Hello, all! Last we spoke, I had just begun my adventure in the South Loop of Chicago’s downtown. Now I find myself in a period of transition, wrapping up my work at Ingenuity and preparing to return to Valpo for my final year of undergrad (crazy, I know). My time at Ingenuity has been everything I had hoped for and so much more. I have learned a wide variety of new things – from how to draft tweets for an audience of over 2,000 followers to how to write basic programming scripts in R. However, of all the new things I learned while interning at Ingenuity, one stands out to me like no other – Steve’s Law.

Steve Shewfelt is the director of the Data and Research department here at Ingenuity. Prior to joining the team at Ingenuity, Steve served in the military and later completed his PhD at Yale University. This summer, I have worked alongside Steve, Tom Bunting, and Emily Cibelli, the data team, in thought partnership around updates to artlook Map, an Ingenuity website that connects arts partners to Chicago Public Schools. Ingenuity launched artlook Map in 2015 as a one-stop-shop for Chicagoans to learn more about the arts education landscape in Chicago and since its inception, artlook has garnered attention on a national level. The majority of my work this summer has been centered around artlook in collaborating on the user experience and design, performing QA testing after a database migration, and collecting user feedback on potential new design implementations. However, here’s where it’s important to note something Steve said to me at the beginning of the summer. In the very first conversation I had with Steve regarding artlook, Steve said, “this is all completely new to us. We are not software people; we are data people.” And in a conversation I had later with Tom Bunting, Ingenuity’s Data Strategy & Products Manager, he would go on to describe the work they do around artlook Map as “making it up as we go along.” The phenomena that Tom described to me, I would later find out has a name – Steve’s Law.

So what exactly is Steve’s Law? Steve’s Law is the following: everyone, everywhere, all the time is making it up as they go along. That’s it. Steve told me about his law in a meeting we had along with the other Ingenuity CAPS Fellow, Claire Utzinger. I remember the feeling I had when he shared this lesson. I felt both terrified and absolutely relieved. At first, I began to question everything around me and what I have known to be true my whole life. I questioned the adults in my life who I have always looked up to and admired and began to question the advice and help they have shared with me. However, upon further reflection, I realized that Steve’s Law is not about a lack of knowledge but more so about endless possibilities. Steve’s Law tells us that life is unpredictable and filled with challenges, but that’s what makes life so exciting. No one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, and that’s perfectly okay, because when we get there, we’ll figure it out. And nothing could more accurately describe the work being done at Ingenuity – and honestly, it’s been nothing short of inspiring. While it’s true that artlook Map is actually developed by professional software engineers at LaunchPad Labs here in Chicago, the ideas that power artlook are developed in-house. Steve, Tom, and Emily regularly meet to discuss what artlook is and what it could be – despite none of them having any sort of software background.

Although my summer at Ingenuity has ended, the lessons will remain with me for a very long time. I would like to thank the team at Ingenuity for having me this summer, and thank my friends and family for being so supportive of me in the last three months. My alumni mentor this summer was Gideon Litherland and I anticipate his mentorship and friendship will long outlive the summer. I would also like to thank Katie and Thais at the Institute of Leadership and Service for their help and guidance in navigating the waters of the CAPS fellowship. And finally, thank you, reader, for reading this. I hope you take Steve’s Law and run with it.

In my first blog post, I explained that I didn’t really have a good idea of how I will start the search for my ideal career. I want to find a job that combines my love of the arts and working with people, but where does one find that after they graduate? One of the many opportunities with which Ingenuity has provided me is to sit down with the directors of each department to learn about their role in the non-profit and ask them any questions I have. The big takeaway for me was that each person had different pieces of equally valuable advice. So far, I have learned some important life skills from my time at Ingenuity:

1. Always ask questions. This could include asking for help on something, asking why something was done a certain way, or even asking to be apart of a committee that you feel passionate about. Sometimes things will happen if you just ask.

