Fellow Communication
Welcome to your ULF Dallas website! In each weekly communication, we’ll cover: Content [info you’ll need to read/know for your fellowship experience] Culture [getting to know each other and your city], and Logistics [the important information to support your transition to ULF]. The expectation is that you read through the communication posted to the site, and follow up with me, your regional director, with any questions. You can reach me at christina@urbanleadersfellowship.org and 562.477.7560. Additionally, we’ll always call out specific action items if there are any things we need you to do to ensure a smooth transition. I can’t wait to see you in just a handful of weeks!
Communication #4
Welcome to the fourth and final installment of our ULF communication! This weeks communication includes a pre-reading on career development, a pre-reading on systems leadership and a calendar for the first week. Please set out at least one full hour to prepare for our orientation on 6/11, as action items include two readings and a pre-survey. As a reminder, I'll be hosting an optional conference call tomorrow at 5:30 p.m.
Content: Career Development
In addition to the work with your partner organization and our elected official, we also build out a robust programmatic experience for our fellows because we want to make sure you leave at the end of the summer feeling like you’ve had exposure to a wide variety of people, experience and ideas! Some of these events will require you to break out of your comfort zone and network. Networking can be an intimidating thing for people, particularly those who don’t have as much experience in professional spaces. However, we’re here to tell you that networking doesn’t have to be intimidating or something to dread, and in fact your network and commitment to networking can be a force for good for yourself and others. We’ll lead a session on this in the future, but in the meantime, check out this article about “rethinking networking”.
A few questions to consider while reading:
1. How - if at all - does this change your perspective of networking?
2. Can you think of people in your network who you would consider “super connectors”?
3. When have you successfully ‘networked’ by answering the question “how can I help you?” during a meeting or at an event? How was that different than the more transactional interpretation we have of networking?
Culture: Systems Leadership
Our Fellowship will focus highly on systems leadership, and and we will think about it throughout summer. Please read this article (also attached to the email) and come prepared to discuss on our first day.
Logistics: Orientation and Week 1
Opening Day of ULF: You’ll be with our ULF team all day on Monday!
Meet: Goodwork Co at 8:30 a.m.
Address: 1808 S Good Latimer Expy, Dallas, TX 75226. If you have any trouble, please call me at 562.477.7560.
Opening Dinner - We’re excited to host you for an opening dinner with Trustee Marshall (fellows only, no guests please) at State & Allen at 5:30 p.m. We'll head over after we wrap up our orientation for the day.
*We'll visit one of the elementary schools in Dustin's district, Dan D Rogers elementary, after lunch. If you are able to volunteer as a driver, please email me to let me know.
Day 2: Start at your partner orgs in the morning, and meet me at 1:30 p.m. at Goodwork Co for afternoon programming. Everyone will start at partner organizations from 8:00 a.m.-12:00 pm. unless I have discussed an alternate schedule with you.
Please note that you will receive a detailed calendar of events for the summer at orientation, including a schedule for the week. I also will share a google calendar pre-filled with events.
Action Items:
- Networking Article: This will guide our general mindset toward interacting across partners.
- Read Systems Leadership article in preparation for orientation
- Take the ULF Pre-Survey prior to orientation (Will be sent via email)
- If you'd like to volunteer as a driver during Orientation (for a school site visit), please let me know.
- Our opening dinner on 6/11 is from 5:30-7; except to end the other days around 6:00 p.m. during our first week. Dial in: 712-775-7270; Access code: 325103.
- Call in tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. CST for a brief conference call. This is not a mandatory call, but is provided so that I can briefly discuss the start of our partner sites and answer any pending questions.
In conclusion, I can't wait to meet you all in person. Safe travels for those coming in from out of town!
Onward,
Christina
Communication 3:
Welcome to the third installment of our ULF communication. This week, we’re excited to provide a glimpse into our policy projects and jumpstart preparation for one of our site visits. Our fourth and final communication will appear next Tuesday, which will include information about our location, orientation preparation, and final logistics.
Content: Policy Projects
With the summer rapidly approaching, we’re excited to update you on the status of the 2018 policy projects. I have met with our elected official, Trustee Dustin Marshall, and we’ve identified the three policy projects you’ll work on this summer. Additionally, we've already begun to kickstart some of this work in preparation for our Fellowship.
1. Teen Pregnancy: High rates of teen pregnancy are a critical concern in Dallas. In response, there are many stakeholders who support urgent changes to current health education practices regarding safe sex. One of our policy teams will research evidence-based health education curriculum.
