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At the Intersection of Federal Policy and Direct Service: the FAFSA

A large part of my Fellowship has been working with students to complete the Federal Application For Student Aid or the FAFSA. Each year, students come to FAFSA sessions with dozens of questions about how to complete one of the most daunting forms of the college process. Most often these are students with unique family circumstances such as those with appointed guardians, fellow dependents that aren’t siblings, and parents who they may not have contact with. There is space in the form to explain these circumstances but it’s easy to miss, and a misclick can force a student to have to submit a correction, which can cause hiccups in aid.

As I’ve learned more about the FAFSA, I’ve learned about how it has changed over the years. In response to a lot of activism and legislative action, the form itself has become more streamlined and user friendly for both students and colleges. However, there is still a lot of work to be done surrounding the federal aid that is offered to students. Most recently, there has been a push by a coalition of higher education organizations–known as the Pell Alliance–to double one of the most important aspects of the federal student aid: the Pell Grant.

As I watch the students I serve apply to and progress through college, it becomes more and more clear to me that one of the biggest barriers to college access is figuring out how to pay the bill, rather than acceptance itself.

The Pell Grant can currently give up to $6,495 of aid, which does not have to be paid back, to low income college students. For some, this is a major part of their financial aid package, if not their only source of grant aid. Any change in the grant would need to go through federal legislative bodies to be included in the higher education budget. If included in the funding plans for federal higher education programs, doubling the Pell would bring the maximum grant awarded to $13,000. Additionally, the Pell Alliance is asking for the program to be extended to DREAMers and restore lifetime eligibility to 18 semesters of aid, rather than the 12 currently allowed. These changes would effectively extend the reach of the program, providing students who would normally have to take on many loans the chance to graduate with little to no debt.  

As I watch the students I serve apply to and progress through college, it becomes more and more clear to me that one of the biggest barriers to college access is figuring out how to pay the bill, rather than acceptance itself. Doubling the Pell Grant would allow so many students I serve access to the funds they need and allow them to focus on school rather than finances. Additionally, $6,500 more could be the difference between graduating with or without debt. Being student-centered is one of the most important values at Breakthrough Greater Boston, and a change like this could vastly improve the lives of our students. This work has added so much passion behind a monotonous task like filling out the FAFSA, and given me opportunities to learn about and understand my work more deeply. 

 A lot of my learning as a Fellow has been practical, developing key skills that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. However, staying up to date on federal and state trends has taught me that college access work extends beyond what I do at the office. The educators, counselors, and supporters of the Double Pell movement are going beyond direct service, to address root causes of student barriers. Following the activism of the Pell Alliance has shown me the role that the federal government can play in educating the youth of our nation, and I will continue to support the progress of the Double Pell change as it moves through the legislative process. 

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Serena Salgao

Serena Salgao

Serena Salgado (she/her) is the College Success and Alumni Support FAO Schwarz Fellow at Breakthrough Greater Boston in Boston, MA.

Photo by Romain Dancre on Unsplash.

Logos of the 7 new host organizations for the 2022-2024 cohort, from left to right. Top row: NYC Audubon, The Clay Studio, Breakthrough Greater Boston. Bottom row: the Museum of the City of New York, Audubon Mid Atlantic, The Food Project.

FAO Schwarz Family Foundation Announces Hosts for Seven New Fellowships

BOSTON, MA. November 1, 2021 — The FAO Schwarz Family Foundation has selected six social impact organizations to host the 2022-2024 cohort of FAO Schwarz Fellows.

The Foundation will sponsor seven two-year Fellowships in social impact at six nationally recognized nonprofits. The organizations selected this year are Audubon Mid Atlantic (Philadelphia), The Clay Studio (Philadelphia), The Food Project (Boston),  Museum of the City of New York (New York City), and NYC Audubon (New York City). Each will host one new FAO Schwarz Fellowship position. The sixth host, Breakthrough Greater Boston, will host two positions in Boston. 

In the wake of the pandemic and social unrest, many nonprofits around the country are engaged in radically rethinking their work and how they deliver their services from an equity, diversity and inclusion framework,

The Fellowships are two-year paid positions that develop the leadership skills of recent college graduates interested in pursuing careers related to social change. From education in culture to education in conservation, from food insecurity to college access, from small and newer organizations to the larger and well-established, the diversity of organizations selected as hosts will provide the next cohort with a comprehensive view of the social impact landscape.