2. When applying for a job, figure out what you want to do and find the place that does it best. This will set you up for success in the field you are interested in. If you do this, you will know that you are going to make an impact on the community because the organization strives to do good work.
3. Have a plan and then do it. When you choose a job, think about how it could help you get to where you want to be two jobs from now. Planning in advance can really propel you on the path to the career you want.
4. Network, network, network. Everyone always says this, but it’s true. In order to know people who can help you at some point in the future you have to meet people, introduce yourself, and talk about your job for a little bit. Not too bad for the payoff that could come from just a simple business card exchange.
5. Be a sponge. Take in everything. See what the people around you are doing and how communicating, situations, and tasks are handled. Learn from these things. Also, ask for an explanation if something doesn’t make sense.
6. Funding is very important in the nonprofit world. Matching a donor’s passions to your organization’s needs is crucial. This, in turn, can be great advertising because your funders will be interested in talking to other people about what they have taken part in.
7. Step up, or step out. Demonstrate visibility in the workplace and don’t be a wallflower. Make thoughtful and respectful contributions no matter what position you have. Show up fully present each day because if you are not here to work hard and get the job done, someone else will.
8. Customer service skills can get you a long way. Knowing how to communicate and work with someone in a way that takes into consideration who they are and how they operate is very beneficial.
9. Expertise is created by hard work and creativity requires risks. From the beginning of time, people have been testing ideas and passing down what they discover. Someone might have more experience in a certain field than you, but they only got good at what they do from trying something out, failing, and coming up with a new plan that could potentially work better than the one before. Then it did. Sticking with it and working hard is a better strategy than luck — although a little luck doesn’t hurt either. Everything in the world was created by someone no smarter than you are. “It’s supposed to be inspirational and terrifying.”
10. Make sure that you are confident in the workplace. People who put you down are only projecting their insecurities onto you and it isn’t your job to carry their burden. If something is toxic, get out of there fast. 

You can see from this list that many different people took part in giving these pieces of advice. All of them are relevant in different ways, so I look forward to being able to look back on these ideas and connect them to my decisions, projects, and career goals in the future.

Living in rural Virginia for over two decades, it is certainly interesting to transition to an apartment right on the Loop in downtown Chicago. I have never experienced hustle and bustle quite like this in my life. Even when I studied abroad and lived in Athens, Greece for an entire semester, there were no tall buildings. Nothing is allowed to block the view of the Parthenon, so nothing is allowed to be taller than 12 stories. Although there are city busses, lots of pigeons, and an insane amount of tourists, I was left with the feeling of leaving just a really large town at the end of my four months. Chicago is Chicago; Big, bold, and consuming, although frequently muffled by “the L.” Now that I’ve been here for what’s going on week three, I find myself asking where I fit into it all.

I am interning with a non-profit organization called Ingenuity, which is focused on ensuring that every Chicago Public Schools (CPS) student receives a quality arts education. As they say on their website, Ingenuity constantly works “to institute the Chicago Public Schools Arts Education Act by collecting and managing arts-related data, supporting community arts partners, and advocating for CPS programs and resources.” (ingenuity-inc.org) I have learned a lot since I have started working with this organization especially because I usually view public art education through a different lens. My mom is an elementary school art teacher in a public school system in Virginia, so it is very new to me to work with a company that is working to improve quality education as an outside third party, not as someone who works directly with the kids. Ingenuity constantly strives for the children in CPS to not only have a valuable arts education, but to also thrive and grow through the arts by making them the best they can possibly be. Not only is this impressive because it is so important to integrate studio arts, theatre, dance, and music into everyone’s lives, but also because a team of 11 people run this entire company that gives millions of dollars to CPS and other arts organizations every year. They have shown me already in my three weeks here that hard work and dedication can make a difference in a child’s life even if you do not know them personally. 

