6/26/16
Dear friends,
Constantine Faller, Athens’ Own IC/Liaison recently invited me (Kathy Jacobson, Broadwell Hill IC/Liaison) to serve again as a collaborative mentor within the Athens’ Own Internship Program.
Halley Davidson joined the Athens’ Own team in May, 2016 and began working as an intern in the Athens’ Own home office located within the Broadwell Hill Off-Grid Learning Center. My office is also located on ‘the hill’ so this arrangement provided me with the opportunity to spend time with her while also interacting as one of Athens’ Own collaborative business partners.
Athens’ Own is a business network and a family of diverse individuals working toward similar goals in a collaborative fashion. Many employers are reporting great difficulty finding people with solid work ethics and skills. The Athens’ Own Resilience Worker Certificate Program addresses this need within the American workforce and helps prepare individuals for success in the working world. Individuals who successfully complete the program are awarded a certificate with employment assistance via the diverse business network, including other American Sustainable Business Council members.
I mention this because Athens’ Own also provides its interns with opportunities to interact with other collaborative business partners, such as myself, as a way to deepen their collaborative Athens Community experience while identifying strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for employment skill development.
My experiences with Halley have been most enjoyable and productive. The resilience worker mentorship involves on-the-job training and feedback per the resilience worker criteria chart; Halley has scored very highly in many of the worker readiness categories. Plus, I have greatly enjoyed her company, our diverse conversations and her help with farm chores. Her desire to learn about forest stewardship and the diversified farm ventures have brought great joy to my heart.
My role as a resilience worker mentor helped establish a relationship while setting the stage for role as the mentor regarding the Intern Log assignments My experience as a Registered Nurse, grant writer/manager, emergency management planner, etc., certainly provides a foundation in the realms of documentation, communication, teamwork, etc. But, in order to step into this mentorship position, it needed to orient myself to the Athens’ Own Internship Program. In Athens’ Own lingo, I had to enter into a phase of research to know what was being asked of me and how I could best help Halley and the broader team.
So, I re-read all the Internship Information, took notes and did my best to winnow the instructions into workable keywords, concepts and goals; keeping in mind that this is a collaborative, co-learning experience to help us all manifest greater compassion, sustainability and resilience. I created a synopsis, as well as an even briefer checklist, to not only help me stay on an objective track while reviewing Halley’s log entries, but also as a contribution to the whole team effort. These documents are drafts awaiting further team development.
It takes a community to raise a child.
I am therefore honored to serve as Halley’s mentor and look forward to our collaborative efforts to further develop the Intern Log component of the Athens’ Own Internship Program, especially since the logs are inherent components within the Athens’ Own marketing strategy.
Thank you.
Please contact me if you have suggestions for improvement and/or any other feedback.
Kind Regards,
Kathy
Kathy Jacobson, RN Transition Midwife
Athens’ Own on Broadwell Hill