear soon, the issues plaguing our oceans and the food we harvest from them will continue to present international collective action problems.

My route to becoming the GSRA Fellow began at the end of 2019 before the world was aware that a viral pandemic was threatening to upend life as we know it. The full impact economic, social, and political impact of coronavirus may never be known, but its impact on the seafood industry and the Monterey Bay Aquarium was felt almost immediately.

As the pandemic progressed through March and into April, the Monterey Bay Aquarium made the difficult decision to lay off many of its staff members. I had been working as a volunteer for Seafood Watch, supporting staff members with their involvement with the GSRA. When the lay off was announced, my supervisor and Seafood Watch’s primary liaison to the GSRA was included. I decided to create a fellowship position in which I would take over the responsibilities as the coordinator of the GSRA. Because I had already been attending monthly GSRA meetings, I had established relationships with many of the members.

While the skies over California, will hopefully clear soon, the issues plaguing our oceans and the food we harvest from them will continue to present international collective action problems.

My work centered around administrative duties organizing monthly meetings, creating website updates, and producing social media campaigns. In June we welcomed WWF South Africa to the GSRA. I interviewed one of their program managers to create a blog post on the GSRA website announcing WWF South Africa’s entry into the group. Later in the month, I worked with staff members from Mar Viva, a seafood ratings organization based in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Panama to create a social media campaign for World Ocean’s Day.

I was able to fill a key organizational capacity need by being in the right place at the right time. The relationships I had developed over the months interacting with GSRA members gave me the trust I needed to effectively carry out the tasks of a technical coordinator.

As my time with the GSRA progressed, I realized that the organization could benefit from a continuous technical coordinator presence. From the beginning of the GSRA in 2016, members had expressed a need for this role. Various financial and organizational barriers prevented the GSRA from having a technical coordinator until I took on the role of the GSRA Fellow. I decided to write an internal memorandum summarizing my experience to the GSRA members and recommending that the fellowship position continue after I left. I was connected with an incoming MIIS IEP student and proposed that she take over my position. As I write I am in the middle of training her to succeed in the role.

Turn over presents challenges to every organization. The issue is at the heart of sustainability for all organizations. Mass layoffs during a global pandemic present both unique challenges and opportunities to an international alliance. I was able to fill a key organizational capacity need by being in the right place at the right time. The relationships I had developed over the months interacting with GSRA members gave me the trust I needed to effectively carry out the tasks of a technical coordinator. I have faith that when the smoke clears the GSRA will continue to provide a place for productive collaboration and learning for the seafood ratings industry.

Advice to MIIS Students

In my experience, people in leadership positions respect initiative. Initiative can take many forms, from offering to take meetings notes, to saying yes to a follow-up action item. These actions signal to leaders that you can be trusted and you are able to handle responsibility. I’ve reflected on these ideas through the lens of “managing up”. If you are in a junior position, it might be uncomfortable to initiate a meeting or a project. We all have some level of imposter syndrome to work through. The sooner you can recognize that and move through it, the more success you might have in completing a project. I think MIIS students should give ourselves credit for the knowledge and skills we bring from our courses of study. Our perspectives provide a fresh take for organizations that might be stuck in a specific way of thinking.

Initiative can take many forms, from offering to take meetings notes, to saying yes to a follow-up action item. These actions signal to leaders that you can be trusted and you are able to handle responsibility.

Teaching English to Community Members in Monterey [Kira Arias TESOL ’22]

Kira (top) and students warm up to discuss the simple past tense with some conversation practice.

Kira describes her volunteer position at Monterey Adult School (MAS) with English as a Second Language (ESL) courses. She outlines what she found unique about the ESL courses and how she further developed her own professional skills.

This semester, experiential professional learning funding enabled me to work in one of my ideal teaching contexts: adult English as a Second Language classes at the Monterey Adult School (MAS). My involvement there began in January of 2021 when I started volunteering as a conversation partner in one of the classes. My relationship with the instructor and students grew over the year and developed into a practicum internship starting in January of 2022. I couldn’t have been more excited to continue working with the students I already knew and apply what I was learning in my classes at MIIS to a language teaching role.

Throughout my time at MAS, I worked with speakers of Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, German, and Chinese, to name a few!

I love this language education context because it is so unique. Students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds are all in class together with a common purpose. Throughout my time at MAS, I worked with speakers of Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, German, and Chinese, to name a few! And, because the classes were on Zoom, learners could join in from anywhere– Monterey to Mexico, Florida to Georgia (the country!).

