While interning at Planned Parenthood I have learned so many different things! First off, I really grasped an understanding on how interdisciplinary studies can be applied in an organization. Seeing this process take action in a real world setting has really broaden my knowledge pertaining to integral studies. I also learned a lot about how a non profit organization advocates for public policies that impact their clientele in a positive way. PPH as an organization have the unique position to strongly advocate for policies that will lead to more access of the health care services they provide. This sort of 'grassroots' interning has been really amazing! To be able to gain insight into the political/public policy side of PPH has been a privilege. They apparently are not just an abortion clinic :)
I grew as an individual in several ways! But one thing that really stands out is my increase in confidence when it comes to public speaking. On several different occasions when I have lead PPH events whether it be crowd canvassing or tabling, I have had to talk to a number of strangers on topics that aren't the easiest to discuss. Not only am I more confident is speaking, I also understand and know how to take rejection from those people who do not support PPH or are too busy to hear you. Public policy is hard work! You have to be truly motivated and committed to the cause that you are fighting (in this case women's reproductive rights) for or else change will not happen.
Some of the skills I have gained have come from various training sessions that I attended to learn more affective ways to talk to people in the community about what PPH does. In addition, I was also trained on leadership skills that have been very useful when I have lead some different events. Lastly, I was able to sit in on some interesting team meetings that allowed me to see how PPH as an organization works with all it's different departments. This internship has definitely been a positive experience and I am very grateful for the limited opportunity to volunteer with PPH. With all the economic cuts, luxuries like internship positions are scarce among non-profit organizations and it has been really awesome to be apart of the PPH team!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Improve
At Planned Parenthood I have noticed that there is somewhat a lack of communication among the larger divisions and smaller divisions within the organization. In addition, the concept of integration is one that has never really been introduced as a method to increase fluidity among the entire PPH facility.
The interdisciplinary process is a great strategy for problem-solving and brainstorming ideas. This method is useful for everyone when partaking in day to day tasks but it is even more successful when used within places of business. During my first week at the PPH office, I had a meeting with the top three coordinating activists from the public policy, marketing and communication departments and these women were very curious as to what interdisciplinary studies actually was. All three of them have college degrees from well known universities around the country but none of them had heard of interdisciplinary studies as a field of education. I did my very best to start from the basics and explain the ideal of integration as a method of solving issues and expanding knowledge. THEY LOVED IT! This concept really attracted them and has sparked a new interest in the way that they want to approach their work and interact more collectively as a team.
In order for this new method to unfold in an organized manner a plan of action is required! The first thing that needs to be done is these three "top dogs" need to schedule a action meeting with the director of PPH and educate her on the new plan of action. After that, they can work as a small group to come up with some different training events that will aid in the understanding of the interdisciplinary process throughout their entire organization. This will bring much more success and positivity because instead of PPH working under one main idea with sporadic little ideas coming from here and there, this will give every single person their own voice and real opportunity to bring to the table what education they know to better "integrate" these things together and hopefully solve/understand/brainstorm that much faster and efficiently.
The interdisciplinary process is a great strategy for problem-solving and brainstorming ideas. This method is useful for everyone when partaking in day to day tasks but it is even more successful when used within places of business. During my first week at the PPH office, I had a meeting with the top three coordinating activists from the public policy, marketing and communication departments and these women were very curious as to what interdisciplinary studies actually was. All three of them have college degrees from well known universities around the country but none of them had heard of interdisciplinary studies as a field of education. I did my very best to start from the basics and explain the ideal of integration as a method of solving issues and expanding knowledge. THEY LOVED IT! This concept really attracted them and has sparked a new interest in the way that they want to approach their work and interact more collectively as a team.
In order for this new method to unfold in an organized manner a plan of action is required! The first thing that needs to be done is these three "top dogs" need to schedule a action meeting with the director of PPH and educate her on the new plan of action. After that, they can work as a small group to come up with some different training events that will aid in the understanding of the interdisciplinary process throughout their entire organization. This will bring much more success and positivity because instead of PPH working under one main idea with sporadic little ideas coming from here and there, this will give every single person their own voice and real opportunity to bring to the table what education they know to better "integrate" these things together and hopefully solve/understand/brainstorm that much faster and efficiently.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Interview
Interview with Emily Herrell
Objective: Conduct interview with same person "shadowed" to better understand why they do what they do.
