By and large, my cohort is talented, driven, and are genuinely nice and interesting people. The cohort is intentionally diverse, and I can already tell that I'm going to learn a lot from those with education and policy backgrounds. The most obvious characteristic that distinguishes this group is a sense of mission. I applied to Ed Pioneers because I wanted to be part of something greater than myself. I had a notion that work would be more intrinsically satisfying if I believed in the merit of results. At CEB, I admittedly became disconnected from the mission of the organization. I worked hard because of high personal standards and because I respected my colleagues and didn't want to let them down, but I did not feel driven by a bigger purpose. At SFUSD this summer, I hope I will feel connected to a bigger purpose.
What I did not anticipate happening this summer was that the people around me (i.e. my cohort and coworkers) would be as supportive as they have been thus far. What I mean by that is that we're all working toward the same mission. Especially in business school, it is sometimes difficult to buck the trend and search for nonprofit/do-gooder internships. At Fuqua, I'm very lucky to be around people who at the very least respect my motivations to go into public service. This summer I believe I'll feel even more supported - to have a cohort of 45 people who "get it" is massively important, and makes it "ok" that I've chosen this path.
Side story: I remember talking to a University of Chicago (business school) alumni who had been in the Peace Corps. In the first week of school, he told one of his classmates of his Peace Corps past, and the classmate deadpanned, "why would you do Peace Corps? What's your return on investment?" Hard as it is to believe this story, I heard the exact same thing happened to another student considering Chicago. Needless to say, I'm very glad I didn't end up at Chicago.
Another side story: I was talking with a Harvard Business School graduate who works in the social sector, and he said that after graduation a lot of his HBS "friends" showed their true colors. Essentially, some became assholes. During school they played the game of being nice, but after graduation their true colors sprang forth. I believe that HBS is a bit more well-rounded that U of Chicago, but again - I'm glad I don't go there. Dealing with those types simply isn't worth my time.
I've been working at the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) for three days now. I ride by bike to work (about 8 minutes). It must be said - the weather here makes a difference. Basically I don't sweat when I walk outside. During lunch today I walked over to a square in front of City Hall (2 blocks away), where they had set up a jumbotron for the Mexico-France game. I stood out there for about an hour and didn't get hot at all. Perfect weather.
Anyway, my goal for the next week is to get up to speed. My title is "Performance Management Analyst" and my project is around using metrics/data to evaluate school performance. The goal is to give the Assistant Superintendents (who manage the principals) a dashboard of metrics that help them allocate resources to schools that need it. For example, if a school is lagging in their math scores, an Assistant Superintendent needs to (a) know that it's happening, and (b) react by (perhaps) sending a math coach to that school to help out. The bigger theory is called "inquiry based learning", where data informs plans, which informs actions, which informs more data. The process is iterative and keeps going and going. SFUSD is only beginning to use data to make decisions (vs. principals making gut decisions), but there's a decent amount of momentum to start building a data culture in the district.
The office I'm in is the SFUSD central office. 3-story building. Quiet. Probably about 100 people that work here. My boss has cautioned me to not expect things to happen too quickly here. At CEB, I was used to moving very quickly on projects, but things simply don't happen at that pace here. SFUSD is a very consensus-driven culture, and there is an unspoken rule that to make a change, you need to get everyone's buy-in. The other factor (as far as I can tell in my 3 days here) is that resources are very limited. For example, my project would not get done unless I was here to do it - nobody else has the bandwidth. The work-life balance is good here. People work hard, but they also leave the office before 6 (mostly). Everyone is kind - it feels like a family around here.
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