UC Berkeley Public Service Center: Internship Handbook

Public Service Internships Handbook

Oakland Community Builders

Berkeley Community Arts Administration Program

Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 2 About The Public Service Center .......................................................................................................................... 2 Internship Programs ............................................................................................................................................. 3

The Internship Experience ................................................................................................................. 5 What Makes a Quality Internship? ....................................................................................................................... 5 Setting Goals and Expectations ............................................................................................................................ 5 Learning Office Culture ......................................................................................................................................... 6 Building Relationships for Success ........................................................................................................................ 6

Meaningful Experience ....................................................................................................................... 7 Experiential Learning ............................................................................................................................................ 7

Risk Management................................................................................................................................. 8 Healthy Communities ........................................................................................................................................... 8 Resources and Examples................................................................................................................................... 8 Harassment and Discrimination Guidelines and Protocol .................................................................................... 9 Misconduct of Supervisor/Co�Workers towards a Student Participant ........................................................... 9

Leveraging Your Experience – Telling Your Story........................................................................ 9 Build Your Network............................................................................................................................................. 10 Leave a Good Impression.................................................................................................................................... 11 Update Your Resume, Translate Your Experience .............................................................................................. 11 Researching an Organization .............................................................................................................................. 12

Internship Success and Inspiration ............................................................................................... 12 Additional Resources......................................................................................................................... 13

Introduction A public service internship is a powerful, transformative experience. By learning, reflecting and sharing with your peers, supervisors, and colleagues you will inevitably grow. We hope you will use this opportunity to further your professional growth and enhance your ability to create positive and meaningful change in the world. Those who have come before you have impacted policy at a local or national level, created a social media presence, streamlined processes for organizations leveraging hands on experience or their formal education. Their impact in the communities served is deeply rooted in public service and social justice.

The Public Service Center serves as the change agent navigating and supporting you through your experience. Your choice to take part in a public service internship is the next step in bridging the collegiate experience with real world issues to create meaningful change. We hope you take this responsibility seriously and that you model the Center’s core values. Additionally, through this experience we hope you will be motivated to create healthy, just communities – both within your college experience, and in the world.

This handbook will tell you a little about the center and provide an overview of our internship programs. It will also provide information about how to maximize your internship experience, build powerful relationships with your peers and supervisors and provide ways of making meaning from the experience. Finally, the handbook will give insights on how to leverage the experience you have gained as you move forward in your career and how your internship will fit into your larger story of service. We encourage you to refer to this handbook regularly, as different parts will speak to your experience at different times.

About The Public Service Center Founded in 1967 as the Community Projects Office, the Public Service Center promotes the UC Berkeley mission of public service by coordinating a variety of activities and programs to train, advise, and support students, faculty, and staff. Our programs and services assist campus community members in developing leadership skills, positive social relationships, a stronger sense of self and community, and principles of justice and social action.

The Public Service Center was originally founded by the ASUC to fund and support student service groups in the community. Throughout the last thirty years, the Public Service Center has worked on a number of important issues including homelessness, education and advocacy, the prison industrial complex, and environmental programming. In the 1980s, the Public Service Center became part of the Office of Student Life in a unique partnership to better support students and the community. The ASUC continues to fund the Student-Initiated Community Service Projects program, 2 Public Service Internships Handbook

provides office space and staffs the Center. The Center is also funded by a variety of private foundations, the City of Berkeley, state, and federal grants.

The Center’s Public Service Internships programs include Cal in Local Government, The Magnolia Project, the Berkeley Community Arts Administration Program, Oakland Community Builders and Cal in the Capital. Each year, students engage in reflective and meaningful projects with partner sites directly impacting change. The internship issue areas span across areas such as policy, arts, international relations, foreign policy, youth, education, race, class, health, aging, violence, and environment. Students leave these experiences making informed decisions about their role in public service, and often go on to further serve their communities or serve as leaders in our programs.

Public Service Center Core Values: Experiential & Reflective Learning We believe people learn best through hands-on learning coupled with intentional reflection. Through this process we also learn about our own values and strengths, deepening our ability to take intentional action.