Fortunately, great challenges can lead to great learning. . . Concepts like differentiation and scaffolding went from theoretical “head knowledge” to more practical “heart knowledge” quickly, guiding me to better serve the students.

This level of linguistic diversity was also a source of great challenge. Imagine having students who just started learning English in the same class with intermediate or advanced learners! Also, even though I speak Spanish like the majority of the students, out of fairness I could not rely on it too heavily for explanations and clarifications. Fortunately, great challenges can lead to great learning. I had the opportunity to apply ideas from my classes at MIIS directly to my teaching. Concepts like differentiation and scaffolding went from theoretical “head knowledge” to more practical “heart knowledge” quickly, guiding me to better serve the students.

As this experience is coming to an end, I feel so grateful to my cooperating teacher and all of the students at MAS for allowing me to join them and for trusting me with even a small part of their education. I hope this experience was as valuable for them as it was for me in terms of preparing me for my future and showing me the joys of language learning!

Cultivating Leadership in Young Women at Monterey High [Jordyn Dezago MPA/IEM ’23]

Group picture of Girls Inc organization at Monterey High including MIIS Student Jordyn Dezago.

Group picture of Girls Inc organization with Jordyn Dezago.

Jordyn Dezago describes her mentoring work in the Girls Inc group at Monterey High. She accounts her connection and passion with education and community uplifting. Within this article, Jordyn shares an encouraging moment on the impact of mentorship with youth.

As a passionate educator and community advocate, I believe that the greatest knowledge we can pass on to young people is of the power of their own voice, and how to use it; to ask questions with confidence, and to speak out as allies and leaders in their communities. Before attending MIIS, I worked for 6 years in the field of education and youth development. Throughout my experiences as a teacher, mentor, youth soccer coach, and community advocate, I noticed a trending disparity between the confidence levels of boys, girls and nonbinary children, especially when it came to leadership. This struck me on a personal level, having experienced a lifetime of discrimination and sexism, and inspired me to pursue a career dedicated to empowering and inspiring young girls and LGBTQ youth. Girls Inc.’s mission of “inspiring all girls to be strong, smart and bold” was what drew me to join their local program at Monterey High.

As a firm believer in the importance of community-based work, I was intrigued by the Girls Inc. ECHO Leadership program because it is designed to be a youth-led model; girls that graduate from the program are then paid to become facilitators and organizers for the next cohort. My role was to support and mentor the youth leaders, while modeling leadership through the individual connections I fostered with the participants.

I suggested that the next time she blanked out in front of the group, to just admit it, smile about it, and show that it’s ok to not be perfect. “In doing so, you are rejecting the unrealistic standards of perfection that girls are so often held to, and that is more powerful than anything you could say in a presentation.”

One of the most powerful moments in my ten months working with these young women was during the first few weeks of the program, when our youth-facilitators were still getting used to presenting in front of their peers. One facilitator in particular was really struggling; every time she stood up to present, her voice shook, and she seemed to immediately forget what she wanted to say. During our post-module evaluation and discussion, she said critically, “my presentation went badly, I’m sorry everyone.”
I spoke up in disagreement, pointing out that all of the participants had given positive feedback about her presentation in their evaluations. I reminded her that we all get nervous, and that her role as a facilitator was to model humanity, self-compassion, and forgiveness for her female peers. I suggested that the next time she blanked out in front of the group, to just admit it, smile about it, and show that it’s ok to not be perfect. “In doing so, you are rejecting the unrealistic standards of perfection that girls are so often held to, and that is more powerful than anything you could say in a presentation.”
I was surprised by the vulnerability in her eyes as she smiled back at me. It was a look that said “thank you for understanding what I’m going through.” As I got to know this student, I was able to see how similar we truly were – both driven to perfection; both learning the balance between achievement and self-acceptance.

I reminded her that we all get nervous, and that her role as a facilitator was to model humanity, self-compassion, and forgiveness for her female peers.

Every day with these girls was a lesson in humility, as they taught me about their own communities, families and values. During a discussion on community impact, a rather shy student spoke up about gang violence in her community, surprising us all with her extensive knowledge of the criminal justice system. I later found out that she was already taking courses at her local college, with plans to pursue a degree in criminal justice that she would eventually use to affect change in her own community.