One event that I went to was an Institute put on by Ingenuity called, “You Are Your Teaching Artists: Frame. Train. Retain.” Although I do not work at an organization with teachers or Teaching Artists, it was important for me to participate in this Institute because I will be running a similar event at the end of the summer. One of the main goals of the program was to understand the importance of organizations empowering Teaching Artists to demonstrate their skills and build a positive classroom culture, engage in personal and artistic self-awareness, and positively represent the organization– which really stuck out to me. Everyone at the event sat at tables of five, and participated in different activities to spark conversation and different ideas. One activity that I found quite compelling was when each group was given a different challenging scenario and we had to figure out the best way to respond to the situation. In my group’s scenario, a child exclaimed to the teacher, “I just don’t get what the point of all this is. Art is for rich white people.” I was startled. Not only was I mortified by the scenario, but I had a moment where I realized that if a second grader said this to me, I would have no idea what to say even though I firmly believe the statement to be false. To my amazement, the four other educators I was sitting with immediately rose to the occasion and offered an impressive system of how one could go about interacting with this hard conversation. The first step was to affirm that there may be a reason the child felt this way. In an example of the arts through dance, it could be possible that the only interaction the child knew about was ballet, where people pay hundreds of dollars to attend. One teacher said, “Do they know that styles like hip hop and breakdancing are art?” The second step that was collectively decided was that there needed to be a change in the classroom. This was an opportunity, one Arts Partner said, to ask yourself what you have done to contribute to this child’s idea of art and then bring great cultural examples into the classroom. The third idea was to remember how important it is for children to explore the things they are curious about, and not to react by scolding the child for saying this. “You should build and grow on this in your curriculum from now on.” The last point was to perhaps scratch the lesson for the day to take the time and explore this with the children– to have a collective discussion with the class, with the idea that the statement would be more resolved by the end of the session. 

At another event, Elizabeth Robbins from Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy spoke in a fireside chat. She received  “The Civic Education Leadership Award” which is given by the Obama Foundation to honored educators who model civic leadership by providing opportunities for young people to engage actively in their community. She explained that something an educator in the arts needs to realize is that everyone has a story. You connect your own story to art and that is what makes it accessible to everyone. She explained that how she approaches telling her story, of a middle aged white teacher, to a classroom of predominantly children of different ethnic backgrounds is very important. I found topics like these in the forefront of the arts education scene, and I had never really considered these issues before as an individual who wants to go into the arts in some capacity. So back to my first question– how these scenarios that educators strive to face with their students everyday connect to me, a 21 year old in college who is still looking for my place in the world?

I’m still forming my answers. In the meantime, I am going to make sure I am taking in the world from every perspective. Whether helping to write a guidebook for Arts Partners at my internship with Ingenuity or trying to figure out what kind of career I want to pursue after I graduate, I need to remember that I am not trying to pursue this career for just myself. It’s also so that a bold second grader knows that they have a place in the art world, same as me. I just have to figure out how I will do it.

Ah, Chicago. Growing up in the south suburbs, I always dreamed of calling Chicago home. I remember visiting the Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science and Industry, eating at Giordano’s or Gino’s East, and thinking to myself, “Man, what must it be like to be here every day?” Well, now that I know, I can tell you all about it. 

I live at Infinite Chicago on Jackson Blvd. in the South Loop, the heart of the city. Every day I walk about half an hour to work at Ingenuity in River North. I love my job. Ingenuity is a non-profit focused on increasing arts education equity for all children in Chicago Public Schools. The work they do here is exciting, and there is never a dull moment in the office. Integrating into the team has been nothing short of amazing. Because Ingenuity is centered around arts education, it makes for some fun and creative people in the office (it’s not uncommon for my supervisors Karla and Nicole to break out into song and dance). Since I arrived, I have worked primarily with two Ingenuity departments, Public Affairs, and Data and Research. For Public Affairs, I have started drafting social media posts and email newsletters, hoping to engage a broader audience on all of our communications streams. On the Data and Research team, I have helped them with reaching out to Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to fill out the Creative Schools Survey, an annual survey that informs Ingenuity on the state of the arts in CPS. The work is not only fun, but in many ways, rewarding because Ingenuity’s mission is so admirable. I am very grateful to be a part of such a strong team that works very hard. I am looking forward to the rest of my time here. 