Collaboration & Commitment We believe the challenges facing our communities are complex, and can only be addressed through long-term, sustainable relationships. We are committed to the process required for successful collaboration and seek to form mutually beneficial partnerships for long-term community impact.

Community Wisdom We believe wisdom comes from lived experience and so community members can be some of our best teachers. We value our community partners as co-educators who support student learning in ways the classroom cannot.

Student Agency We believe in the power and possibility of students taking action. We value student passions, talents, ideas and experiences and believe in their capacity to be successful change agents and leaders.

Equity & Justice We believe societal structures tend to privilege the powerful. Without the intentional actions of individuals, the needs of those with fewer resources are overlooked. We believe that there are enough resources to meet the basic needs of all, and to enable each person to live a full life.

Internship Programs Berkeley Community Arts Administration Program Berkeley Community Arts Administration Program (bCAAP) places undergraduates in 9 month fund development or marketing/communications internships with one of 10 Berkeley-based arts organizations. Interns gain first-hand experience in non-profit administration, intensive training, and participation in a community arts lecture series. bCAAP 3 Public Service Internships Handbook

seeks energetic, highly motivated, detail-oriented, tech savvy individuals with an interest in non-profit management who are able to dedicate 6-8 hours/week to the position.

Cal in Local Government

Student Agency I could produce tangible, solid results, such as the Volunteer Manual that includes information relevant to all the senior centers in Berkeley and aims to improve services for the elderly. – City of Berkeley, Aging Services CLG Intern

Cal in Local Government (CLG) places students in project-based internships at local government agencies in Berkeley, Oakland, and Emeryville to educate students about the variety of roles in local government, the impact of local government, local government structure and operations; provide capable, enthusiastic interns for sites; and strengthen the relationship between local government offices and the university.

Cal in the Capital Founded in 1965, Cal in the Capital has supported over 2000 UC Berkeley students to find internships in Washington DC. These alumni of the program provided more than 800,000 hours of service, impacting all areas of government and many non-governmental organizations.

Undergraduate students intern in Washington DC from early June through the middle of August, and most students work full-time. Cal in the Capital recruits undergraduate students from all majors, backgrounds and interests. As a result, Cal in the Capital interns have served in hundreds of different settings - including Congressional offices, federal agencies, think tanks, research centers, and nonprofit organizations.

Oakland Community Builders The Oakland Community Builders (OCB) Internship Program trains students in organizing strategies while addressing the needs of communities in the East Bay. The program aims to: collaborate with grassroots, community-based organizations in the East Bay to help them meet their organizing goals; train students in organizing strategies, tactics, and qualities of an effective organizer; provide a forum for grassroots leaders to formally mentor students; and connect communities with campus resources, including faculty and staff engaged in advocacy work on a broad range of issues.

The Magnolia Project Formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, The Magnolia Project is a University of California, Berkeley student social justice organization created in collaboration with the UC Berkeley Public Service Center. In 2006, UC Berkeley began partnering with community based organizations in New Orleans and 2013-14 marks the eighth year of a ten-year commitment to working in solidarity with Gulf Coast communities. The Magnolia Project seeks dedicated students who are not afraid to get dirty and challenge their own assumptions about a just rebuilding process in the Gulf Coast.

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The Internship Experience What Makes a Quality Internship?

Community Wisdom Internships give you the opportunity to evaluate what

By aligning your internship experience with the following matters most to you; look for what you are passionate recommendations, you can grow personally and about. Explore and study what you are interested in professionally while making an impact in issue areas that and think about what you want to accomplish in five to ten years. – Intern Supervisor you care about. Quality internships are project oriented, have specific learning outcomes, mentoring or professional skill building components, and specific durations. Be diligent in taking the following steps before, during and after your internship experience:

Before your internship:  Orient yourself to the organization and its culture and the community served  Request a handbook and/or website for your work  Consider your values and why you are doing this internship

During your internship: Include regularly scheduled meetings with supervisor to discuss progress Do informational interviews with your supervisor and colleagues to “learn their stories and tell yours” Ask questions, challenge yourself, challenge your assumptions and be proactive Involve yourself in reflective dialogue to be an active member in making change Learn about “the big picture” of your efforts Seek opportunities to explore multiple functions of the organization Work with your supervisor to create defined outcome, goal, or project that will be due at the end of the experience  Keep a list of your accomplishments and projects completed during your internship

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After your internship:    

Hold an exit interview with the organization to discuss how things went, what worked, what did not Keep in touch with your supervisor(s) and colleagues for networking purposes, etc.

