We’ve all been home from Portland for a week now. I’ve been catching up on sleep, reading a lot, hanging out with friends back home (as we’re all finishing up with internships & research projects), DRIVING (whoa!), and preparing to go back to Duke (read: buying textbooks and packing). However, I realized I’d forgotten to wrap up this blog and our amazing summer in a really cool city in the Pacific Northwest.
My final series of entries will be posted in the next few days. I just have three more posts, I think. The first is this one; it will be about some of the problems we faced during our internships and during our time in Portland. The next will be about food – probably more for myself than anyone else but I feel is an appropriate and necessary topic because of many personal choices to become vegan/vegetarian and Portland’s unique food scene. The last will be my final thoughts, ranging from DukeEngage Academy to my last few projects at 1000 Friends, our program structure, a domestic DukeEngage program, and of course, Portland, and what this summer really was all about… John has already attempted and very well succeeded in this endeavor on his blog. Read the post here :]
So onto the first of three.
Problems we noticed/directly faced/wrestled with/found irritating/encountered more than once:
1. Not everyone likes Portland. Yes, they’re doing well for themselves, but that doesn’t mean other areas in Oregon want to be like them. Although they do wish they had certain amenities that Portland enjoys – its more extensive TriMet service and streetcars to name a few – even nearby neighborhoods like those in Washington County do not want to be “Portland-ized”. Portland is oft referred to as “The Republic of Portland.” Tread carefully.
2. An organization’s stance on one issue. Sometimes they may have a strong stance for or against, but most of the time, they do not have a specific position. When that happens, we interns must figure out how to address it appropriately in a public setting when representing our organizations.
3. Confidentiality. A lot of campaigns aren’t public. Legislative agendas are being finalized and content can’t be as easily shared as the click of the Send button in your outgoing e-mail. Some reports aren’t published yet and are for internal use only. Sometimes they have so much lingo we interns are lost and in a daze, mumbling about emissions and silver butterflies… stealthily and in our heads of course ;].
4. BUREACRACY.
5. Policy vs. Project: Do you start the project first and then write policy that allows that to happen? Or do you get together with a committee and start formulating policy, only then to realize that the other team’s project visions do not “fit” your policies? Is it possible to construct them both together and then have everything come together like jigsaw puzzle pieces or is it inevitable that they will clash together like crumbling bits of cookies as we collide them together? Don’t ask me.
6. What are we actually accomplishing? How effective is our work? That frustration that starts to seep in right around 2:30 every afternoon after the recent reviving from a food coma. Is there a need for an unpaid intern, aka me? Are my supervisors spending more of their time coming up with ways to explain projects to keep me occupied when they could’ve just done it themselves, faster, better? The answers: more than we can imagine; uncertain; yes; no. This goes for our volunteer projects as well.
7. ETHICS! Of our organization, of our internships, of Portlanders… it’s not so much a problem as a “dilemma.”
8. Clarity. Make sure you ask a LOT of questions! And then keep in mind that you might not necessarily get answers.
9. Time. Many of us finally began understanding our organizations and what exactly it is that they do toward the end of our time there. Then, all of our projects started to make more sense. And we didn’t even have barriers like language (save jargon) or cultural things (actually scratch that haha). It’s also summerTIME – which means a lot of non-profits are in a waiting period where they finalize things and kinda twiddle their thumbs (not really though, everyone’s still really busy) as compared to when legislative periods roll around and they can do more damage. A lot of people have strange hours and it’s hard to reach people via phone/e-mail/in person!
10. Communication!!!!! Or MIS-communication I should say.
To be honest, these weren’t necessarily obstacles to engagement – they were all part of our engagement, as we learned more about our environments, in every sense of the word, and more about our own skills and qualities.
It was very humbling, confusing, and rewarding all at once.
And in the end, we found solutions – or at least tried – for all these problems, with the help of all the cool people we met. I really can’t understate the power of people and their willingness to help you, a dizzy intern in a strangely fantastic city.
Ting-Ting
I’ve slipped up on readung your blog and have every intention of going but and following your entire journey.
As a person who moved from Charlotte to Portland I’ve enjoyed what I have read so far.
As far as Oregnians outside of Portland who don’t want to be Portland. That is a seriously true statement. We are often considered the Republic of Portland. We are a liberal forward thinking little big city in a state that hasn’t quite advanced so far.