Needless to say, every day with Girls Inc. was as much an opportunity to learn as it was to teach. My involvement with the organization provided a hands-on framework upon which I’ve been able to apply my studies at MIIS. I have gained invaluable insight into the internal operations and structure of education-based nonprofit, including the immense benefits of an educational program that is truly youth-centered. My career goal is to work in an organization that promotes gender equity and empowers young people through comprehensive sex education. Thanks in part to my hands-on experience at Girls Inc, I have secured an opportunity with the Taiwan Gender Equity Education Association (TGEEA) in Taipei, Taiwan.

Predicting the Carmel River Ecosystem during the Pandemic and Beyond [Mariana Filip IEP ’22]

Mariana reflects on the ecological changes to the Carmel River ecosystem and its interesting history. Along with Professor Monica Galligan, Mariana is focusing on predicting how climate change will affect the Carmel River.

Abundant all along the central California coast, the otters had long been a part of the Ohlone culture. Cloaks of otter fur draped from shoulders to waist were worn in the villages and can be recognized in the earliest drawings of Native American life. The Ohlone hunted otters with snares, or with sticks when the animals ventured far from shore, an ability so at odds with the behavior of today’s otters – which seldom stray from the ocean’s edge – that some wildlife biologists dispute that this hunting method ever existed. Soon the westerners focused intently on the commerce of sea otter trade and thereby altered the ecology of the entire coast for centuries into the future.
Stephen R. Palumbi & Carolyn Sotka, The Death & Life of Monterey Bay: A Story of Revival

While standing on the beach that buffers the Carmel River Lagoon from crashing waves of Monterey Bay, one could spot a sea otter on a lucky day. Just a couple centuries ago, an individual would have been able to witness more than a single sea otter floating beyond the shoreline. The area we know as Monterey Bay was teeming with marine life for thousands of years prior to Spanish colonialism, and California’s Native Americans lived alongside the flora and fauna as sustainable stewards of both land and sea during those many centuries. Consequently, today’s bay may be a shadow of what was before the Spanish came and the generations of exploitation that followed, but its surrounding environment and its ecosystems are recovering thanks to the conservation efforts of local organizations.

The lagoon area through which the Carmel River empties out into the Pacific Ocean is home to more than a real-estate goldmine with ocean-front views: it also provides habitat for the critically endangered California red-legged frog and the steelhead trout, as well as holds great cultural significance for Ohlone Native Americans.

Down the coast from the more popular Carmel Beach, the lagoon next to the Carmel River State Beach is the site of a recent restoration project that turned artichoke farmland back into a coastal wetland, an ecosystem that is becoming increasingly rare. Current stewardship of the Carmel River Lagoon is managed by California State Parks, with lands upstream owned by the Big Sur Land Trust (BSLT). My MIIS IEP colleague Ellie Oliver and I have been working with BSLT Associate Director of Conservation, Nicole Nedeff, on a GIS project since the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns began in March 2020. In light of the pandemic, this place has proven to be an especially fascinating climate change case study within Monterey County because of the various stakeholders involved. The lagoon area through which the Carmel River empties out into the Pacific Ocean is home to more than a real-estate goldmine with ocean-front views: it also provides habitat for the critically endangered California red-legged frog and the steelhead trout, as well as holds great cultural significance for Ohlone Native Americans.

The onslaught of climate change and sea level rise further exacerbates flooding of the Carmel River Lagoon ecosystem and the surrounding residences.

However, past human development combined with the geographic nature of the lagoon has made this location prone to flooding. Flooding of the lagoon occurs seasonally, so the county must get an emergency permit to breach the dune berm that prevents the water from emptying into the ocean and re-directs the flow inland. In 1995, there was an especially serious instance that inundated the nearby commercial district and destroyed a section of the Highway 1 bridge. The onslaught of climate change and sea level rise further exacerbates flooding of the Carmel River Lagoon ecosystem and the surrounding residences.

Starting as a semester-long project for the Advanced GIS class taught by Professor Monica Galligan, our map aims to demonstrate 1) how sea level rise will affect the lagoon, and 2) which properties will be most vulnerable to future flooding events in order to reduce risks for homes and business in the lower Carmel River watershed. Going forward, I would recommend that incoming IEP students align their team projects and/or individual assignments to local NGOs or governmental bodies in order to gain both insight and professional experience. As members of the IEP MIIS community, we cannot bring back the unexploited abundance of the past, but we can make it abundantly clear that conservation and environmental justice is at the nexus of people, planet, and sea otters.