Tell your story, share your experience with others Determine how this experience shapes what you want to do or don’t want to do

Setting Goals and Expectations Most internship experiences will require that you establish professional goals for yourself; often these goals will be used as part of your performance appraisals, and so it is especially important that they are measurable, attainable, and time-bound. Setting

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S – specific M – measurable A – attainable R – realistic T – timely

SMART goals will allow you to maximize the impact of your work, as well as benchmark your progress and help you plan for your future efforts.

A goal is a precise, measurable statement of what you will achieve during a specified period of time toward a particular desired outcome. It is essentially a statement about what will change, be completed, or developed. All goals should be SMART. Having a clear vision of the end state we are trying to achieve before we take action is the key to creating meaningful change in the community and driving your professional development forward. By setting sharp, clearly defined goals and objectives, you can measure your progress and continuously motivate yourself to progress toward the vision you have for your ideal community and work life. You will be able to see forward movement in what might otherwise feel like a long, difficult grind. By setting and taking action toward your goals and objectives, you will raise your selfconfidence, in turn improving your efficacy in enacting social change.

Learning Office Culture Workplace cultures can vary widely. Whether you’re interning at a governmental office or a grassroots non-profit, it’s important to learn as much as you can about how a workplace is run, what its values are and how staff relate to one another. Understanding workplace culture will allow you to integrate into the work more seamlessly, increasing your ability to do meaningful work to help the community partner meet its goals. You may also be taking part in a virtual internship that doesn’t involve working on site with your organization. If you will be working remotely, be sure to have a discussion with your supervisor on how to navigate working remotely from your office. You’ll want to talk about supervision styles and the sorts of support that you will need to meet your goals effectively. It’s particularly important to hold regular meetings with your supervisor to discuss goals and objectives; make certain that there are clear guidelines on what constitutes good work. Also, make sure to have clear guidelines on the project work to be completed, deadlines, and create space to dialogue about progress.

Some aspects of office culture are explicit. Pay attention to the way that colleagues and your supervisor are behaving.

Is this a casual workplace where jeans are the norm, or are employees expected to wear suits? Is the environment more bureaucratic or is it flat? Is the executive leadership of your organization easily accessible or willing to hold informational interviews with you? See what behaviors are rewarded in the office and emulate them. Most importantly, ask colleagues about office culture to learn the cultural norms that are less obvious but just as important.

This practice may also help you as you seek out mentorship in your internship experience.

Building Relationships for Success It is often said that when you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there. Lacking good direction and guidance can have an impact your internship experience as well as your overall career growth. It is important to identify professionals in the office you work who have the ability, time and dedication to give you helpful advice, which could make all the difference in helping you to reach your goals for public service and professionally. This would be a mentor, a person who serves as a trusted counselor, teacher, and a catalyst for your talent and growth.

Good mentoring comes in many forms; however here are some of the things you can learn or be helped with from a mentor: 6 Public Service Internships Handbook

 Gain in-depth knowledge about the industry or sector that you work in, as well as the culture of the organization that you are a part of. This is especially helpful if you are new to both.  Improve your leadership and communication skills.  Build a network of contacts within and without the organization.  Get a real world perspective, as well as insights on where to focus your efforts and look for challenges in your workplace.

When identifying a mentor, you do not necessarily need to restrict your search to your immediate supervisor or even senior management. It is much more important a mentor be accessible, willing to assist you or guide you, possess skills that you need or wish to develop, be honest and open to feedback, and be an experienced professional in their field.

