This year has been full of ups and downs for me, and I couldn't be more thankful for all that I've learnt from this. One of the biggest things I've learnt is that nothing is "perfect", and just that fact in and of itself has been a recurring theme.
One of the biggest areas in my life that this fact has continued to present itself in in my practice experience for a non-profit I work for, called 100 Strong, a leadership and mentorship program for young high school women, especially those from marginalised communities and historically disadvantaged backgrounds.. Currently, I'm in charge of all building and managing all the external relation for this organization, which extends from the relationships that we build with the schools that we partner with (which includes relationships with the principals, teachers, school counsellors and the high school students themselves) in addition to relationships with other organizations that work in similar fields or with a similar demographic of people.
Within 100 Strong, I've realised that even with the team that I'm working with and all the hard work and planning that goes into all the various aspects of our program, nothing has gone exactly to plan as we'd hoped. Whether it the DeCal within which we train all the female UC Berkeley mentors who will be working with the high school mentees in our program or the weekend intensives that we spent weeks planning for the mentees, there have been so many different things that have just come up out of the blue that we hadn't expected and couldn't have planned for until the issue itself came up.
Another example of things not going quite to plan this year has been my plan for my professional future. I came to Berkeley as a wide-eyed and (now looking back) relatively naïve freshman, I'd been looking to pursue a career in medical research. However, as time went on, I came to realise that not only was I not cut out to spend my life working a lab (minimal interactions, intense focus on a very minute aspect of science) but that I wanted my life's work to be in the field of development. the GPP minor has played a large role in this realization, and though it was not something that I had concretely known or planned to do with my time here at Cal, it has made all the difference.
This roller-coaster ride of a year has been nothing short of intense, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It's been such an eye-opening and mind-broadening experience, this year of anything but "perfect", has in its own way, been absolutely perfect.
One of the biggest areas in my life that this fact has continued to present itself in in my practice experience for a non-profit I work for, called 100 Strong, a leadership and mentorship program for young high school women, especially those from marginalised communities and historically disadvantaged backgrounds.. Currently, I'm in charge of all building and managing all the external relation for this organization, which extends from the relationships that we build with the schools that we partner with (which includes relationships with the principals, teachers, school counsellors and the high school students themselves) in addition to relationships with other organizations that work in similar fields or with a similar demographic of people.
Within 100 Strong, I've realised that even with the team that I'm working with and all the hard work and planning that goes into all the various aspects of our program, nothing has gone exactly to plan as we'd hoped. Whether it the DeCal within which we train all the female UC Berkeley mentors who will be working with the high school mentees in our program or the weekend intensives that we spent weeks planning for the mentees, there have been so many different things that have just come up out of the blue that we hadn't expected and couldn't have planned for until the issue itself came up.
Another example of things not going quite to plan this year has been my plan for my professional future. I came to Berkeley as a wide-eyed and (now looking back) relatively naïve freshman, I'd been looking to pursue a career in medical research. However, as time went on, I came to realise that not only was I not cut out to spend my life working a lab (minimal interactions, intense focus on a very minute aspect of science) but that I wanted my life's work to be in the field of development. the GPP minor has played a large role in this realization, and though it was not something that I had concretely known or planned to do with my time here at Cal, it has made all the difference.
This roller-coaster ride of a year has been nothing short of intense, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It's been such an eye-opening and mind-broadening experience, this year of anything but "perfect", has in its own way, been absolutely perfect.
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