Up to Ears with Localization Work [Yan Ning, TLM ’20]

Yan Ning with peers at LocWorld booth at a conference.

Yan Ning describes her internship at local localization company, Translation by Design (TBD). She weighs the challenges and growth of her career from this experience. She concludes the article with tips for MIIS TLM students with the internship experience.

Translation By Design (TBD) is a local company located at Pacific Grove. It started as an interpretation management company and gradually evolved to a localization business as well. When I was offered the internship, TBD is struggling from new technology acquisition, new work flow set up and unprecedently large volume of localization requests. I am really glad that I get to join a company at this initial localization stage and see to establish a localization process.

Every course TLM offers is preparing us for the real professional world.

My first project is to evaluate and select a new Translation Management System for TBD. When I was taking the TMS courses at MIIS, I was a little skeptical as will I be able to use these skills in working? Well, it turns out everything we learn in the classroom is the actual skills required in professional setting. Every course TLM offers is preparing us for the real professional world.

I’ll conclude with an outline of some important tips for TLM students in preparation for their summer internships.

You might not find your dream internship, but you will in the end. Start somewhere. There is something to learn in every job, every project you work on.
You will encounter anti-mentor, you will encounter your true mentor as well. Each will teach you valuable lessons.
You don’t need to have experience to land an internship. You need to show employer that you are trainable.
Think about what you can do to add value to the team, to make your boss’s job easier.
Know what do you want to learn from this internship.

Designing Engaging Environmental Education for Children [Raqul Friedmann IEP ’19]

Raquel Friedmann while on class field trip to Carmel Beach.

Raquel Friedmann describes her internship with Carmel River Watershed Conservancy. She specifically focused on curating and teaching education materials on the environment for children. Raquel concludes on what they found most valuable in her further career development.

As an educator and an environmentalist, I strive to make nature accessible to others and integrate nature into daily experiences. Through my internship with the Carmel River Watershed Conservancy (CRWC), I was able to learn from an organization that is doing just that. Carmel River Watershed Conservancy works to, “balance environmental protection and the diverse needs of the Community. This is accomplished by exemplifying integrity, inclusiveness, education and mutual respect.”

During my internship with CRWC, I assisted with classroom education trips. This gave me more experience in the classroom executing environmental lessons. I also worked to match the existing CRWC curriculum to the California Next Generation Science Standards. This complimented previous work I’ve done with these standards while interning at Amigos de Bolsa Chica in Huntington Beach.

This was a lesson for me in selling my marketable skills and applying previous experiences to assist a new organization.

I obtained this internship opportunity through a connection with a fellow classmate that was working with them. This highlights the importance of networking to find meaningful professional experiences. Most of the projects I worked on for CRWC were related to my previous expertise. For example, the experience I had with the Next Generation Science Standards. This was a lesson for me in selling my marketable skills and applying previous experiences to assist a new organization. Overall my experience with CRWC provided me with further knowledge and development in my desired career field and will be valuable as I move forward from MIIS into the next stage of my life.

Saving a “Neat Little Butterfly” species at the Santa Lucia Conservancy [Ellie Oliver IEP ’21]

Ellie Oliver conducting the banding and release method on a Tri-colored Blackbird.

Ellie Oliver conducted research in association with Santa Lucia Conservancy. First, she describes her takeaways from her experience. Then, she provides excerpts from her research report.

Personal Experience

Experiential Professional Learning (EPL) funding allowed me to pursue an internship with the Santa Lucia Conservancy, and work on a project to help in the conservation and management of a tiny endemic and endangered butterfly. The project required many hours in computer land, and some tedious data and file management! Fortunately I was able to sort through the data they had and put together updated range maps that will help the Conservancy make land management decisions that might affect the butterfly’s host plant.

My work also helped prepare for creating a habitat suitability model to predict where more colonies of the butterflies might be found. Though my supervisor and I underestimated how much data organizing needed to be done, I am confident that my work was useful and I’m proud of what I accomplished. This was professionally rewarding as I was able to hone my skills with GIS while learning about and contributing to the conservation of a neat little butterfly.

I’m a bird nerd, so the most fun outing was trapping and banding the endangered tri-colored blackbirds!

