As I begin my summer internship tomorrow at the Fulfillment Fund, I am struck by how this experience is going to differ from my “day job” as a high school English teacher. Although I am in business school and working to move into a career in non-profit, all of my professional experience has been on an LAUSD high school campus, run by bells. This summer experience will not only provide a way for me to apply what I am learning in Cost Accounting or Strategy, but will also transition me from a very specific working environment to a more traditional one. I wonder what it will be like to be able to use the restroom freely or to make it through a day without the mind-numbing fire alarm going off. Will these changes make me work more productively or will I miss the quirky environment of a school?
I also wonder what it will be like to take another step behind the curtain. When I was studying to become a teacher, I was struck by how much thought and time was put into activities that, as a student, I saw as effortless. Now as a teacher, I tend not to think of the programs that are designed and run off-campus. As I work with one of these programs this summer, I wonder how my attitude will change yet again.
Lastly, I am curious as to how I will be received in my new working environment. I occupy two seemingly opposite positions in life: high school English teacher and business school student. I wonder which the Fulfillment Fund will see me as. Additionally, I wonder whether I will be able to use this experience to merge these two parts of me. I am hoping I can.
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