 “Developing young leaders is more important than ever.  In the wake of the pandemic and social unrest,  many nonprofits around the country are engaged in radically rethinking their work and how they deliver their services from an equity, diversity and inclusion  framework,” said Priscilla Cohen, Executive Director of the FAO Schwarz Family Foundation. “At the same time, we know graduating seniors have had their educational experiences disrupted and face a tumultuous job market. We’re grateful we can provide talented future leaders with a paid professional experience—and a front-row seat to what we think will be an incredibly dynamic period of intense social change.”

 

The Fellows’ dedication to social change serves as an inspiration to hosts.  “Hosting FAO Schwarz Fellows has energized our team and pushed us to regularly ask ourselves where and how we can continue to learn and grow.  Their thoughtful ideas, willingness to innovate, and passion for impacting the world around them has enriched our organization as a whole,” said Amee Naik, Managing Director of College Access & Success with Breakthrough Greater Boston, which has hosted two Fellows in the past and is hosting two Fellowships for this short.

A first-time host, The Clay Studio is equally enthusiastic about hosting a Fellow.  “A commitment to community, learning, and social change is built into The Clay Studio’s DNA, so hosting a Fellow feels like a perfect fit. We hope this opportunity can be a stepping-stone for a recent graduate who is considering a nonprofit career,” said Carin Sankus, Education Manager with TCS.

Another first-time host, Suzanne Biemiller, Executive Director of Audubon Mid Atlantic shares, “The FAO Schwarz Fellowship will help Audubon expand its reach in Philadelphia. We cannot wait to have another enthusiastic staff person on board, bringing with them new ideas and perspectives.”

Host organizations also appreciate the value of increased organizational capacity that comes with hosting a Fellow, and use it as an opportunity to expand their service. Anne Hayes, Executive Director of The Food Project,  said “This Fellow will play a critical role in sustaining and expanding The Food Project’s food access initiatives, empowering the next generation of leaders, and help us to achieve our mission of ensuring everyone has access to fresh, healthy, affordable food.” 

Executive Director at NYC Audubon, Kathryn Heintz, makes a similar point. “We are eager to participate in this program to develop future social impact leaders, as well as to boost our capacity to inspire a new generation of advocates for conservation.”

Returning host, the Museum of the City of New York, has a long legacy of Fellows. “We remain honored that the Museum of the City of New York has been selected as a  host organization of a FAO Schwarz Fellow for the 2022-2024 cohort,” said  Whitney W.  Donhauser, Ronay Menschel Director & President at the Museum of the City of New York.  “For the many years we have been fortunate enough to host a FAO Schwarz Fellow, the  Museum has witnessed first-hand the enormous impact the Fellows have had on our  programming for students, families, and teachers. We are grateful to the Foundation for  this opportunity to continue to serve New Yorkers through this work.” 

Creating Future Impact Leaders

The FAO Schwarz Fellowship program is looking forward to welcoming its 16th cohort.  Since its founding in 2006, there have been 65 FAO Schwarz Fellows. Nearly 60  percent have gone on to graduate programs, 38 percent have been hired by their host organizations, and 98 percent continue to work in the social impact sector.

How to Apply 

The Fellowship is highly selective. To apply for the Fellowship, applicants must be college seniors at the time of application and eligible to work for two-years in the United States. Successful candidates will have strong academic records, leadership potential, and a commitment to social impact. The application deadline for the 2022-2024 cohort is February 10, 2022 (11:59 pm EST). The Fellowships are paid two-year full-time positions and include benefits.

Visit the FAO Schwarz Fellowship website for more information.

ABOUT THE 2021-2023 HOST ORGANIZATIONS

Audubon Mid-Atlantic’s mission is to protect the places that people and birds need today and tomorrow, through science, advocacy, education, and on-the-ground conservation.

The Clay Studio is committed to ensuring the space, support, and inspiration necessary for expression and mastery in the ceramic arts.

Breakthrough Greater Boston inspires excitement for learning, creates paths to college, and promotes careers in education.

The Food Project’s mission is to create a thoughtful and productive community of youth and adults from diverse backgrounds who work together to build a sustainable food system. 

The Museum of the City of New York fosters understanding of the distinctive nature of urban life in the world’s most influential metropolis. It engages visitors by celebrating, documenting, and interpreting the city’s past, present, and future.