2. Teacher Excellence Initiative (TEI): Dallas passed the TEI to increase recruitment and retention of high quality teachers. Through the TEI evaluation process, teachers are compensated in accordance to their effectiveness on a range of factors. One of our policy groups will research the successes and challenges of TEI alongside district stakeholders (such as teachers).
3. Principal Pipeline: Our final policy group will study the current principal pipeline of DISD Principals and strategies to strengthen school leadership in DISD.
Once you arrive on site, we’ll present an overview of these projects, answer questions, and then have a process for determining the policy teams and which projects you will work on.
Culture: Site Visits
Throughout summer, we will learn from organizations through leadership site visits. You will receive a full calendar of visits during orientation, and we will visit approximately 1 or 2 organizations per week. Site and speaker visits are arranged for us to dive into questions of leadership and learn about different approaches to social impact. Thus, it is expected that Fellows visit the organization's website, complete pre-readings or videos, and create 2-3 informed questions.
As a head start, one such site visit will be with Jubilee. Please take this time to learn about Jubilee through this KERA report and the short video below. Some initial questions for consideration as you watch this video:
-What are the benefits to growing an organization deep within one community?
-What are key features of the service model which make Jubilee unique? What types of strengths or challenges might they experience as a result?
-How could Jubilee measure their impact? (Some of this information is available online; before looking at it, consider how you might decide to measure impact)
Logistics: Partner Organizations
To kickstart our Fellowship, I'll be hosting a brief and optional welcome conference call on Wednesday, June 6th at 5:30 CST. I'll be able to answer any final questions before we jumpstart the summer! I'll speak for 5-10 min minutes on partner organization projects, policies, and the first week, and then provide time for questions.
Working alongside our partners is a critical piece of our fellowship. While there are general guidelines, each project looks different. Some of our organizations have set projects, and others build projects when they bring the Fellow in. As we begin sharing project plans (or inviting you into the project planning process), communicate with me and your partner organization with any questions or concerns. For most all Fellows, you will receive direct information about your project during the first week of your work.
While we know you’re all professionals (that’s why we hired you!) we want to highlight a few reminders for interacting with partner organizations:
Please be hyper responsive. The partner organizations are the hiring managers (and contribute to your stipend) so please be sure to respond in a timely fashion (within 24 hours).
Over-Communicate. Please let me know if you've been in touch with an organization; it helps me navigate our final placement and project process and ensures timely planning.
As a reminder, if you decline a job, you are still able to apply for other jobs but we do not guarantee you a position with a paid stipend. We work hard to ensure we have enough partner organizations without over-promising to organizations we can’t match with. For that reason, it strains our relationships and planning when fellows don’t accept roles. Ultimately, it’s up to you, but we won’t be able to guarantee you a stipend if you turn down a role.
Action Items:
- Watch the video on Jubilee
- Put our (brief) conference on your calendar for June 6 at 5:30 p.m. CST: Dial in: 712-775-7270; Access code: 325103.
- Continue communicating with partner organizations as we finalize placements and projects.
- Send a quote that aligns with your work via email (if you have not yet done so)
Communications 2:
Welcome to the second installment of our ULF communication. This week, we’re excited to share some pre-work on individual development and share with you a “day in the life” and “week in the life” to help shape your understanding of the weeks ahead. Read on for all of this information. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have questions. Don’t forget to continue to be responsive to partner organizations as they reach out (and contact me immediately if you’re offered a position).
Content: Individual Development
Finding the change you seek is the cornerstone of ULF. Of course you’re going to get experience with a local organization, and you’ll definitely build your policy/organizing experience, but most importantly, we hope you leave our fellowship with clarity not about what you want to do next, but about the change that you seek. Only by having a deeper understanding of what the change is that you hope to make will you start to build a clear path forward.
Part of finding your own change is being able to identify what experiences in your life have been most formative, and what that means for your future. Being able to articulate this - through your story of self - is an important step. We’ll be working on telling the story of self this summer, but to get you thinking about, watch the first four minutes of Barack Obama’s address to the DNC in July, 2004 for one of the best examples of telling one’s own story.
While watching this video, consider the following questions:
How does then Sen. Obama tell a concise story that allows people understand him and relate to him though they’ve never met him before?
How does he make his story part of a bigger (in this case, American) story?
What parts/experiences of your life have been most formative for you?
