This page includes:
- Job search and career exploration
- Ideas for emancipated foster youth
- How did I get here?
- My personality: Renaissance Soul or Scanner
Who am I?
Born in San Francisco, I was raised in Israel, where I did all my schooling, up to a masters in Biochemistry. Working at UCSF for 4 years, interacting with breast cancer patients, I learned that life is too short to sweat the small stuff. I also learned how to research anything, and find even more solutions to the challenges I faced. I am extremely determined, and clearly goal-oriented. Give me a goal and watch me learn what I need to know, contact a multitude of experts with different perspectives, and find solutions that address all the issues, and provide answers to all the questions raised. I was self-employed for 5 years, providing services to businesses. I maintained web sites, worked in retail, and developed many networks. My most recent employment was in processing welfare applications, giving me an understanding of yet another field, and renewed appreciation for the blessings in my life.
If I had to choose one life-lesson to mention, it would be that the answer to any challenge could come from an unexpected source. That is why I pursue many different directions until one provides the answers to my current goal.
Currently I am looking for gainful employment and/or a live-in caregiving situation that will allow me to reduce my housing expense, and provide community and services to my landlord/client(s). I arrived at this after renting a room in a house with a disabled woman who had a full time caregiver (yes, she is willing to provide a reference...).
Job/housing search and career exploration summary
I am currently looking for work and/or housing. I am renting an apartment in Moraga which used to consume half my take-home pay. I am evaluating how to address the challenge of supporting myself and my daughter on unemployment. I am revisiting an interest I have had since I was self-employed: helping aging adults. I have taken the first half of a workshop on dementia, which I found intriguing; and attended presentations of community resources. I would like to provide care as a live-in assistant.
In my last position at Marin County I spent 12+ hours a day away from home. I enjoyed the work, and the salary was enough for sustenance (although not prosperity); now that it is over I am re-evaluating my work-life situation. While I welcome the possibility of working full time, a live-in situation could be a viable alternative. My interest in community and my passion for assisting others and improving their lives makes providing live-in support and community particularly appealing and highly beneficial to all involved. I enjoy cooking, helping people, cultural and intellectual stimulation, and would assure my landlord/client an enriching and satisfying experience. I am an excellent planner, so most glitches would cause only minor inconveniences. If this appeals to you, or you know someone who would be interested, please contact me to discuss.
Given that I spend every other week with my amazing 16-year-old, it would be wonderful to share her joy, enthusiasm for life and for service with others. I would love to spend more time with her, and expand our community. She goes to school in Moraga, so residing within 20 minutes' drive of her school would be optimal. However, she and I are both "very Berkeley," so I would consider living in Berkeley or its vicinity, and driving her to school every morning (she starts jazz band at 7 am). Of course, that would make full time work difficult, so it would have to include a substantial care-giving component, so I could afford to work part time.
In the last few years I have worked in computer training and welfare processing. This allowed me to develop two skills concurrently: patience and skill training older adults on computers; and explaining regulatory requirements to people facing multiple challenges. I would love to use the knowledge and skills I have acquired to help those who were on the other side of the table.
Employment directions I am interested in:
- Management: I find that I can learn most fields fast enough to manage effectively after a short period. The one requirement I have is that my straight-forward, goal oriented personality fits into the culture of the organization I am working for. The fact that I ENJOY managing people sets me apart from most other candidates. My experience in management, coaching and training reinforce my skills in this area.
- I would like to work with emancipated foster youth, or manage a program. More about that in the Permanency Pact idea.
I have been hired into the UC system twice. Both times I submitted my resume, and then figured out who the hiring manager is. Once I went through the department HR representative (who have generally been forthcoming) and once I took the job description to someone listed as liaison to the posted position. I used the contact to identify the hiring manager. In both cases, my leg work paid off: the first position I held for 4 years, managing a $2.5M/year Breast Cancer research grant. The other was as an excellent challenge for my management skills, as a line manager at Cal, where I managed 14 staff members, and led the development of methods to cut operating costs in half. Consistent with UC culture, I managed by consensus; and true to my goal-oriented nature, got things done within the cumbersome UC bureaucracy.