Specific expertise is helpful, but so is an understanding of interpersonal communication and other typical challenges that young professionals face.

When initiating a relationship with a potential mentor, there are a few key things to consider. First, remember that while having a strong rapport with that person, a mentor is not necessarily a friendship. Make sure that you’re aware and respectful of a mentor’s availability so that you’re not in conflict with their schedule. They will have jobs and priorities of their own, so be aware of this.

Identifying mentors and building relationships with them requires time and energy, however the long-term benefits to mentoring are significant and farreaching. A relationship that you build as an intern could continue to be useful to you far into your career, with mentors serving as excellent references or helping you to continue building your professional network. Because of this, it is important to remain in touch with your mentors throughout your career and keep them updated on what you are doing.

Very quickly, I fell in love with Rethink New Orleans and all of the folks I was working with. It was important to me to find a way to show with my actions that I was fully committed and invested in the space and in the young people we were working with, as well as to demonstrate that I wouldn't be just disappearing after this summer. – Magnolia Project intern at Rethink

Meaningful Experience Experiential Learning Your internship experience is a vehicle for creating meaningful, transformative change in your community. It is also a means for you to increase your skill set, knowledge and abilities that you could not gain from reading a book or taking a class. Experiential learning refers to the process of making meaning from direct experience. There are a number of things you can do in order to have a successful experience. The most important to these is reflecting upon the work you are doing, where your energies could be best spent, and areas of improvement that can be made. This reflection will also serve you well when it comes time to undergo evaluation and assessment of your efforts with your supervisor.

Reflection

Taking the time to reflect is essential in order for experiential learning to occur. Reflection is also an aspect of providing quality service along with service and education. Reflection allows you to: 7 Public Service Internships Handbook

 Give meaning to the experience (was the goal accomplished, how was the community served, did you learn about yourself, what are skills you still want to attain, and what skills have you gained thus far)  Understand the limitations and opportunities of the service site or community organization  Relieve tension and provide-re-energizing Reflection activities will allow you to make specific connections between what you believe, what you have done, and the ways the world and yourself have been improved. Through reflection, you will make connections to real world situations, experience personal growth and development, connect to others, gain understanding, develop citizenship skills, share reactions and feelings about an event, and learn.

What is Reflection?

Reflection is the process of thinking about our experiences and attributing meaning to them. It occurs naturally for all human beings and is the key to learning new things and increasing understanding. Reflection may include acknowledging and/or sharing of reactions, feelings, observations, and ideas about one’s work. Reflection can happen through speaking, writing, listing, reading, drawing, acting and other creative ways.

Why Reflect?

There is an old Chinese proverb that states “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand.” We do not learn by simply doing, we learn from thinking about what it is that we do. Reflection is a crucial part of any service. Research shows that reflection has positive impacts on the attitudes of service providers and the service activity. In addition to improving the impact of one’s service, reflection also allows you to maximize the skills that you acquire during your service internship, which can be focused back to the communities that you will serve in the future.

Risk Management Healthy Communities While you are completing your work in creating healthier, more just communities, the most important thing you can do is to ensure the physical and emotional safety of all participants. Only by running safe experiences for colleagues, clients, and employers can you make transformational shifts – with your colleagues, and within your community. If you prepare in advance so that neither you nor any others suffer any injury or harm while you serve and document everything that you do to ensure safety, you can also avoid the possibility that someone might sue you or the University in connection with your service work.

The most useful tool is common sense. Try to prevent accidents. If something you are about to do seems risky or unsafe, then don’t do it. If you notice a hazard when you’re working on site, report it or try to fix it, and try to keep your community partners safely away from it. Just use your best judgment and be intelligently cautious. When you take any of these actions, be sure to document what you did.

Resources and Examples

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Student Toolkit p. 16-21, also ideas throughout for how to build healthy groups Experiential Learning: http://publicservice.berkeley.edu/experiential-learning Center for Student Conduct: http://sa.berkeley.edu/conduct/sexual-harassment

Risk Management Scenario You have to walk home from an internship event or take public transportation around 8pm. You find out that one of your co-workers who also walks home was followed from the site and was mugged.

