31 flavors

Well, it turns out that I think I have a lot to look forward in my non-profit classes after all. My program development class is taught by the sort of gutsy neighborhood activist I love running into in Baltimore, who talks about protecting her scruffy corner of town with eloquent, straight-shooting, mama bear intensity. My brain was spinning the entire class. I could barely keep my nerdy, hand-raising 8th grader alter ego inside and had to be reminded by my friend and classmate Emily that she would break all my pencils if I ever asked a question one minute before the end of class again.
The non-profit studies survey course I'm also taking was a happy surprise. The professor is a very engaging economist. My smile really grew though as I discovered the variety of people I was taking class with:
A Pakistani accounntant and development officer
A former head of an after-school program in New York City
A Nigerian human rights activist
A Peruvian policy analyst
A woman who did citizenship training in the Ukraine
A former ecologist who studied snakes in Arizona.
A mother 30 years out of college who ditched commercial realty for working in a non-profit.
A Hopkins undergrad researching children's literature in India and thinking about working at an Indian non-profit.
I felt like a big scoop of plain vanilla.
It's really good to feel my brain working again.

Can I get a Sensei?

I’m starting a graduate level course in non-profit management tonight, and I’m approaching it with a little skepticism. The world is rife with professional degree programs, and I wonder how much of that education is useful or valid. I bet even internet users in Zimbabwe have gotten a pop-up ad that inspired them to ponder a degree in hotel management or law enforcement from the University of Phoenix. I’m well aware that many universities have become veritable factories for certificates and maser’s degrees for any number of exotic areas of expertise. I myself have a graduate degree possessed by a percentage of the American population that’s probably the same numerically as the proportion of bluegrass mandolin players in New Delhi, India (BTW I’m interested in meeting mandolin players anywhere, especially someplace like India). I was struck by how much the program I was in was seen by the university as a profit-making money machine by how little was given to the program for any sort of accommodations. Undergrad programs are sold like cruise ships – teenagers and their parents on tours examine food courts, dorm rooms with cable and workout facilities. George Washington U. even had a bowling alley. The first day of grad school for me didn’t even start with a welcome reception. There was a plate of chocolate chip cookies given out which we were promptly told was the last food or anything of the like we’d get free from the university. Aren’t some undergrads getting a laptop when they start school? Well, when I was in grad school I did use the gym…..

I’ve been told more than once that the best way to approach any education program is as a customer. Demand what you’re looking for, make the program work for you. I’m certainly not approaching this program like I did college. I wasn’t entirely sure why I was going to college. I picked classes like I was at Old Country Buffet, trying a little of everything, realizing many were like so many piles of jello (tasty but devoid of value) and pickled beets (barely worthy of chewing on). I really wish I’d had some more job experience before I went away so I could have better known what I was looking for. Fortunately in this round of professional classes I know what I’m looking for, and I’ll get it or drop the program. Still, I worry that I’m really taking these classes to fill a sense of professional inadequacy that will never be satisfied in a classroom. What I think I really desire is mentorship. I’ve had some crappy supervisors, reflected largely in what little I’ve learned from them. Granted, pearls of wisdom are usually earned, and I may not have learned how to get along well enough to get my bosses to spill their guts. But I wonder if with the explosion of professional education, bosses are losing a sense of obligation or need to act as mentors to their underlings, when in fact the best knowledge is still learned on the job, in the heat of battle where lessons naturally have relevance and context. It probably doesn’t help that I’ve moved around so much. Nobody wants to invest in someone halfway out the door.
Someday I’ll have my Obi Wan Kenobi.