Location: Planned Parenthood [Downtown Phoenix Office]
Time: Tuesday 6 July, 2010
#1. What do you like or dislike about your job?
-I like how I get to work with so many dedicated volunteers as well as other staff members who are dedicated to Planned Parenthood & our mission. I also like how my job is very different day to day (the activities vary); sometimes I’m in the office, sometimes out in the community, & I get to travel a lot.
#2. How do you feel about working with others?
-I enjoy working with others, although I also enjoy working on solitary projects sometimes.
#3. How do you separate the personal from the professional?
-I have a difficult time separating the two sometimes. In my community I am totally the “Planned Parenthood lady” so it’s difficult for people to distinguish when I am representing Planned Parenthood or just being me. When I volunteer with other organizations I have to be careful to make sure people know that I am there as Emily, an individual, not as a representative of Planned Parenthood.
#4. After whom do you model your work behavior? Or do you most respect?
-There are several people at in my organization that I respect very much & try to mirror they way they deal with other people and stress.
#5. Have you reached out to mentors and has their mentorship system worked for you?
-Yes, I have benefitted greatly from formal and informal mentorship relationships. I consider my own supervisor to be a great mentor in political work, and other former supervisors of mine to be great mentors in other ways. I have also participated in a long-distance peer-to-peer mentorship program with Planned Parenthood for the past two years, in which I have had monthly phone meetings with a mentor who has been doing my job at a different Planned Parenthood affiliate for longer. I have really enjoyed this program.
This interview with Emily has been a great opportunity for me to gain deeper insight into some of the more intimate things that have influenced her career and development as a person!! I really enjoyed this experience :)
Objective: Conduct interview with same person "shadowed" to better understand why they do what they do.
Location: Planned Parenthood [Downtown Phoenix Office]
Time: Tuesday 6 July, 2010
#1. What do you like or dislike about your job?
-I like how I get to work with so many dedicated volunteers as well as other staff members who are dedicated to Planned Parenthood & our mission. I also like how my job is very different day to day (the activities vary); sometimes I’m in the office, sometimes out in the community, & I get to travel a lot.
#2. How do you feel about working with others?
-I enjoy working with others, although I also enjoy working on solitary projects sometimes.
#3. How do you separate the personal from the professional?
-I have a difficult time separating the two sometimes. In my community I am totally the “Planned Parenthood lady” so it’s difficult for people to distinguish when I am representing Planned Parenthood or just being me. When I volunteer with other organizations I have to be careful to make sure people know that I am there as Emily, an individual, not as a representative of Planned Parenthood.
#4. After whom do you model your work behavior? Or do you most respect?
-There are several people at in my organization that I respect very much & try to mirror they way they deal with other people and stress.
#5. Have you reached out to mentors and has their mentorship system worked for you?
-Yes, I have benefitted greatly from formal and informal mentorship relationships. I consider my own supervisor to be a great mentor in political work, and other former supervisors of mine to be great mentors in other ways. I have also participated in a long-distance peer-to-peer mentorship program with Planned Parenthood for the past two years, in which I have had monthly phone meetings with a mentor who has been doing my job at a different Planned Parenthood affiliate for longer. I have really enjoyed this program.
This interview with Emily has been a great opportunity for me to gain deeper insight into some of the more intimate things that have influenced her career and development as a person!! I really enjoyed this experience :)
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Shadow
At Planned Parenthood this week I chose to shadow my mentor, Emily. She is the advocacy coordinator for PPH and works in the public policy area as a grassroots leader. I really admire Emily for the energy that she brings every single day whether she is in the office or out in the field. Very rarely does Emily stay in her office! Currently she is based in the PPH Tucson Administration Office but she is in charge of representing public policy outreach for PPH throughout the entire state of Arizona. Emily is a very busy woman, especially with the upcoming state elections this September and November.
