Falling in love...

...with Cape Town. :)
Just finished my second day of work in the Leadership and Social Responsibility Office.  In all seriousness, I am going to love working here!  The office culture is fun, upbeat, silly, collegial, and friendly--all things that suit me well.  I share an office with Monique, who has been very helpful in showing me the ropes as we get settled.  Sashley, Munya, Arnold, and my supervisor Tonia are also wonderful.  I can learn so much from them and will have a great time while doing it.

Yesterday I went to a session with Birgit, the CSSS department chair, and learned about the national context of higher education in South Africa and where student affairs (or student development as they prefer to call it) fits in.  I learned a lot about the history and culture of UWC, which is truly a phenomenal history with political and social justice roots.  It is quite incredible.  Sashley and Arnold gave me a great campus tour.  The library is 14 levels and has a phenomenal spiral ramp up the center to get to the top.  The student center is a great space for student interaction and there are campus is pretty easy to navigate.  Today I had the pleasure of meeting with each colleague in my office to learn about them and their roles in the office.  Then, I spent some time relaxing with Monique and going over some of Tim and my adventure plans and learning more about where we can go and how to travel safely.  To end the day, I sat down with Tonia to discuss some of the projects it seems I will work on during internship.  The things it seems I will probably be working on are below:

1.  Working with SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) helping to coach and prepare them for the national conference in July.  SIFE has three values of people, planet, and profit, so the students in these groups are very community and social responsibility focused, which I love.  I have the opportunity to go to the competition with the SIFE team from our campus and Monique to see them compete!  The competition is in Jo'burg from July 10-13 and there are 27 SIFE teams in South Africa that are invited to compete!  I am so excited!  It will be a great trip and a wonderful opportunity to see the amazing programs that different student groups across the country have completed. 

2.  Helping with the Advanced Leaders Program (ALP).  ALP is the second class, following the Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) offered by my office for student leaders to develop their leadership skills.  Students need to apply and be chosen for the program after interviews, and only those who have completed ELP can progress to ALP.  I will have the opportunity to help create lesson plans for a few of the ALP sessions and co-facillitate a few classes with Arnold or Monique!

3.  Help plan Mandela Week.  Nelson Mandela's birthday is July 18th.  Starting that day, UWC participates in a week of community outreach and service initiatives where they encourage students and staff to give back to the community.  I will be helping Sashley to plan projects and opportunities, and to work with student groups to help their ideas come to fruition.  From what I understand, all participants in Mandela Week plan to spend 67 hours doing service, and if a certain number of people participate, this equals the number of hours Mandela spent in prison.  This is an opportunity to commemorate that and give back.  Unfortunately, I leave Cape Town the day before Mandela Week begins, so I will not be able to see the project through fruition, but I can still help plan!

4.  Strategic vision planning.  The Leadership and Social Responsibility office is currently facing a problem where they have so many projects and responsibilities, that they are feeling very diluted and unable to focus strongly on the areas that relate back to the university's strategic goals and have the most impact on student development.  Therefore, this internship I will be working with the team to help strategically assess the work of the department.  We will analyze their progress this year (challenges, successes, if they met goals, if their goals need to be changed).  We will also assess staff member commitments and how much time is spent on different projects to see if their job responsibilities need to be shifted or if projects can be shifted or dropped.  To give more insight in this, we will assess the reach and depth of the impact of the projects, their significance to the strategic mission, their costs and benefits, and also benchmark our programs against other universities.

In addition to these items, I am sure that I will have the opportunity to help with other tasks in the office!  Thursday I get to go with Sashley and Munya to speak to 8th graders about financial literacy.  Munya works in the office to promote entrepreneurship and financial literacy for UWC students and people in the community.  I will get to go with them to see their presentation to the youth to help them learn to save their money and encourage them to stay in school and be entrepreneurial.  I think it will be a fun opportunity!

To wrap it up--I am super pumped to be here!  I truly am. :)  Every person I meet has something to teach me, and every conversation or thing I see and do is new and exciting and eye opening.  The diversity at UWC is astounding, and everyone truly is genuinely kind.  After talking with Christy and some others here and back home, we have also learned that my previous assumptions about public transportation was a bit exaggerated.  Some of the people here in Cape Town are fearful, but it may be because of their perceptions, or because they haven't tried public transportation themselves.  As long as we practice skills of street smarts, and travel in groups, we will be just fine.  :)  I am ready to explore!  Saturday, Munya is taking us on a Cape Town bus tour, and then Sunday we want to go to Table Mountain or try another adventure since the weather seems like it will be great!

More to come soon.  Sending love back to the states!

Kaity

PS:  Shoutouts to Mom, Jessie, Annie, Dani, Bruce, Corey, Kristin, Christy, and others for all the support, love, and encouragement as we adjusted to being here.  It is with everyone's wisdom, kind words, and support that I know I can enjoy my time away from home and have an amazing educational experience in my short time here!  Thanks <3