I was excited when I heard about the project that Geethika and I were going to work on this summer. I had worked at a couple of refugee organizations before doing mainly case management work, and I came into the summer wanting a different experience. Working on a case study spoke to many of the skills that I had gained in an academic research setting, and it was compelling to get to use some of these skills in the field.
Like any non-profit, this does not mean I entirely work just on the case study. Just two days ago, we went to visit some of the kids who were in one of ILearn’s programs in the field. I sat with two of the girls in a classroom and tried to help them with math while they tried to teach me the Arabic words for “multiply,” “over,” “add,” and “minus.” I felt slightly silly trying to help them at first because I did not have the vocabulary to be an effective teacher. But, after time, I picked up on the words, and one of the girls and I fell into a routine of solving the problems together. I think that is one of the most unique parts of working at a non-profit. Your job is rarely limited to the initial project that you were assigned. This is entirely different than school. At school, you are in a hyper-limited environment. Even the assignments with some creative freedom require that you adhere to a rubric that will tell you that you were successful. Non-profit work is rarely that. Sure, I may have been initially assigned the case study project. But, sometimes you are going to spend your day attending meetings with your supervisor in the field and helping a little girl do math across a language barrier. Working at ILearn has reminded me that variety at work and doing jobs you did not expect to do is a valuable experience that I can continuously learn from.
Outside of the job, I feel as though my life is about balancing spending time in Jordan and preparing for graduating from college next year. I want to spend every weekend exploring a new area of the country and drinking tea in a cafe but I am also stressed about what I am going to do after university. While I am learning to go with the flow more at my job, I am learning how to structure my time without short-term deadlines to keep me motivated.
In general, I think what keeps me motivated to work is my genuine interest and passion for the projects I am working on. It is easy to feel discouraged for a variety of reasons both at and outside of work but if you just remind yourself of your genuine interest I think it is easier to overcome barriers such as a narrow time frame and big projects.