Working at Ingenuity has been nice because after 5 PM (and 3 PM on Fridays!) I have the rest of the time to explore and engage with the city of Chicago. My first week here I went to the Vampire Weekend concert at Huntington Pavilion park, an outdoor venue at Northerly Island. I got to go with my best friends from high school who first introduced me to the band which has since become my favorite band of all time. The concert was something special – VW puts on an amazing show. I also have had the chance of seeing stand-up at the Annoyance Theatre, a place where many talented comedians have gotten their start. My friend and I have been interested in trying to do stand up for quite some time and decided to go to an open mic to test out the waters. There were about ten comedians, each at different levels of expertise. Some made us laugh, some made us cringe, but they all entertained. My favorite joke of the night was about a guy playing wingman for a friend in sweatpants at a bar. It was hilarious. 

All-in-all my first few weeks in Chicago have been very special. I have very much enjoyed my time here and I can’t wait to see how the rest of the summer goes. I’d like to give a quick shout out to the Institute of Leadership and Service at Valparaiso University for giving me this amazing opportunity. I am eager for the rest of my summer in Chicago and I will make sure to keep you all in the loop on the fun adventures I’ll have in the city. 

What is quality?  This is a question that Ingenuity seeks to answers in terms of arts education.  However, this is a question I sought to answer in terms of an internship experience.  Being a college student, we are told that an intern experience is a quality one because we need to build our resumes.  So often, students spend their summers making copies and getting coffee for the sake of building their resume. But is this truly a quality internship?  By the end of the summer, students only know how to use the printer, order coffee, and, if they were lucky, sit in on a couple of meetings to take notes.  My definition of a quality internship is one where I can grow professionally by doing meaningful work. Luckily for me, Ingenuity feels the same way.

The advantage of working at a nonprofit organization is being surrounded by people who are passionate about their mission.  I can always feel the passion for quality arts education for all CPS students in each team member at Ingenuity from the moment I started working here. When I was tasked with the Partner Starter Institute, I was excited to have a project that was integral to the programming of the Partnerships and Professional Learning team.  Being in charge of the Partner Starter gave me the opportunity to exercise my networking, facilitation, and event planning skills. I was given the freedom to design the content of the entire day from the venue, agenda, and even the catering.

  
Ingenuity puts a lot of faith into their interns.  We are treated as equal members of the team. We are invited to staff meetings where our input is encouraged and valued.  As a member of the Partnerships and Professional Learning team, I have the opportunity to help run professional development events and attend a meeting to foster arts partnerships.  My time at Ingenuity has taught me the importance of partnership and collaboration. No person is an island and we need to work with others if we want to accomplish anything.

Each day was a different adventure working at Ingenuity.  This experience allowed me to think about what kind of work environment I should look for when seeking future employment.  The work culture at Ingenuity is very inviting. Each staff member seeks feedback from others to ensure that their work is being done efficiently.  It is inspiring that each team member models that it is encouraged to work together on projects.

   
If you asked me what a quality internship is, I would tell you Ingenuity without hesitation.  Ingenuity provided me the opportunity to grow professionally by tasking me with the Partner Starter Institute, assisting with professional development events, and fostering arts partnerships.  I know that every task I was given at Ingenuity served a purpose that aligns with their mission of ensuring all CPS students have access to arts education. I will miss working with an organization that is passionate about the work they do and take the time to nurture a student’s professional development.

Alright, it’s week eight in your internship. The end of summer is approaching, and you’re a couple weeks from finishing. What should you do now? You’ve asked the questions, given your input, and tried to be the best intern you could be, but what happens now?