Tuesday of this week, Emily came into the downtown Phoenix office where I followed her around all day. She has her own office and this is where she begins her day after she has checked in with the front receptionist for any mail/messages that their may be. Emily corresponds mainly via email from her blackberry phone but she also has her own computer that travels with her everywhere. Her calendar on her computer is one of the most important applications that she uses and she is constantly adding and viewing the date(s) for various appointments and events. At 1 PM Emily and I went to a small monthly meeting with the other two main coordinators of PPH who represent Communications, Marketing and Public Policy. They all chatted for a couple of hours about what their main objective is presently; getting endorsed candidates elected. Also, the sticky side of endorsing candidates was touched on regarding how some candidates are considered 'private endorsements' and therefore do not want that information publicly known. This can be due to social aspects within a specific voting division. For example, if the community is highly Latino and of the Catholic faith, socially the majority of these citizens probably do not support PPH or more importantly a candidate who does [publicly] ;)
After the meeting we went back to Emily's office and both went to work looking in newspapers or online for different events coming up around the valley (i.e. concerts, art walks, festivals etc.) that could be potential sites to hold PPH information booths. We were able to come up with several ideas to hold PPH events here in the Phoenix area and the next activity will be this Thursday at "Thursday's on Mill". The city of Tempe hosts local music on the entire street of Mill and this is a perfect place for PPH to do what we call 'crowd canvass'. This is where 3 of us go out into the community and try and get signatures of Pro-choice people either for a petition of some kind pertaining to the upcoming elections or just to help people become aware of the laws here in AZ that are affecting reproductive rights.
At the end of the night we held a new volunteer orientation that Emily had put together an entire presentation for that introduced the newcomers to PPH's history and our mission plus other safety features. We then discussed the new event ideas that we had come up with earlier that day and asked for input from the other volunteers. After the orientation meeting I helped Emily clean up the snacks and drinks that we had set out, then we turned off the lights before we each went our separate ways for the night!
Tuesday of this week, Emily came into the downtown Phoenix office where I followed her around all day. She has her own office and this is where she begins her day after she has checked in with the front receptionist for any mail/messages that their may be. Emily corresponds mainly via email from her blackberry phone but she also has her own computer that travels with her everywhere. Her calendar on her computer is one of the most important applications that she uses and she is constantly adding and viewing the date(s) for various appointments and events. At 1 PM Emily and I went to a small monthly meeting with the other two main coordinators of PPH who represent Communications, Marketing and Public Policy. They all chatted for a couple of hours about what their main objective is presently; getting endorsed candidates elected. Also, the sticky side of endorsing candidates was touched on regarding how some candidates are considered 'private endorsements' and therefore do not want that information publicly known. This can be due to social aspects within a specific voting division. For example, if the community is highly Latino and of the Catholic faith, socially the majority of these citizens probably do not support PPH or more importantly a candidate who does [publicly] ;)
After the meeting we went back to Emily's office and both went to work looking in newspapers or online for different events coming up around the valley (i.e. concerts, art walks, festivals etc.) that could be potential sites to hold PPH information booths. We were able to come up with several ideas to hold PPH events here in the Phoenix area and the next activity will be this Thursday at "Thursday's on Mill". The city of Tempe hosts local music on the entire street of Mill and this is a perfect place for PPH to do what we call 'crowd canvass'. This is where 3 of us go out into the community and try and get signatures of Pro-choice people either for a petition of some kind pertaining to the upcoming elections or just to help people become aware of the laws here in AZ that are affecting reproductive rights.
At the end of the night we held a new volunteer orientation that Emily had put together an entire presentation for that introduced the newcomers to PPH's history and our mission plus other safety features. We then discussed the new event ideas that we had come up with earlier that day and asked for input from the other volunteers. After the orientation meeting I helped Emily clean up the snacks and drinks that we had set out, then we turned off the lights before we each went our separate ways for the night!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Career
I have always found the health care field very interesting as well as ever changing! The fact that new technologies and new medications are continuously evolving, makes health care an exciting place to work. Nursing is a career that I can imagine myself working in as well as flourishing in as an individual of this society.