What do you do to make sure you feel safe? What other actions need to take place? What can be done so this can be prevented?

Harassment and Discrimination Guidelines and Protocol The Public Service Center is committed to engaging students in professional and safe working/learning environments. In accordance with UC policies, the Public Service Center will not tolerate any form of harassment, intimidation or discrimination. This applies to site supervisors and co‐workers toward a student, as well as students toward their site supervisors and co‐workers. The Center asks students to report any incident as soon as possible, allowing both the University and the internship site the opportunity to promptly intervene. Individuals may feel embarrassed or ashamed to admit that an incident has occurred, however it is important for instances where students are uncomfortable to be reported so that the proper interventions can occur.

Misconduct of Supervisor/Co‐Workers towards a Student Participant The Public Service Center encourages sites to share their sexual harassment and/or discrimination policy. When a student intern contacts the Center staff and reports any form of harassment or discrimination that he/she may be experiencing, the Center staff will consult with appropriate campus offices (e.g., the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, campus legal counsel) and coordinate appropriate interventions with the participating site and supervisor.

Behaviors that may constitute as sexual harassment and discrimination include (but are not limited to) the following: • disparaging remarks and other forms of discrimination based on race, religion, age, national origin, genetic information, pregnancy, and ability • email online with any content that makes the student uncomfortable • sexual innuendos or persistent use of sexually suggestive/discriminatory language which another person finds offensive, demeaning, or otherwise inappropriate • verbal sexual abuse disguised as humor • subtle pressure for sexual activity • persistent, unwelcome requests for dates • physical aggression such as pinching and patting or unnecessary brushes or touches • offensive sexual graffiti • failure to provide required accommodations for religion, pregnancy, and disability • intersectional discrimination (discrimination based on two characteristics) • obscene gestures • sexist remarks about a person's clothing, body, or sexual activities • conditioning an educational or employment decision or benefit on submission to sexual conduct

Leveraging Your Experience – Telling Your Story We hope your public service internship experience is only one of many acts of service you engage in throughout your life. To that end, this section provides resources to help sustain you in your efforts to live a lifetime of service. This 9 Public Service Internships Handbook

section will help you to think about how the public service internship you engaged in fits into your larger goals, how to leverage the skills that you have built and the relationships that you have formed, and empower you with the tools to share that knowledge with the world. It will also speak philosophically on how to sustain you on that journey.

As you are moving through your internship remember to ask these critical questions:        

What sorts of skills am I gaining?

How does this work fit into my long term career goals?

How has this experience changed the way I perceive public service?

Where are my areas of growth and how can my supervisor challenge and develop me?

Is this someplace that I would want to work?

What are the next steps after this experience?

What can you learn or share with other peers or interns, maximizing the overall experience?

How will I share my experience, so others will be inspired to serve and do internships as well?

Build Your Network The Public Service Center likes to think of “networking” as building your own personal community. In the same way communities we serve help one another, your personal network will serve you well by connecting you with opportunities, providing important insights about a field of work, as well as allow you to grow in your personal and professional development. The work you complete in your public service internship will provide you with many valuable contacts, but here are some helpful tips to further building out your network:  Ask for informational interviews. People are usually willing to be taken out for lunch or coffee if you ask nicely and express your interest to their field and are looking to be involved and want their advice on where you would be most needed.  For a “how to”, see: https://career.berkeley.edu/plan/infointerview.stm  Use LinkedIn to Build Your Network  First connect with “low hanging fruit”, i.e. accessible, easy connections o Parents and other relatives o Internship managers and colleagues o Community partners from service experiences o Alumni from service groups o Public Service Center specific groups o See: http://learn.linkedin.com/students/

Community Wisdom It will all be worth it when you make a valuable connection that can help you accomplish your goals. – Department of Homeland Security CITC Intern