New York City Audubon is a grassroots community that works for the protection of wild birds and habitat in the five boroughs, improving the lives of New Yorkers. We envision a day when birds and people in the five boroughs enjoy a healthy, livable habitat.

ABOUT THE FAO SCHWARZ FELLOWSHIP

The FAO Schwarz Fellowship is an intensive, transformative two-year experience in the world of social change designed to develop the knowledge and leadership potential of recent college graduates interested in careers in social impact.

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Clara working on her laptop at her desk

Learning from COVID-19 at Reading Partners

One of the most exciting parts of my fellowship right now is the opportunity to participate in summer strategic planning for the upcoming academic year. As a rising second-year fellow, I’ve had one year to learn the ropes at Reading Partners and play an integral role in the adjustments we made to transition our previously in-person tutoring program to an entirely virtual model. Last year was tough: we had to figure out how to manage tutor expectations and effectively communicate uncertainty, support tutors in learning a new virtual platform, and change several of our processes to adjust for the fact that location is irrelevant when tutoring online. Our task now is to take all of our learnings from the past year and make improvements across all areas of our operations that will set us up for success in this upcoming school year which is proving to be just as unpredictable as the last. In this blog, I’ll share some of the issues we are working to tackle this summer!

Communications

Communicating nuanced plans to stakeholders in the midst of uncertainty is hard. There’s just so many unknowns, last year and this year. Last year, we spent the year gradually pushing back the date of a possible in-person start. We also told tutors that they would start sooner than they actually did (due to delays in student enrollment), and continued to ask them to wait patiently. This year, we’re going to stick with planning virtual tutoring until we know more. Once again, we’re asking tutors for their flexibility and patience and not making premature promises of in-person engagement and tutoring start dates. We’re so grateful for the support of our amazing tutors!

Tech Tutors

Switching to online programming inevitably presents tech challenges, especially for some of our older adult volunteers. Last year, I developed our tech tutor program, where I worked with some of our federal work study college students to organize a system where they could provide one-on-one tech support to tutors that needed it. This year, I’m trying to formalize the tech tutor training: tech tutors need absolute expertise in all technical elements of our system (trust me, there’s a lot of things that can go wrong), as well as training on how to coach others on tech. I’m also working to streamline the scheduling and booking process by which tech tutors provide their availability and tutors book slots. We use a very helpful website called Calendly to allow tutors to select the time that works for them. Calendly then sends out an automated confirmation email and a reminder email before the session that includes the zoom link. We are so grateful to our tech tutors for making online tutoring possible!

How do we accurately show remaining availability for tutors that tutor many hours a week? How do we manage data when some tutors are placed at multiple schools? How do we prioritize which tutors get scheduled?

Tutor Availability

One of the trickiest challenges we have is making sure we are collecting tutor availability in a way that is efficient, clear, and most of all beneficial to our students’ needs. If we have 1,200 students that need tutors and 1,200 tutors ready to tutor, that’s great, but it only works if the tutors can tutor when the students are available. On my team, we’re finding new ways to identify when students will need tutors by tracking enrolled students’ availability in our school center schedules, and using our data system and anecdotal info from our program managers to predict when students that are currently being enrolled will be available. We’re using a new Google Form to collect tutor availability, which allows us to receive their availability into one big spreadsheet, and adjust the Google Form week to week to indicate to tutors what our highest need times are.

Tutor Scheduling

One of the benefits of switching to virtual tutoring is that all tutors can tutor at any school (for example, a tutor that lives in the Bronx can tutor a student in Bed-Stuy). This means we don’t have to deal with shortages of tutors in specific neighborhoods, and tutors with very limited availability have lots of schools they can be placed with. To adjust to this new reality, we switched mid-year to a system that allows any tutor to be scheduled anywhere instead of having separate pipelines for each neighborhood. Right now, I’m working on optimizing this system to minimize things that were tricky last year: how do we accurately show remaining availability for tutors that tutor many hours a week? How do we manage data when some tutors are placed at multiple schools? How do we prioritize which tutors get scheduled?

To conclude, I’m excited for another dynamic year at Reading Partners and grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given to be a leader on our regional team in these areas. COVID-19 has caused every organization to adapt, and with change comes first challenge, then learning, and now growth and improvement!

Clara Monk

Clara Monk

Clara (she/her) is a Fellow on the Community Engagement Team at Reading Partners in New York City.