It was also personally rewarding because I was able to help the Conservancy with several field projects, which meant I got to be out in nature! I participated in pond surveys (up to my chest in pond muck counting tadpoles) and raptor surveys (find and ID as many of the awesome predators as I can!). I’m a bird nerd, so the most fun outing was trapping and banding the endangered tri-colored blackbirds! Overall this experience taught me the importance of patience with technology, a good file management system, and the importance of taking time to be outside in nature.

Research Excerpts

Introduction

The Santa Lucia Preserve is a 20,000 acre conservation community, where the initial sale of high-end real estate paid for the protection and conservation of a pristine section of central California’s unique biome. The Santa Lucia Conservancy is the non-profit land trust created to manage the wildlands and conservation easements within the preserve, and is responsible for management and conservation projects on approximately 18,000 acres. In addition to the human residents, the preserve is home to a myriad of creatures large and small, rare and common. One such animal is easily overlooked, but is especially rare and is the focus of this study: a tiny blue butterfly.

Smith’s Blue Butterfly Euphilotes enoptes smithi is endemic to the central California coast; its entire known range is about 80 miles of coastline from Monterey Bay to Northern San Luis Obispo County.¹ This tiny butterfly, with a wingspan of less than 1 inch, is entirely dependent on two species of buckwheat plants: Coast Buckwheat (Eriogonum latifolium) and seacliff buckwheat (Eriogonum parvifolium). These plants are utilized by the females for oviposition and also provide food for larvae and adults.² While all Smith’s Blue Butterfly colonies depend on buckwheat, not all buckwheat colonies host the butterfly. Buckwheat conservation is key to protecting the endangered Smith’s Blue, and the buckwheat face threats from coastal development, introduction of invasive plant species, and fire suppression activities.

. . .

Management Recommendations

The map products showing all known or suspected buckwheat stands within the Santa Lucia Preserve should be consulted before any land management decision is made that may impact the plants and their butterfly residents. For example, fire-breaks are often cut via bulldozer in preparation for fire-season or for emergency wildfire management. Quick decisions need to be made about the best locations for these vast disturbances, and the map of known or likely buckwheat locations should be used to plot fire-breaks that result in minimal damage to the plants. Since buckwheat evolved with California’s historic fire regime, fire itself is unlikely to be as damaging (and may even be beneficial) to the plants, while the bulldozer’s impact is greater and more devastating. An accurate map of buckwheat locations could allow for natural studies of post-fire recovery of the buckwheat and butterflies when/if fires do occur on the Preserve. Additionally, prescription burns are likely to be a component of pre-fire season preparation on the Preserve, and careful consideration of buckwheat locations and response to fire should be part of any prescriptive fire burn plan.

. . .

Reflecting on Transformative Experience of Middlebury Social Impact Corps [Adam Schreiber MPA ’20 and Emily Hoang MPA/IEM ’20]

Middlebury Social Impact Corp cohort and staff in 2019.

2019 Cohort

2019 Cohort and Staff

Adam and Emily reflect on their personal experiences in the Middlebury Social Impact Corp (MSIC). Each writer discusses what they found most challenging, their favorite components of the program, and how they further developed their policy and communication skills.

Adam Schreiber

My internship with Middlebury Social Impact Corps was a unique learning opportunity in many ways. Along with the rest of the six-person cohort, I had the chance to travel throughout Monterey County, making personal connections with many local leaders as well as “typical” community members. I enjoyed being able to learn about my immediate surroundings and the community that I currently call home while also gaining valuable experience in leading and managing a team. Because of the ambiguity that our cohort faced throughout the summer, we had to adapt to new information every day and adjust our strategies accordingly.

It was often challenging to discern how to allocate our time for maximum impact, however we gradually became more comfortable in taking initiative and pursuing opportunities as they presented themselves. Perhaps one of our biggest accomplishments as a group was the extent to which we navigated that uncertainty by proactively identifying opportunities to move the work forward. Each member of the team was able to provide input on key group decisions and there was ample opportunity for individuals to pursue aspects of the work that they found particularly interesting.

Perhaps one of our biggest accomplishments as a group was the extent to which we navigated that uncertainty by proactively identifying opportunities to move the work forward.

I appreciate that my work this summer allowed me an inside look at community collaboration and informed my understanding of Collective Impact. I have continued to work with United Way in supporting Impact Monterey County’s 2019 assessment and look forward to contributing to the next phase of the project.