Culture: Speaking of inspirational stories, who has inspired you? As we all get to know more about one another, please email me a quote from a role model or leader that speaks to your work, passion or mindset. These will be used later in our time together, so note that others may see this. To get this started, here's one of mine:
"Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today's mighty oak is yesterday's nut that held its ground."- Rosa Parks
Logistics: A Day in the Life, A Week in the Life
Curious about what your fellowship experience will look like? Check out this example calendar below for a sample week. We know that every week won’t look like this, but here’s a good sense of what you can expect on one of our busier weeks! Please let me know if you have questions about this.
Action Steps:
- Watch (then Senator) Obama's speech above and consider the posted questions.
- Send me a quote that speaks to your work, passion, or mindset.
- For those interviewing, thank you for your time and effort here. Reach out with any questions as they come.
Onward,
Christina
Communications 1:
Content: Welcome to ULF!
Many of you are either from or currently live in Dallas, while others are traveling from all over. I’m excited to come together and explore the city as a social impact team.
Collaboration Pre-Reading – Why Diverse Teams are Smarter
Note: if your spring is busy, you don’t need to read these now; however, all of these pre-readings are resources you’ll need to be familiar with during the fellowship so we suggest digging in now to get ahead and get a sense for what to expect.
Collaboration is one of our four competencies of the fellowship, and something we value incredibly highly. Being a part of, and eventually building and maintain high performing, diverse teams is what sets apart organizations that are good from those that are great. Additionally, it can be the critical factor to job satisfaction and result in better outcomes and impact. For that reason, we strive to ensure all our teams are high performing and hope you’ll take this summer experience forward into your future leadership roles. This article, “Why Diverse Teams are Smarter” is a text that underpins much of our organization’s approach to team development. We firmly believe that there is value in diversity, and also that “nonhomogenous teams are simply smarter.” For that reason, we ensure that all groups we bring together - whether full time hires, summer fellowships or advisory groups - represent many different viewpoints.
As you read this article, we ask you to consider the following questions:
When have you seen the benefits of diverse teams? Does it match with the research outlined in the article?
Can you think of an example where you/a team would have come to a better perspective or solution if you had had the representation of a specific viewpoint(s)?
How does this make you think differently about your current team, your summer work, or future job prospects?
Culture: Google Group (in the making), ULF Facebook, Dallas LinkedIn
Speaking of teams, check out our teammate bios posted to the site! To help us get to know each other better and to make communication easier, I’ve set up a google email listserv and LinkedIn group.
Google Group: Please accept invitations when they come as we’ll utilize the listserv to plan everything from excursions to sharing relevant information. Note: we've had a tech problem with adding non-ULF email addresses. Working to resolve as soon as possible.
ULF family (national) Facebook- connects you to all of the fellows from around the nation from the beginning of time (< request to join & we’ll approve you!)
LinkedIn: Will be used solely for career purposes. I will not post direct ULF announcements here. However, this will be useful over the summer.
These forums are yours - so please feel free to utilize them to get to know each other, ask questions and find resources as you’d like!
Logistics:
Partner org hiring process: Some of you have partners at this point; however, we are still finalizing hiring. If you do not yet have an organization, do not worry- some of our organizations are just now interviewing. Our goal is to have all fellows hired by June 1st; however, it’s common to have fellows hired closer to the start of the fellowship.
Partner Organizations will receive resumes, and determine who they would like to interview. Some POs may just want to offer you a position, while others may request one or more interviews before making an offer. Please accept all interviews within 24 hours of being contacted.
If you are offered a position by a PO and you’re excited about it, please respond within 24 hours of the offer being made, and accept it! If you are offered a position and you’re concerned about the fit, please reach out to me immediately before declining an offer. If you choose to decline an offer, ULF cannot guarantee that you will get another paid offer from a partner organizations, so we do not recommend that you do so. If you choose to decline, we will continue to support you in getting hired, but you may not be eligible for a paid position, so please keep that in mind.
Finally, please operate with a sense of urgency and respect with these partners. Many of them have worked closely with ULF & with elected officials for many years, so please remember you’re representing our organization in your interactions here. Please refrain from reaching out to partner organizations directly; they have access resumes and will reach out if they are interested in speaking with you.
Action Items:
- Read "Why Diverse Teams are Smarter"
- Apply for transitional funding if needed
- Join the ULF Facebook group and await Google Group Invite
- Should a partner organization reach out, please respond within 24 hours.
- If you're new to Dallas, check out the tourist video below (note- this is definitely a 'tourist' video)
- Housing: If you are still seeking housing per our survey, check your email!
Stay tuned for next week!
Onward, Christina