At Planned Parenthood (PPH) there are several different aspects that compose this health organization. The medical portion of the facility is what people generally think of first, when hearing about PPH. This is the actual clinic portion of the facility where certified physicians and nurses preform screenings or procedures. However, there is much more to PPH than just the medical side; public policy, communication and marketing also play very important roles in the success of PPH. Working at PPH in the "near" future is not something I imagine myself doing but I could envision PPH as a career choice later on in my life. Once I have gained the hands on experience of being a nurse in the hospital setting, PPH might be a great place to consider working or even volunteering to maintain that public policy "hands-on" influence within the community. Being able to go out into the public and educate people on which candidates PPH is endorsing in the up coming elections, is something that I would never have been able to be apart of through just a nursing career. The skills I am learning while interning at PPH have been very community oriented and the values that are placed on the 'right to choose' is something that I will carry with me as a nurse and human being in this world of suffering. I think that working in the educational system as an instructor of new nursing students would be very inspiring and I know that with all the amazing concepts I am learning in various disciplines, I will have a lot to share with others.
At Planned Parenthood (PPH) there are several different aspects that compose this health organization. The medical portion of the facility is what people generally think of first, when hearing about PPH. This is the actual clinic portion of the facility where certified physicians and nurses preform screenings or procedures. However, there is much more to PPH than just the medical side; public policy, communication and marketing also play very important roles in the success of PPH. Working at PPH in the "near" future is not something I imagine myself doing but I could envision PPH as a career choice later on in my life. Once I have gained the hands on experience of being a nurse in the hospital setting, PPH might be a great place to consider working or even volunteering to maintain that public policy "hands-on" influence within the community. Being able to go out into the public and educate people on which candidates PPH is endorsing in the up coming elections, is something that I would never have been able to be apart of through just a nursing career. The skills I am learning while interning at PPH have been very community oriented and the values that are placed on the 'right to choose' is something that I will carry with me as a nurse and human being in this world of suffering. I think that working in the educational system as an instructor of new nursing students would be very inspiring and I know that with all the amazing concepts I am learning in various disciplines, I will have a lot to share with others.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
4 Concepts/Theories
Throughout my college experience within the interdisciplinary school, I have learned many theories and concepts that have aided in my own understanding of this process. Since I have started my internship at Planned Parenthood (PPH) I have already been able to gain insight into how the interdisciplinary process is reflected within this organization.
When I first learned about the meaning of interdisciplinary studies the more basic concepts are what hit home the most. For example, there are three clusters or categories of disciplines; sciences, social sciences and humanities. At PPH all three of these categories of disciplines play a major role within the operation of this organization. The Sciences work hard to perform the most current and safest medical procedures and the social sciences work to maintain ethical standards for their patients and staff, as well as taking into account the major social differences that are found between each individual. Finally, the humanities aspect of PPH relies on the philosophy that has been established since the birth of this public health organization; the right to choice and support of women's' reproductive rights. These disciplines work interdisciplinary together by using their fields of studies "between or among" one another in order to solve complex problems.
Another concept that is important to the interdisciplinary process is the theory pertaining to what constitutes interdisciplinary "studies". Studies are defined as new and emerging disciplines that do not have all the characteristics of an established discipline, therefore studies expand on disciplinary knowledge's but also transcend them at the same time. PPH can be viewed as in interdisciplinary study within itself through many ways but one of the most prominent being that this organization seeks to integrate knowledge and reveal gaps that may exist. I saw this in live action when I attended a meeting with the top three 'disciplines' of PPH; communications, marketing and public policy. The meeting was held to discuss internal versus external methods that can be used to better unite PPH as one living organism. This was very interesting to me because there was a well known public health facility that was using the very process of integrating knowledge from various disciplines to solve an "issue".
Another concept that is easily seen within PPH is the idea of interdisciplinary studies being used to describe 'work' or more specifically the work of recognizing and confronting differences found among disciplines. Without the differences that exist within each field of knowledge there would be nothing to learn and nothing to integrate because everything would be the same. PPH has spent it's entire historical lifespan readily recognizing the continual differences that arise between various areas of the organization and this has made it possible for them to collectively work towards the same goal.
