Rachel Baffoe-Bonnie | CIIP 2023 Blog Portfolio

Orientation

I was initially really nervous about participating in orientation week. As one of the few freshmen accepted into the program, I thought it would be hard to find friends and community with this cohort. I was, fortunately, proven wrong almost instantly when my peer mentor took me in and shared that she was in the same boat as me the previous year. Each of the sessions and talks we had impacted me so much and opened my eyes to different systems and relationships in Baltimore City, but I would say that the scavenger hunt was the most impactful activity for me during orientation. In visiting areas within the Black Butterfly that I had not been to before, I saw the ways that redlining, housing discrimination, and gentrification of the city had negative effects. I also think the timing in which we went on the scavenger hunt and the migration of the smoke from the Canadian wildfires to Baltimore made this reality all the more eery. As someone who goes to an institution that provides me access to information about public health concerns and supplies me with materials to help mitigate health risks (i.e. masks), I have a huge privilege that so many residents did not have a few days ago and do not have in general. Coming from that experience and the rest of the lessons that I learned at the end of the week, I feel much more equipped to go into my non-profit and serve in the best way that I can. Despite my want to try and do “everything” over the summer, I know that my time with this organization is limited. But by being an active listener and recognizing the needs of the youth that I will be serving at Dent, I feel confident in making an impact that will last beyond my time there.

Week 1

I would say that the biggest adjustment I have been facing this week regarding my placement is just how open and collaborative my placement is. I came into my placement assuming that there would be a clear hierarchy regarding leadership and other team members enforced during the summer. Although I knew that some collaboration and input from the Fellows at Dent would be taken into consideration, I couldn’t have imagined the amount of care that the senior members would have in making sure our voices are acknowledged within our role. And so because of this, the culture that I was introduced to for onboarding this week was incredibly welcoming and inspiring. It took a little adjusting of my own preconceptions about the ins and outs of non-profits to fully engage with the individuals that I would be working with this summer. One aspect of my role that I will have to keep in mind s the summer progresses is that there will be constant adjustments that will be made. Whether that be adjustments made by the team during our Bet on Baltimore program or personal adjustments I will have to make to serve the students I have been assigned, I want to grow my ability to be adaptable and let go of perfectionist tendencies that would get in the way of my work. Another aspect of my placement that will definitely take some getting used to is its emphasis on using technology. Although I will be working primarily in-person with our Denters, there is a baseline level of knowledge that I would like to have in regard to video-call services, as well as other creation-making software that the team and our students will be using. Luckily, there is so much support from senior staff members that have backgrounds in graphic design and engineering that I feel comfortable working in this space.

Week 2

This week was the beginning of the significant onboarding for the Dent’s Bet on Baltimore program; the coaches were assigned to each site location we have for the summer. I was fortunate enough to meet almost all of the coaches that I would be supporting this summer, which included those who have worked with Dent for a long time in partnership with their businesses and initiatives, as well as a rising college freshman who had been a Denter since the beginning of their high school career. Initially meeting all of the new members of the team was intimidating; these were individuals who have been in the education and entrepreneurship realms for a long time. And although I have an interest in education and education reform, my knowledge regarding business or anything related is slim to none, which is something that I did not want to make so transparent in meeting my specific site and track coaches. It was great not only learning more about the professional and personal journeys of these professionals (i.e. getting to learn about those who are in academia and pursuing creative occupations at the same time) but getting even closer to my fellow Fellow interns. For more than half of onboarding, we were assigned to do more logistical tasks like data entry, item organization for our respective track assignments, and creating workbooks for each of the 100+ students a part of the program. I would say that this week revealed to me the less “glamourous” side of working and being a part of a non-profit organization. However, despite having hour-long training sessions regarding attendance software, inputting names from Google Sheets to Airtable sheets, or hole-punching hundreds of papers to then put into folders, all of the work eventually comes together to produce something that will inspire so many youths this summer and beyond.

Week 3

I would say that my “typical day” at work can be considered quite “fluid”. In preparation for Dent Education’s Bet on Baltimore summer program that starts July 10th, the general site support team has working on a multitude of logistical aspects for the program (i.e. getting in touch with the coaches at each site location for the summer). Within the site-support team, I and five other college-aged students serve as Dent Fellows, a role primarily created to fill gaps within our respective site assignments this summer and provide a peer-like perspective to our high school student participants. Within the first week of onboarding, I would say that my typical day consisted of trainings on software and meeting the full-time staff at Dent. Once Fellows and Site Supporters reached out to our coaches, our “typical day” transitioned from a more traditional onboarding experience to us making preparation materials and decisions for the program. For example, one of our primary tasks for the past few weeks has been to create workbooks for all 100 + “Denters” and their coaches. Other tasks that we complete during our day may consist of data entry, room organization and clean up, and promoting Dent through its social media pages. However, I would say that this past Friday was not only our most “atypical” day at this point in the summer but my favorite day of onboarding. All of the Bet on Baltimore staff traveled to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum and received a guided tour through the Afro-Futurist and High School art exhibitions. In this experience, I and everyone else was granted a break from required presentations and an opportunity to connect with one another outside of our workspace. This upcoming week is our final week of onboarding (which is terrifying) but I am excited to be a part of a team of educators and activists that all have a shared mission of serving ambitious youth.

Week 4