I want to continue developing my skills in Performance Improvement, and use them to improve how organizations do business. I define Performance Improvement as dealing with the obstacles that arise from the people, the culture and the processes, and how they interact.
My interest in helping emancipated foster youth continues...
I made significant progress in identifying gaps in services for emancipated foster youth, and finding ways to address them. One gap is giving emancipated foster youth experiences that will help them discover their passions. Another is helping them identify their support networks, and consciously develop their networks to build resilience. A third is harnessing a relatively abundant resource I am very familiar with - adult volunteers - in helping emancipating foster youth.
I am connected to a few large volunteer organizations. I would like to enlist volunteers who are willing to include a youth in activities that are part of their life, about which they are passionate.
Types of activities:
- Social and other club meetings (such as Rotary, Toastmasters, Lions', etc.)
- A few hours on the job
- Hobbies
- Sports: participatory team sports, coaching
- Recreational activities: yoga, hiking, biking, dancing
- Volunteer activities: feeding the homeless, stuffing envelopes, organizing an event, participating in an emergency drill
- Cultural activities: a visit to a museum, a show, a festival
- Educational activities: a lecture, a class
- Etc.
How did I get here?
When I realized the real estate market would no longer support our current business model, I started exploring my options. This included online searching and over 20 informational interviews. My conclusion is that I want to coordinate the efforts of professionals involved with "performance improvement." This includes improving the people (usually addressed by Training and Development), the work processes (addressed by fields such as six sigma, lean, etc.), and the environment (usually addressed by the field of Organizational Development).
ISPI calls this Human Performance Technology, and has an experience-based certification process that is called "Certified Performance Technologist." I participated in a workshop, where for 3 days we learned basic tools and exercised using them on case studies.
In exploring an appropriate educational background I came up short. I have not yet found an academic program that would give me a solid background for this. An MBA would be helpful in that it would allow me to speak the language of MBAs, and address the bottom line; a masters in Organizational Development would contribute; and there are a multitude of six sigma and similar programs. But I have yet to find a program that addresses the integration of all these techniques and approaches.
All this is currently on hold, but if you have any thoughts on the subject, would like to suggest resources, or just want to discuss these issues, email me.
Permanency Pacts
This is a moving target. Please bear with me as it changes form and goes from ideas and concepts to an implemented program.
Objective: To help emancipated foster youth build support communities.
My dream is to develop a program that helps emancipated foster youth form support systems that will serve the roll that extended family and family friends serve for most of us. I would like to engage "mainstream" or "middle class" people who are involved in different communities - former CASAs, job seekers, church and community organizations - in helping with individual tasks, with the hope that some of these relationships will evolve into lifelong connections. Also, I would like to work with youth to discover what their network consists of, so we can supplement it to cover all their needs.
I have developed a concept of what this might look like, and I am studying what is available, and what
additional programs would be helpful. I am trying to get as many perspectives
as possible (feel free to email me to
discuss). Right now it looks like an area of need is to provide experiences with hobbies
and other activities, things adults do with their time other than TV and un-healthy activities, and places where people
find friends and community.
My vision is that some of the volunteers providing a one-time experience will have chemistry with some of the young adults
they interact with, and this might lead to longer relationships. Ultimately, the goal is to allow each young adult to
create permanency pacts with multiple adults of their
choosing to cover a variety of supports.