 Leverage networking/search resources, including o Public Service Center alumni Facebook groups. For links and more info for the following groups, check out http://publicservice.berkeley.edu/alumni  NorCal  SoCal  New Orleans  DC, Maryland, Virginia 10 Public Service Internships Handbook

o o o o o

UC Berkeley Career Center: http://career.berkeley.edu Jobs & Internships Guide: https://career.berkeley.edu/Guide/Guide.stm CalJobs: https://career.berkeley.edu/Callisto/CalJobs.stm Idealist: www.idealist.org “How to land a Non-Profit Job”, http://thesjsucareercenter.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/how-to-land-anon-profit-job/

Leave a Good Impression Much of the ability to convert the internship into a full-time position (at this site or elsewhere) comes from leaving a good impression at the end of the experience.       

Give a final presentation Smoothly transition off all your projects Send a proper goodbye email Schedule an exit interview with your supervisor and other key people you worked with Take time to reflect, then tell people what you are interested in doing next Send hand written thank you notes to people who impacted your experience Follow-up and stay in touch

Update Your Resume, Translate Your Experience How can you translate your internship experience into resume language? How can you present the skills you gained to future employers or for graduate school applications? How can you tell your story through a resume? Many interns complete their internship experience stating how great it was or how it was life changing but are not quite sure how to capture this experience in their resumes or for future use.

Here are some of the common skills gained through public service internship experiences to consider highlighting in your resume.

Respect for different perspectives Cultural awareness Network Publication Ability to collaborate with peers, community partners, faculty, staff Determining needs Meeting goals

Research experience Leadership experience Facilitation skills Problem solving skills Coalition building ability Communication Flexibility/Adaptability Critical analysis

Marketing Proposal writing Public speaking Project management Policy writing Social media development Event planning Critical dialogue Building work plans

Your resume and application materials should market your skills and accomplishments as they relate to the job for which you’re applying. Target your resume, highlighting your accomplishments and skill sets that are specific to the position you are applying to. The information below is designed to help you organize what you know of yourself and your experiences, which will allow you to create an updated targeted resume. You can also use this information to assist you in reflecting on lifelong goals, career objectives, and to develop strategies for how you will communicate that to others.

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Resume Tip: Think about the job you want, not necessarily the jobs you’ve done in the past. Think about the skills, knowledge, and experience that a really well-qualified person would need to get this job. Look back at your list of what you’ve done and circle your skills, experiences and classes, etc. that are compatible with the job you want. If you are uncertain of these things, make an appointment to see the Career Center to learn about the industry or employer.

Reminders  Remember to emphasize the impact, accomplishment, results and your role in your resume bullets  Include all relevant experience. This could mean volunteering, internships, community projects, classes you have taken, etc.  Know another language? Computer-savvy? Incorporate that into your skills if it fits with the needed qualifications.  Try to keep it to a page. Don’t overwhelm a potential employer, but the key is making sure it is relevant!

Researching an Organization Before you go for a job interview, it’s important to find out as much as you can about the organization. That way you’ll be prepared both to answer interview questions and to ask the interviewer questions as well. You will also be able to find out whether the company and their culture are a good fit for you. Take some time in advance to use the Internet and any network connections you might have to learn as much as you can about the company. This includes visiting the organization website, using social media like Facebook and Twitter, and using LinkedIn to connect with and hear what current employees are saying.

Internship Success and Inspiration I learned the importance of establishing connections with professionals within the community such as my supervisor who behave as our role models and means for advancing future social change. - CLG Intern

I am most proud of researching the regulations and guiding VEGGI to meet standards to sell directly to consumers at farmers markets. – MP intern

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My number one of piece of advice to interns looking to network or find a job: know what you want to do and be able to say it in one concise sentence – CITC intern

I have a deeper understanding and analysis of the effectiveness of grassroots community organizing efforts - OCB Intern

Additional Resources Websites http://publicservice.berkeley.edu http://publicervice.berkeley.edu/internships http://career.berkeley.edu Questions?    

Visit 102 Sproul Review program pages Email the program directors For program directors office hours, check out the program pages for specific details

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