I feel like there’s a shift that takes place over the course of an internship. I think you could consider the ‘shift’ like a series of stages. Stage one is what I like to call the “oh s**t” phase; you’re just figuring things out, and you’re not sure yet if you’ve got what it takes to handle it yet. And, from what I’ve learned, the only way to get to stage two (the “I get this, but not that” phase) is to be confident in your own ability to succeed.

In stage one, I was afraid of letting my supervisors down and letting Ingenuity down, because I thought I didn’t know enough to make meaningful contributions. Then I realized, no one knows everything. While I didn’t know, for example, what quality arts indicators are most equitable and student focused, I did understand how to think through the problems myself. Is requiring all schools to have their musical instruments in-tune equitable? Student-focused? My colleagues decided “no.” But I thought there was something there, so I gave my opinion (me, as a non-arts education expert). I said that while it’s not fair to require schools to make their instruments in-tune when they could be funding more student-oriented opportunities, it is an important to know whether or not students have access to quality tools that allow them to create effectively. While I haven’t been exposed to the entire conversation surrounding arts education in Chicago for the past several years, I was able to trust, draw upon, and offer my perspective. It got others in the room thinking differently about how they saw the problem. So in trusting myself, I moved to stage two which is where I am now.

Stage two is all about confidence, professionalism, and enthusiasm; you’ve got to have ‘em. This is because it’s easy to become the underdog… the millennial… the kid in the office. It’s important to explicitly show what you understand while professionally asking for clarity. My favorite line has become, “what I’m hearing from you is [this], am I understanding you correctly?” This allows you to show that you are engaged in what your supervisor is saying while also asking about what you don’t know. Being the kid means sometimes your supervisors and colleagues over-explain things (this is likely because it totally looked like you were in over your head on week one– and that’s okay). Just remember: exude confidence which equals trusting, drawing upon, and offering your perspective. Once you’ve mastered that, you move on to the final stage: the “what now?” stage.

This is what I’ll be entering as I step into week nine of my internship on Monday morning. What now? I feel comfortable doing the job I came here to do and sharing my opinions, so what’s next for my to accomplish other than more experience? Exactly. You should now, at the end of your internship, start asking yourself if you’re getting the experience out of this professional opportunity that you’d hoped. At the beginning of the summer, hopefully, you made a list of what you’d like to learn how to do or get better at. It’s time to check-in. Did you accomplish everything? My starter list was to get better at networking, get better at communicating, get better at public speaking, and understand how to use this experience to show my professional capability. I think I’ve gotten fractionally better at each, but now it’s the last lap and I’m running out of time to get it all done.

Enter, stage four.

Focus on your goals. You know what you need to do to finish your internship projects, and it’s time to bring your goals to a more forward place in your mind. Make a list of which experiences you think would help you check-off your goal list. For me, that’s reaching out to more folks at the big event next week, checking-in more regularly with my supervisor, helping to present our final instructional session, and identifying through-lines in the skills I learned and the next position I’d like to apply for. Wish me luck!

Cheers!

When applying to be a CAPS Fellow, I had a limited understanding of what that meant. I knew from former Fellows that it meant interning at “real” job, travelling to that “real” job, and spending my summer gaining some experience. But, just what exactly was that job? Where would I be going? Staying? Doing? To be honest, those questions are hard to answer. The best way to understand it is to experience it.

The first day I started at Ingenuity was the first day that I really understood what that non-profit does, and, really, I don’t think anyone could have explained it to me beforehand. There’s a process, I’ve learned, that comes with entering a new space (a new workplace). It’s a whole new environment, and, to do the job right, you need a lot of context for why your colleagues do the work they do and why. Before arriving, I browsed their website and googled the work they did in the past, but I began to understand more just by being there.

What do I mean by that? I mean: you learn most about your CAPS Fellows placement just by listening in on meetings, listening to your colleagues chat about the work, and having your colleagues explain to you how their work contributes to the larger trajectory of the organization.

