One of the most valuable parts of this fellowship year is the opportunity for collaboration, both personally and professional.
Every day I work side by side with my colleagues at Last Mile Health, including my wonderful co-fellow who I share this experience with. In my workplace I collaborate with other amazing nonprofits that share our office space. And each night my roommates and I discuss our work within the field of global health.
All of this fosters my growth as a professional and helps me to better understand the field of global health. And all of this collaboration is intentional – the structures of both Global Health Corps and the Next Mile Project, the nonprofit incubator where I work, are built to encourage this type of collaboration. Yet while I expected these opportunities, another surprised me.
My mother has worked as a development professional for many years, and has taught me a great deal along the way. She was recently asked to lead a grant-writing workshop at an organization I used to work for, and she suggested that we present together. Martha and Tommy, the mother-son grant-writing team. At first I was apprehensive, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.
After developing a PowerPoint presentation and holding a few planning calls, we hosted our event together. The presentation went very well, with a healthy discussion, Q&A session and quite a bit of positive feedback from the participants. We represented different levels of experience as well as unique perspectives and approaches informed by our current and former work experience. And we made a great team!
I found the experience rather interesting as well, as the groups we spoke to represent a wide variety of local interests, including a community mental health center, a professional development organization for adult artists with disabilities, and a children’s puppet showplace. I was happy to share best practices with these wonderful organizations, and to hear their successes and advice as well.
It was an opportunity to see familiar faces as I returned to a former place of work, and the chance to see how the organization has progressed since my departure. Even more than that, it was an opportunity to see my mother share her vast professional experience and knowledge with peers in this field.
While only time will tell if we have the opportunity to work together in the future, I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. More than anything it deepened my level of appreciation for the career of the woman who has cared for me my entire life, who has taught me so much about grant-writing, and about much, much more.