Institute for Leadership and Service Blog

My first experience in Austin Texas was sleeping on top of my luggage at the Austin International Airport. After 5 long hours of flying and 4 hours of layover, I eventually made it to Texas where I soon realized nothing was open yet and I had to stay at the airport until 9 in the morning. Thankfully, I had my book and lots of delicious coffee to get me through it. Checking into my apartment was fairly easy and went very smoothly. What I did not expect was a roommate. Do not get me wrong, I was happy to have a roommate; however, it would have been nice to know beforehand instead of thinking I walked into the wrong apartment room. All that considered, my roommate Dani is a really nice person who has helped me experience what it is like to live in Austin Texas. On June 3rd, I […]

As I prepare for my trip to Austin, Texas, where I will be spending one week of my internship in-person with Water to Thrive, I can’t help but reflect on all of the connections in my life that have helped get me here. My introduction to both the CAPS Fellowship and Water to Thrive organization started my freshman year of college while taking a required class for my Philanthropic Leadership & Service. Assuming that students attaining this minor were a target audience to introduce to the CAPS program, we had someone from the Institute for Leadership and Service present to our class about this fellowship opportunity. Being both a first-year and exploratory studies student, I was hesitant to apply for this opportunity, as I had little to no idea what I wanted to do when I was older. However, Madison Magiera, a classmate of mine, applied and was matched with […]

My friends and I have a running theory that moving to a new city should perfectly encapsulate the feeling you get when listening to the album 1989 by Taylor Swift. In this album, Swift is upbeat, bold, and seemingly unphased about her move from Nashville, TN to an apartment all by herself (and her cats), in New York City. While I was pretty sure that I would feel a bit more nervous about moving to a city alone, I knew that this internship would be a growing experience that only comes along once in a lifetime.     With a burst of confidence, I found myself testing our 1989 theory through the CAPS program, in my dream city. After a whirlwind of goodbyes and some (admittedly frantic) packing, I found myself settling down in a comfy apartment on the outskirts of Washington DC. While the pandemic has made my internship with […]

  My CAPS Placement at the Grunewald Guild is a bit unconventional, which is exactly what drew me to it. Nestled along the Wenatchee River, the Guild is surrounded by the snowy peaks of the Cascade Mountains, and the vibrant Wenatchee National Forest. When I arrived at the Guild at 11pm my first night, my supervisor took me out to the walking bridge over the river to listen to its roar and watch the stars. He told me that the river was the highest and fastest he had ever seen it, after recent warm temperatures led to a massive snow melt on the mountains. That first night I fell asleep in my loft to the sound of the river rushing right outside my window, imagining the new experiences it would bring with it.  Now three weeks later, the water levels have gone down a bit and I have adjusted to the […]

Going into my Caps experience, I knew my work would give me a valuable peek into the administrative side of nonprofits. I did not anticipate, however, how a goal of empowerment, growth, and economic opportunity requires a constant fixation on money. I knew that services need funding and most social problems stem from financial inequality, but I underestimated the amount of time and energy that goes into securing money to run the organization and deliver services. Essentially, I did not realize that nonprofits were allowed to be greedy. Growing up comfortably, without needing to worry about paying for my basic needs, I learned to appreciate the world separate from “treasures on Earth”. I understood that money, while necessary to survive, should not be the focus of life. People who spend their time seeking money would find themselves with less than their neighbors. That reality helped me become a more empathetic […]

Leading up to my first week at BallotReady, I felt concerned about being good enough. I have more soft skills than hard skills. I have a passion for politics, but I felt like an amateur. I quickly learned that there was no need to be so worried. In my first week, I met with my cohort of other interns, both data and engineering, and had meet-and-greets with the whole BallotReady staff. I instantly felt welcome despite the remote setting BallotReady is working in. It was a breath of fresh air to work with and be led by young people who are motivated by and interested in similar things. Thus far, as a data intern, I have primarily been aiding BallotReady’s Data Team in researching current officeholders across the U.S. as the organization seeks to expand their product to more of a year-round service, not just during election cycles. Data interns […]

I was given a tour of a normal looking office building, with tall grey cubicles and sounds of fingers steadily typing in the distance. With the pandemic, only a handful of employees are actually in the office. My lovely supervisor brings me around, introducing me, and I try not to show my nervousness. Amongst the chaos of this year, this is the most new people I have met in a really long time. At one point, I say thank you to someone after introducing myself, and I think about it for the next few days hoping she doesn’t remember how awkward I was. I have to remind myself this is part of the process, and it is okay.  At this point in my experience, I have been with Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) for three-ish full weeks, but it feels so much longer. I have the mission statement stuck […]

I began my internship with the Heartland Alliance last Wednesday, 5/26/21, and have been met with a number of logistical challenges right off the bat. The Monday before my orientation I took the time to attempt to log in to the necessary online portals I would be frequenting as my internship is remote however I was met with screen after screen of dead links. It wasn’t until Thursday that I learned that the Alliance’s IT department was having major outages across several of their servers. Because of this I have thus far been unable to begin many of the tasks of my internship such as reaching out to clients and writing and logging case notes. All communications and video calls with my team have also had to transition from my Heartland Alliance email to my school email that I have access to. Needless to say this has been quite the […]