"Renaissance Soul" is a term coined by Margaret Lobenstine and "scanner" is a term coined by Barbara Sher to
describe people who have an insatiable curiosity, love to learn and do new things, and seem to be "jumping"
from one thing to another. This goes along with an extraordinary propensity for learning and modifying your world
view. Barbara Sher describes many subtypes, and through reading her book "Refuse to Choose" I have identified
myself as a "Plate Spinner" and a "Wanderer." As a plate spinner I have multiple interests and I keep coming back to them, keeping all the “plates” in the air
simultaneously. The clearest manifestation of this is that I have returned to the interest in older adult services,
to address my current sustenance challenge; and I am back to the networking circuit, reconnecting with people I haven't
interacted with in a while. The
quest to chart an educational path to my ultimate career (the one I will have when I grow up) is on hold, but
I have been knitting and actually finishing projects.
I participate in Israeli Folk dancing, volunteer at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
and usher at the Aurora Theatre. Studying to read torah (the scroll has
neither vowels, nor punctuation, so you have to memorize the music), and going to West coast
Live are currently on hold. Did I mention I have been enjoying spending time with my teen? Being a Wanderer is about being interested in a specific aspect of everything. For me it is: what is the challenge?
So, for instance, I discovered that the challenge in sign language is developing the dexterity to move your
hands fast enough to be fluent. I just discovered that you can have an accent in sign language, too, which
I think is fascinating. While I am not interested in mastering sign language, when it relates to business
and people, I tend to be interested in possible solutions, all the way through implementation. When I
performed a traditional job analysis for the Educational Director at my synagogue, and discovered that the
position includes 130% effort, using 3 distinct skills sets - educational, managerial and administrative -
my immediate reaction was to try to carve it up so that we could end up with manageable effort, for which
we could find a mere mortal who could successfully perform the 100% position we could afford. I am interested in business and management. After I completed my masters in Biochemistry, when my son was still
a newborn, I took some Open University classes. I thought that one day I might pursue a business degree.
I was fascinated by the quantification of human, emotional activities (such as shopping) in Microeconomics,
and learned things in Social Psychology that I still use today. I looked for work managing staff but
was probably too young and inexperienced. After 4 years at UCSF, I was hired at a medical device startup.
I started thinking about the field of decision making – which I learned about from a Stanford project in
patient decision making regarding their care at the Breast Care Center at UCSF – as it pertained to clinical
research in medical device startups and pharmaceutical companies. My second position at a medical device
company focused on introducing compliance with international standards into existing research studies; the
5 direct reports, medical and psychology students, were mentioned during the interview as an aside. I
worked at creating a team using team building exercises and excursions, and continued to use those skills
in my position at UC Berkeley. I enjoyed team building and coaching my employees; but I also enjoyed
figuring out how to make the operations work better for everyone. This led to an exploration of Management Consulting, Organizational Development and Performance Improvement,
another facet of business. While each of these terms has different meanings to different people, I have
found at least one for each that resonates with what I would like to do. In conclusion, almost any topic can pique my interest. Once I understand what the challenges are, I address them
with skills I enjoy using. And for me, that is the essence of being a scanner. I have taken a position in Social Services - an opportunity to merge my interest in people, and my propensity
to master rules-driven programs. I am excited about learning something completely new, and helping
both clients and my co-workers, as part of my job will include helping my co-workers with the software I trained. Whether you need a modest web presence or new
content on your existing web site, Seri will do it promptly and at a reasonable price.
Seri has built websites from scratch, and updated web sites written by others. Choose between a one-time revision and periodic updates.
Renaissance Soul
or
Scanner: Plate spinner and Wanderer
Construction
Design coordination, floor plan consulting and project manager (construction). Design and project management from beginning to end provided for:
-
2 Condos in Jerusalem
Cosmetic remodel in Moraga
Expansion and complete remodel of house in Orinda - note the floor plan
Expansion and complete remodel of house in Moraga
Expansion and complete remodel of another house in Orinda
Knitting instruction
Knitting is my passion. I have a varied curriculum, or I can tailor
a class to your needs.
I currently work at Yarn Boutique in Lafayette, as well
as offering classes through the Moraga Parks and Recreation Department (see their
spring programs to be published
in December, 2007).