Monthly Archives: October 2009

10.06.09
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Join the Online Career Chat “Breaking into the Sector”

This Thursday, October 8th at noon ET, Idealist.org will partner with the Chronicle of Philanthropy for an online chat on Breaking into the Sector.

An intensely competitive job market is making it harder than ever for recent graduates and established business professionals to break into careers in the nonprofit world.

  • What can you do to stand out from the crowd?
  • What can you do to make sure you are an attractive candidate for a great new role when conditions improve?
  • And if you do land a position, what should you do to make the most of your opportunity?

Career transition experts Meg Busse and Steve Joiner (authors of the Idealist.org Guides to Nonprofit Careers and our Career Corner advice column) and nonprofit leader Rosetta Thurman will answer these questions and more.

We hope you will join us Thursday.

10.06.09
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Career Transitions: Exploring Your Options for Life After AmeriCorps

Contributed originally to the Nonprofit Career Month blog by Magdalena Montagne the Effective Practices Project Coordinator at the Resource Center.

People come to national and community service for a variety of reasons. As a young person, my desire to help children along with a love of reading led me to the America Reads program. I was considering becoming a teacher and this was one way I could check it out while also getting first-hand experience in several different classrooms (both elementary and middle school) and having the chance to observe some amazing teachers in action.

Of course, the real power was with the relationships I made with those students who were struggling to read. Every day I felt I was helping someone. This kept me engaged in a way that hadn’t happened in previous jobs, and before I knew it the service year was coming to a close. However, I hadn’t made a plan for what to do next. It wasn’t until several years — and several jobs — later, Continue reading →

10.05.09
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Civic Ventures Offers an Online Course to Help You Transition to Your Encore Career

A new online course helps mid-career professionals transition to a new career.

Marc Freedman, an career author, and the head of Civic Ventures, will be leading a four-art online course during Wednesday afternoons in October helping people to transition to an “encore” career — or a second career a person takes on typically in the “second half of life.” The course is part of the NY Times Knowledge Network.

  • Session #1, Oct. 7th, 6-7 pm ET, will provide an overview of the idea and phenomenon of encore careers.
  • Session #2, Oct. 14th, 6-7 pm ET, brings non-profit employers together to discuss what they’re looking for when Continue reading →
10.05.09
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Patrick Corvington Named as Likely Nominee for the Top CNCS Post

Patrick Corvington (from the CNCS website)

Patrick Corvington (from the CNCS website)

Friday, President Obama announced his intention to nominate Annie E. Casey Foundation senior associate Patrick Corvington as the C.E.O. of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) — the federal agency that oversees the AmeriCorps family of programs.

Corvington’s focus areas at Anne E. Casey Foundation have included next generation leadership development and capacity building with the foundation’s grantee organizations — themes that affect the work of AmeriCorps programs on the ground as well.

He co-authored Ready to Lead: Next Generation Leaders Speak Out a study that looked at the rising generation of nonprofit leaders’s reluctance to take on executive roles. He currently serves on the board of Echoing Green which offers highly competitive start-up fellowship funding for new nonprofit and social enterprise development, and he serves on the advisory board for American Humanics which educates college students about nonprofit leadership.

According to the press release from CNCS, Corvington also has “engaged directly with some of the top social innovation intermediaries.”

Other professional background details from the press release:

From 2003-2005, Corvington was Executive Director of Innovation Network, a non-profit agency whose Continue reading →

10.02.09
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Peace Corps Volunteers Survive and Recount Somoan Earthquake and Tsunami

From Wikipedia

From Wikipedia

News and blog reports reveal Peace Corps Volunteers had close encounters with the Samoan natural disasters of September 29.

Erica Wales, who serves in Salesatele, Falealili, Upolu, Samoa and blogs at Peace Corps Adventures in Samoa writes about getting to higher ground before the tsunami destroyed her house and that of her neighbors. In the immediate aftermath Peace Corps staff picked her up and brought her to the Samoan capital Apia:

I was sleeping when the 8.0 earthquake hit. My house started shaking and things were falling off shelves. Books fell down, the phone mounted on my wall fell down, cans of food fell…. So grabbed my phone and left my room…. About that time I got a call from the Peace Corps medical officer that I should probably move inland because the possibility of a tsunami. …

I was walking on the road which parallels the beach when I noticed something wasn’t right. I could see structures like rocks and coral which I have never seen above water, not even at the Continue reading →