And, please, ask questions!! It’s really easy to let yourself feel like you’re not qualified or as experienced as your colleagues, and that might make you feel like you should remain quiet so as to not disrupt the work going on, but don’t! In my experience, folks are so happy to bring you into the conversation. They want your input! So, if there’s clarification that you need in order to make meaningful contributions to the conversation, by all means ask for it!

At Ingenuity, I’ve learned (through asking questions) that the organization’s goal is to bring arts education to every Chicago Public Schools student. One of the questions I asked: “How does Ingenuity do that?” Once I learned that Ingenuity is the Chicago ‘hub’ that tracks arts partners (organizations like: museums, galleries, creative working studios or any places that provide access to arts education) and teaching artists (in the classroom) at every school, I could then ask questions like, “What resources does Ingenuity provide that connects arts partners and teaching artists?” Their response is: Ingenuity provides several training sessions available to both partners and teachers throughout the year in order to inform them how they can use Ingenuity’s resources to their benefit (like arts grants), advocate for the continuance and addition of arts ed in schools, and much more. After learning the basics, through asking questions, I was able to not only understand the work that was going on but also where I could contribute to the conversation. It was because I asked questions that I got myself assigned to developing one of the training sessions I was most interested in (storytelling as an advocacy tool!).

So, just relax, believe in your own ideas, and trust that people want you to succeed, and then you’ll have an amazing time at your CAPS placement, meeting tons of wonderful people!

We traded our Chapel bells for rumble of the L train.  Chicago.  A city that will never cease to amaze me.  Being from a Chicago suburb, I am no stranger to this majestic city.  I spent my weekends exploring different pockets of city under the careful guidance of my family.  I like to say that my family bubble wrapped my Chicago experience.  I could not take public transportation until I was 17, and even then I was under the protection of my brothers.  My mom is a nurse and my dad is a taxi driver, they know firsthand how bad Chicago can be.  They were just trying to protect me, but they cannot shelter me forever.

The independence is liberating.  Living in Chicago allows me to explore myself outside of the safety net of home or Valparaiso.  I was overjoyed when I discovered my placement was in Chicago because it meant I could grow in a state I love.  Being a big city, Chicago offers diversity that is not highlighted often back at school.  Although every person has their differences we all share one thing in common, taking public transportation.  Everyone has their own love hate relationship with CTA.  On one hand, it is easier that having your own car because you will not have to deal with paying an outrageous amount of money for a tiny parking spot.  On the other hand, the estimated time of arrival of the CTA is unpredictable because of unscheduled stops.  Complete strangers bond over their shared feelings about CTA.  It is truly a beautiful sight.

Not as beautiful as my commute to my internship though.  I made the decision to walk to my placement to get better familiar with my surroundings.  Every morning, I walk over the Chicago River as I head to Ingenuity’s office.  Ingenuity is the glue between Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and arts partners.  Ingenuity was birthed from the city’s need to provide quality arts education to all of CPS.  My organization tackles this goal through four innovates: data and research, public affairs, outreach, and partnerships and professional learning.  With a mission as vast with these four innovates, you think there is a large army of people advocating on the behalf of arts education in CPS.  Well, there is.  Nine dynamic leaders blazing a trail in educating and advocating for arts educators.  The staff of Ingenuity works tirelessly with CPS Department of Arts Education and arts partners to enrich the lives of children in CPS.

I am honored that Willow and I have been inducted as fearless warriors in the fight for quality arts education to all of CPS.  I feel like I have become a part of the Ingenuity family.  As a Partnership and Professional Learning Intern, I am excited and nervous to plan our annual Partner Starter Institute to acclimate arts partners to the culture of CPS and instill the importance of partnership.  This summer is just beginning, but I know endless adventures await me as I explore the city and learn more about the importance of arts education.  This may not be Valpo, but it is a place where I belong.  A place I can call home.