I was very impressed with the undergraduate interns in our cohort, both by their overall competence and ability to work collaboratively on a daily basis. I enjoyed the mentorship aspect of the internship and feel as though I learned a lot from the experience of leading and supporting the undergraduates.

The role required constant communication and role-sharing between my MIIS partner and I, which was certainly challenging at times. However, I think that we worked effectively as a pair and complemented each other well in terms of interests and skills that we brought to the team.

Emily Hoang

Summer 2019 was the first time MSIC had partnered with United Way Monterey County (UWMC). As an inaugural program, we did not have the benefit of previous cohorts’ experiences to rely on. While this gave us the freedom to create our own orientation and on-boarding process for our cohort, it also left us with the heavy responsibility of ensuring that we properly introduced the cohort to Impact Monterey County, the county itself, and the expectations for our work and roles moving forward.

We constantly questioned how best to lead the cohort in the face of “ambiguity”. As leaders of the cohort, we emphasized open communication from the beginning and strove for transparency as we navigated confusion at different stages in the project. Because we did not have pre-determined tasks to complete, approaches to abide by, or guides to follow, our work over the summer took shape day by day as we responded to new information and shifting priorities. This adaptive approach required daily conversations within the cohort to determine how best to move forward and contribute most effectively to the IMC assessment.

That ambiguity necessitated a level of communication and adaptability that brought us closer together as a cohort while also teaching some important lessons about the realities of professional work environments.

It is worth mentioning that ambiguity throughout the experience was connected to some positive outcomes, both personally for cohort members as well as collectively. That ambiguity necessitated a level of communication and adaptability that brought us closer together as a cohort while also teaching some important lessons about the realities of professional work environments.

Learn More about 2019 Cohort

Finding Eureka Moments Motivates One Further in their Challenging Practicum [Morgan Moore MPA/IT ’22]

Monterey Bay boardwalk, credit to Meritt Thomas on Unsplash

Morgan shares her setbacks and successes within completing her practicum for the Impact Monterey County. She concludes the article with valuable tips for future MIIS students completing a practicum.

Completing my Practicum project was one of the most challenging tasks I’ve ever taken on. I am thankful to my Practicum professor, Dr. Mahabat Baimyrzaeva, and Kalyssa King at Impact Monterey County for their guidance and support throughout the entire learning journey. My learning journey was not at all linear or easy.

These “eureka!” moments, which were both liberating and frustrating, caused me to refine and sharpen the initial goals and objectives of my project.

At several times in the development of my deliverable, I found myself going back and metaphorically retracing my steps to an earlier step that was evolving and being reshaped by new knowledge. These “eureka!” moments, which were both liberating and frustrating, caused me to refine and sharpen the initial goals and objectives of my project. Overall, I found the project enlightening.

I realized that I have issues with the iterative nature of applied learning. The iterative nature of the work requires patience and trust in the process which I admittedly struggle with. However, I did enjoy the feeling of co-creation with my client, that we were both excited by the twists and turns the assignment entailed. To summarize my reflection I want to give some tips to future Practicum students on how to get the most out of their experience:

Find an accountability partner. This stretches beyond the basic requirement of peer feedback and enables you to rely on and be accountable to someone other than Maha for meeting your milestones and deadlines. You could schedule Pomodoro study sessions with this person or ask them the “stupid questions.” You can bounce ideas off of them and experiment. The person does not have to have a similar project as yours — just the motivation to deliver a high quality product!
Take advantage of office hours with Maha early on in the semester. I fell into the trap of waiting until my project was in good shape (nearly perfect even!) to schedule a one-on-one meeting with Maha. Well, my project never got to that point and it was April; I’d made a huge mistake waiting so long without getting feedback on my processes! I regret waiting to reach an unrealistic, imaginary goal to talk with my Practicum professor and discuss my progress/room for improvement. I think about what my process/my project could have been had I just reached out sooner and scheduled some time. Nevertheless, I am still proud of my deliverable and am thankful that Maha was able to turn me around in such a short amount of time. But don’t do what I did! Don’t wait!
Trust the process. The twists, the turns, the sudden plummeting drops, everything! All the experiences, both the good and the bad, but especially the bad, are intended to make you a better development professional down the road. Exercise patience and gratitude. Ask questions without the answers already in mind. Extend grace.

Good luck to future Practicum students and congratulations on your learning journey!