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Breaking the Digital Ice: Creative Approaches to Community Engagement

When I submitted my FAO Schwarz Fellowship application in February 2020, how could I have predicted that the world would become unrecognizable in just four short weeks? Graduating college, starting a full-time job, and moving to a new city are not easy feats, pandemic or not. Under normal circumstances, I would have walked across astage in May to receive my degree. I would have visited the city wherein I’d received a job offer–before accepting the offer.

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Crises and Creativity: What we can learn from 2020

At Jumpstart, we emphasize the importance of young children’s capacity to learn during those critical early years, when their minds are flexible and open to new experiences. As adults, it can be easy to settle into our patterns and believe that our time to learn and change has passed. The pandemic has affected every aspect of my work and personal life, but rather than focus on the way things haven’t gone according to plan, I’m considering the ways my perspective has changed.

At the end of my fellowship, I’m thinking about how I can continue to challenge my expectations, habits, and ideas, even after leaving the crisis-mode of this past year.

I remember the dread throughout the nonprofit and education world as we entered the pandemic last spring. Without in-person classes, how could students learn effectively? Without in-person services, would families fall through the cracks? Before there was time to conduct research, we began planning how to address the expected learning loss. When things go sideways, it’s easy to catastrophize, freeze, and just wait for things to go back to normal.

Unimaginable events can lead to previously unimagined (or unimplemented) ideas. Knowing this, I hope to hold onto the mindset that every person or system still has a huge potential for growth.

At Jumpstart, once we realized that “normalcy” would never return, the work of redesigning programs for a virtual setting began. Tech averse folks (like me), had to let go of our resistances and become fluent in virtual platforms. Rather than create a temporary replacement for traditional community engagement, we were able to develop something new. Over the summer, I worked with Jumpstart volunteers who created astounding educational videos for children. Throughout the year, I collaborated with the Reads Alliance in Brooklyn and Queens to host trilingual Zoom events that often gathered nearly one hundred attendees and distributed hundreds of book kits. Although the in-person interaction was missing, we were able to create entirely different experiences. Virtual engagement gave us the ability to have translators for multiple languages, host guest speakers who live across the world, and connect with families who may not have had the time to travel to a traditional event.

This is not to force a silver lining onto a year that was devastating and traumatic, but to point out how the learning potential we see in children still exists in adults and organizations. Unimaginable events can lead to previously unimagined (or unimplemented) ideas. Knowing this, I hope to hold onto the mindset that every person or system still has a huge potential for growth, even though they may have exited that “critical period.” I hope that we can carry forward the innovations that have stemmed from this disaster, along with a new openness to adaptation. I’m excited to return to seeing children and families in-person, to have the side conversations and irreplaceable interactions, and I’ll bring a new sense of resourcefulness and creativity with me.

Meredith Jones

Meredith Jones

Meredith Jones (she/her) is the Policy and Community Impact Fellow Jumpstart for Young Children in New York City.

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Photo Raul PetriUnsplash

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Tips on Applying For The FAO Schwarz Fellowship

When I was in college, I went to every single event my career center offered: resume writing workshops, interviewing seminars, you name it, I was there. Coming from a low-income background, much of the academic or non-profit sector felt foreign to me, including applying to jobs and fellowships after college. I learned a lot of useful things in those sessions, but what was particularly surprising was how many of those things I would have never thought of on my own. Below are some of the things that helped me the most in applying for the FAO Schwarz Fellowship, in hopes they might help you, too.

Is the Position a Good Fit?

After you read through the job descriptions on the FAO Schwarz Fellowship webpage, which are announced on November 1, you should check out the host organization’s websites. Click around the different pages and ask yourself some questions about what you find there.

Here are some useful questions that I asked myself before applying to the FAO Schwarz Fellowship at the Museum of the City of New York:

  • What is the mission of this organization?
  • How does this mission align with my values?
  • What type of work does this organization do with its community?
  • Is this the type of work I am excited to do?
  • What skills might I learn working at this organization?
  • What is the size of this organization? Is it local, or national
  • Do I have a preference?
  • Who staffs this organization?
  • What is the relationship between the staff and the community they serve?

In addition to these questions, you should take note of anything that catches your eye—something you like or dislike—that you find on the organization’s website.

