Ahmad Swatay MORE SIMILARITIES THAN DIFFERENCES As part of the Legislative Fellowship Program of US Department of States, I am placed with the ‘After School Matters’ for internship. After School Matters® is a non-profit organization that offers Chicago high school teens innovative out-of-school activities through Science, Sports, Tech, Words and the nationally recognized Gallery programs. ASM provides these programs through a network of public and private partnerships that include Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Park District, the Chicago Public Library, and community organizations throughout the city. ASM has been recognized nationally for its innovative approach to coordinating city resources and delivering unique and diverse programs. Its hands-on, project-based programs expose teens to rewarding careers and help them develop marketable job skills. On the first day, I met Mark Prestop, one of the founding members of the ASM. Mark gave me a brief orientation about ASM, its foundation, activities, funding, resources, and how they engage teen in their programs. I also visited the classes where teens were busy in learning different forms of art. I was quite amazed to see all those teens learning and performing art. I came back home really excited and happy as I was placed in the biggest non-profit organization working with teens in Chicago. The learning journey started from the next and my mind was loaded with loads of information provided during executives meetings, one on one meetings with HR, Admin, Grants, and Program Teams. I also visited one of the schools where ASM is working and the found teens taking great interest in their programs. Today, I visited the warehouse of ASM to know how they manage thing there. I met people there and all of them informed me about the regions of Chicago they are responsible for, the number of schools they are working with in each region and that how they keep records of the inventory and much more about their job. I have also shared my personal experiences and told them about my own startup. They were more interested in listening to my stories and providing me information what I needed. ASM is one of the luckiest organizations in the world to have dedicated and creative staff members. All the week was quite interesting in terms of learning and cultural exchange. I am having a great time in my host home, will share about that next time. After School Matters provided me a chance to learn about each and everything about their organization and above all it was a great cultural exchange as when we use to discuss the problems we face during project implementation, most of them were pretty much same but the settings and environment is different. One question that rose in my mind this week is that; We like each others, we respect each others, we share the same globe and above all we are all human beings, so why people across the borders hate each other on the basis of religion and nationalities? afterschoolmatters.org/index.php
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 16:33:17 +0000