Finally, that leads into how interdisciplinarity is used to describe a process, a "process" that has a similar particular end in view. The goal of the organization is to be completely aware of all similarities and differences that exist thus having a more comprehensive understanding of a specific problem through the use of integration.
When I first learned about the meaning of interdisciplinary studies the more basic concepts are what hit home the most. For example, there are three clusters or categories of disciplines; sciences, social sciences and humanities. At PPH all three of these categories of disciplines play a major role within the operation of this organization. The Sciences work hard to perform the most current and safest medical procedures and the social sciences work to maintain ethical standards for their patients and staff, as well as taking into account the major social differences that are found between each individual. Finally, the humanities aspect of PPH relies on the philosophy that has been established since the birth of this public health organization; the right to choice and support of women's' reproductive rights. These disciplines work interdisciplinary together by using their fields of studies "between or among" one another in order to solve complex problems.
Another concept that is important to the interdisciplinary process is the theory pertaining to what constitutes interdisciplinary "studies". Studies are defined as new and emerging disciplines that do not have all the characteristics of an established discipline, therefore studies expand on disciplinary knowledge's but also transcend them at the same time. PPH can be viewed as in interdisciplinary study within itself through many ways but one of the most prominent being that this organization seeks to integrate knowledge and reveal gaps that may exist. I saw this in live action when I attended a meeting with the top three 'disciplines' of PPH; communications, marketing and public policy. The meeting was held to discuss internal versus external methods that can be used to better unite PPH as one living organism. This was very interesting to me because there was a well known public health facility that was using the very process of integrating knowledge from various disciplines to solve an "issue".
Another concept that is easily seen within PPH is the idea of interdisciplinary studies being used to describe 'work' or more specifically the work of recognizing and confronting differences found among disciplines. Without the differences that exist within each field of knowledge there would be nothing to learn and nothing to integrate because everything would be the same. PPH has spent it's entire historical lifespan readily recognizing the continual differences that arise between various areas of the organization and this has made it possible for them to collectively work towards the same goal.
Finally, that leads into how interdisciplinarity is used to describe a process, a "process" that has a similar particular end in view. The goal of the organization is to be completely aware of all similarities and differences that exist thus having a more comprehensive understanding of a specific problem through the use of integration.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Multidisciplinary Versus Interdisciplinary
As a major public health organization here in Arizona, Planned Parenthood has continued work through an interdisciplinary approach. The past 90 years of history have aided in the development of planned parenthood's solid foundation within the community. Over the past few weeks it has become clear to me that this organization would not be nearly as successful in providing women with accurate knowledge and services pertaining to their health, without interdisciplinary ideals. More specifically, socially every single person who seeks care from planned parenthood is treated on an individual basis and because everyone is extremely different with different needs, the patent's 'problem/issue' must be resolved through the awareness of the numerous disciplines that can be used in each situation. If Planned Parenthood approached their patent's and their health problems in a multidisciplinary way, other health issues would get looked over and the best care possible would not be provided. Here in Arizona, there is such a diverse mixture of cultures around the valley that to ignore the need of integrating more than one approach when providing health services is imperative. Within Planned Parenthood the structure also aids in how integration is taking place. For example, I am working with the grassroots organizer and we're working among the public policy side of planned parenthood however there are still the physicians themselves who are seeing the patients and making diagnosis. In addition, there is the receptionists who answer phone calls all day giving information about health concerns in general and they book appointments. This entire organization works as a team collectively, but they all come from different backgrounds and hold different opinions however they're working toward a similar goal (just through different means) SUPPORTING A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO MAKE her own REPRODUCTIVE CHOICES!
Everyone has they're own voice, but to exercise that collectively with knowledge that one can contribute to the "problem" by integrating this discipline with that discipline is where the magic happens!
Everyone has they're own voice, but to exercise that collectively with knowledge that one can contribute to the "problem" by integrating this discipline with that discipline is where the magic happens!
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