 

Putting Together a Resume

The best piece of advice I ever received about resumes is to have one master resume, and create job-specific resumes for each application you submit. The master resume is one resume that has every job, project, internship, scholarship, prize, fellowship, and more, from your life. Under each of these experiences, list all the responsibilities you had, skills you used, and tasks you accomplished during that experience. 

When it comes time to apply to the FAO Schwarz Fellowship—or any job, really—pick out which of those experiences you want to highlight, ones that best demonstrate what you would bring to the position you are applying for. When selecting what responsibilities and skills from each experience to include, find the ones that most closely align with the responsibilities listed on the webpage for the specific host organization’s job description. For each item listed on your resume, ask yourself “does this show someone who has not met me what important skills and experience I would bring to this fellowship?” If not, rephrase so that it does, or replace it with something that shows your qualifications for the FAO Schwarz Fellowship specifically.

In many interviews, you will be asked to talk about a challenge you’ve encountered and how you worked through it. This is not a question for humility.

Writing a Cover Letter

The reason I find cover letters daunting is because they’re a prospective employer’s first impression of me. How do you condense your entire person into a page? 

The short answer is: you don’t. Like a resume, a cover letter isn’t a comprehensive story of who you are as a person, your accomplishments, talents, or strengths. It isn’t even a complete list of all the reasons you might be a great fit for the FAO Schwarz Fellowship.

Instead, you should aim for your cover letter to highlight a few of the most valuable skills and experiences you would bring to the fellowship.

Here is how I worked on my cover letter for the fellowship:

First, I looked at the responsibilities listed under the special project and direct service work sections on the FAO Schwarz Fellowship at MCNY page on the Fellowship website. For each bullet point, I came up with one thing about myself that demonstrated why I would excel in that responsibility—this could be coursework, volunteer experience, previous work experience, a personal project, or something else.

After I had my list, I picked 3-4 of them, and focused on those in my cover letter. When talking about each experience, I made sure to explicitly describe how it would help me with the specific responsibility in the Fellowship role (e.g. “The skills I gained from working as a volunteer tutor will be invaluable as I teach museum field trips and create family programs”).

In addition to these tips, you should be sure to answer all three questions asked of you for the FAO Schwarz Fellowship. You can use your 3-4 experiences to weave in your answers to these questions, too.

Interviewing

Finally, here are some things that I learned from my college career center that were very useful in the interview process:

Pre-planned Talking Points. Working with your cover letter, come up with a few experiences or qualities about yourself that you are sure you would like to talk about. Look up some standard interview questions and think through how those experiences or qualities could be the starting point for answering these questions. This was a huge relief for me when interviewing—when asked a question in the interview, I already had a planned menu of experiences to choose from when deciding what to talk about. One less thing to worry about!

Come up with a Good Challenge. In many interviews, you will be asked to talk about a challenge you’ve encountered and how you worked through it. This is not a question for humility. Even though it seems like a question that is asking you to talk about your flaws, use this as an opportunity to talk yourself up! Pick a challenge where you problem-solved effectively, one that the resolution is one that you’re proud of.  

Open-Ended Questions. Come to the interview with 3 open-ended questions you have about the host organization. An open-ended question is one that requires more than a sentence to answer. In most job interviews, the interviewer will ask you if you have any questions for them. Always say yes. This shows your excitement for the job and is a way to demonstrate the research you’ve done about the host organization.

The Follow Up Email. After your interview (on the same day or the following day), write a personalized thank you email to your interviewer. Thank them for their time, and express how much you enjoyed hearing about the host organization.

I hope that you found some of these tips helpful, and best of luck in your application process! If you have any questions, attend one of our info sessions, AMAs, or reach out to contact@faoschwarzfellowship.org!


Charlotte Blackman

Charlotte Blackman

Charlotte (she/her or they/them) is an FAO Schwarz Fellow at the Museum of the City of New York.

