Stanford University Urban Studies &
Urban Summer Fellowship
Student perspectives of community-engaged learning and research across the United States
Since my last reflection a few weeks ago, there have been some exciting changes here at Year Up Los Angeles (YULA). To start, YULA’s first class of students officially graduated! As a reminder, Year Up is a one-year program in which young adults participate in six months of professional and technical training (referred to as the “learning and development” phase) followed by a six-month internship at corporations like Hulu, Kaiser Permanente, and Snap Inc. The Los Angeles branch only opened last summer, so graduation was a pretty big deal. Representatives of Year Up branches across the country traveled to YULA’s offices at West Los Angeles College to celebrate class 1’s successful completion of the program. We even welcomed some Year Up alums from the Bay Area branch to help facilitate the ceremony and offer students a glimpse into life after Year Up. Some of the class 1 graduates received job offers from the companies at which they interned, while others are in the process of applying to full-time positions or plan on continuing their education at a four-year college.
Meanwhile, the members of class 2 recently transitioned from their learning and development phase into full-time internships. Compared to class 1, I spent a lot more time getting to know class 2, especially the ambassadors, a group of students selected to serve as official YULA representatives for both ensuring the current class’s needs were being met and recruiting new students for class 3. Seeing the passion the ambassadors had for the program inspired me to put 110% into my efforts with the admissions team. Over the course of the summer, I worked with three other YULA staff members to find, engage with, and ultimately enroll candidates for class 3. Along the way, I reached out to potential students, facilitated in-person and online information sessions, conducted interviews with interested individuals, created reports on those interviewees, and presented my findings at biweekly admissions meetings. Looking back, it’s amazing how many students we were able to move through the admissions pipeline in a matter of weeks. At the beginning of my internship, we weren’t even halfway to our goal. Yesterday, as we kicked off the first day of orientation week for class 3, we welcomed around 55 students hoping to gain professional training in IT business. It’s YULA’s biggest class to date, and I’m proud to say I was a part of putting it together. There ware definitely some aspects of the admissions process that I won’t miss, like logging data into Salesforce or having people hang up on me while I gave them information about the program. However, on the whole, I really enjoy my day-to-day work on the admissions team, mainly because it’s so focused on ensuring the students receive the support they need. One of my goals for the summer was to gain a better understanding of the target population Year Up strives to serve, and I feel I’ve accomplished just that with my work in admissions. Quiz any staff member about Year Up’s goals and founding principles, and they’ll undoubtedly mention the opportunity divide between disenfranchised young people in need of job training and companies in need of skilled employees to fill midlevel positions. Before I came to YULA, I wasn’t aware of the specific challenges young adults in Los Angeles faced that prevented them from getting to the next level in their professional or academic careers. Having now interviewed a variety of students from diverse backgrounds, I feel more informed on the types of issues these young people are experiencing. I also learned more about how Year Up helps students overcome the “outside noise” in their life and succeed in their classes and workplaces. Much of this knowledge has come from my frequent collaborations with the student services department, a group of social workers who help students respond to risk factors in their personal lives. With the help of the student services team, I’ve connected students to resources for housing, transportation, and childcare. In my final three weeks at YULA, I hope to branch out beyond admissions and work with different departments. For example, many of our students struggle with finding business attire, a requirement for all Year Up participants. If I have extra time over the coming weeks, I’d like to put together a resource sheet for students as well as organize the clothing donations our student services team recently acquired. I’d also like to engage more closely with our program managers, two staff members who oversee curriculum planning and staff coaching sessions. I've already learned a lot from them about how they come up with the agendas for events like pre-orientation and our weekly Monday morning kickoff, but I'm interested in hearing how they decide on the topics they cover in their Career and Internship Development Readiness (CIDR) course. At the same time, however, I know my supervisors and the rest of the admissions team have already started recruitment efforts for class 4. Once orientation week wraps up this Friday, we'll debrief on our most effective outreach strategies from the last cycle before getting back to promoting YULA to a new group of potential participants. I feel very fortunate to have spent time working at a nonprofit that emphasizes student accountability, promotes cultural diversity, and provides a “hand up” rather than merely a handout. My conversations with students from classes 1 and 2 have made me realize just how much the Year Up program has the potential to change a young person’s life. Looking ahead, I hope to continue to do work with education-focused and youth-oriented organizations like YULA. Although I’m not sure if I want to enter the nonprofit sector after graduation, I definitely want to continue engaging in service that helps opportunity youth get access to opportunities for employment and higher education. I also plan on staying connected with the friends I’ve made at YULA (and possibly even coming back to visit for class 2’s graduation this January)! ~ Olivia Fritz
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AuthorThis blog is authored by Stanford University students engaged in summer fellowships through the Cardinal Quarter and the Program on Urban Studies. All writings and thoughts belong to the Fellows and do not represent the opinion of the sponsoring programs. Archives
September 2018
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