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Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

Black tiles with white letters spelling out Work From Home on a brown background

Becoming a Young Professional During a Pandemic: One Year In

When I applied to the FAO Schwarz Fellowship in the winter of 2020, life was different. I submitted my application before heading over to a friend’s house to have a gathering of 15+ people, no masks involved. In late February and early March, as I was interviewing for my position, sanitizing surfaces was a new normal, but still, I did video calls from a classroom at Northwestern, not knowing that I wouldn’t return for a spring quarter. 
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A blue graphic with yellow text announcing: The 2021-2023 FAO Schwarz Fellows. Across the middle of the graphic are pictures of fellows with their names and host organizations. From left to right: Nia Atkins at Year Up, Kendyl Boyd at the Barnes Foundation, Jasmin Norford at Jumpstart NYC, Ryan Telingator at Jumpstart Boston, Ciera Martin at Mighty Writers, and Kira Azulay at the Museum of Science

Foundation Announces 2021 FAO Schwarz Fellowship Recipients 

BOSTON — MAY 7, 2021. The FAO Schwarz Family Foundation has announced the names of the six recipients of the 2021 FAO Schwarz Fellowship in social impact.

Each year, the Foundation supports six new outstanding recent college graduates with paid, two-year Fellowship positions at leading nonprofit organizations in three cities. Alumni of the Fellowship program regularly go on to hold leadership roles at nonprofit or public service organizations and programs. The prestigious Fellowship is one of a few programs of its kind focused on social impact leadership.

In Boston, the new Fellows are Ryan Telingator (Cambridge, MA), a government and legal studies major and sociology minor from Bowdoin College and Kira Azulay (Austin, TX)  a Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies major and museum studies minor from the University of Texas, Austin. Ryan will be at Jumpstart Boston and Kira will be the Fellow at the Museum of Science Boston.

In New York City, Jasmin Norford (Suwanee, GA), a graduate of Vanderbilt University and an English and philosophy major with a minor in Brazilian studies, will work at Jumpstart New York, and Nia Atkins (North Attleboro, MA), a political science major from Columbia University, will be at Year Up.

Kendyl Boyd (Teaneck, NJ), an art education major from Moore College of Art and Design will join the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia for her Fellowship. The second Philadelphia Fellow is Ciera Martin (Philadelphia, PA), an English major and writing minor from Penn State, who will be the FAO Schwarz Fellow at Mighty Writers.

The Fellowship program seeks recent college graduates interested in developing their potential as leaders in the world of equity and social impact. The program provides each Fellow with a two-year paid position at a leading nonprofit host organization where they gain skills, expertise, and knowledge. The Fellowship also includes professional development experiences such as retreats, mentoring and networking.

“The Foundation works closely with select host organizations to design high-quality, transformative experiences that develop our Fellows’ leadership skills,” said Priscilla Cohen, Executive Director of the FAO Schwarz Family Foundation. “We’re incredibly impressed with this next cohort and their dedication to social equity. We look forward to watching them grow into social impact leaders.”

CONTACT:

contact@faoschwarzfellowship.org
Faoschwarzfellowship.org

ABOUT THE 2021-2023 HOST ORGANIZATIONS

The Barnes Foundation is a nonprofit cultural and educational institution in Philadelphia, and its mission is to promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture.
 
Jumpstart provides language, literacy, and social-emotional programming for preschool children from under-resourced communities and promotes quality early learning for all.
 
Mighty Writers’ mission is to teach Philadelphia students to think and write with clarity so they can achieve success at school, at work and in life 
 
One of the world’s largest science centers and New England’s most highly attended cultural institution, the Museum of Science engages its audiences in STEM education through exhibits, in-person and digital education programs, and curricula.
 
Year Up seeks to close the Opportunity Divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experiences and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education.
An infographic about a Community Building method designed by FAO Fellow Lex Brown. The graphic's title is Building Community, The "ICE FARM" Approach by lex brown. The graphic is organized by the letters of ICEFARM with a step based on each letter. I- Individualization: Over time, get to know each person and their unique context. C- Consistency and Clear communication: Remember key details and reach out in ways that resonate with both the messenger and receiver. E- Explicit Ecosystem of expectations: Know what we need of others, know what is needed of us, and know how these needs are interconnected. F- Follow up/through: Be faithful to our word and acknowledge when needs aren't being met. A-Accountability: Make demonstrated effort to be accountable in action to those in our community. R- Respect for each other's humanity: Hold and honor community members as full humans with capacity for growth. M- Mutuality: Others must demonstrate a willingness and ability to enthusiastically build and maintain.

Building Community: the ICE FARM Approach

Since I was young, building community has been noted as one of my strengths. However, having my fellowship experience at Breakthrough Greater Boston (BTGB) begin completely virtually required me to think more intentionally about what community building looks like as a practice, one that cannot be facilitated as a byproduct of proximity. READ MORE