Seeing as this is my first blog post, I’ll start out by giving you guys a little insight into my internship with Playworks.
First off, I’m minoring in Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship. Second of all, I have a very strong passion for working with inner city youth. Combined, these two interests have led me to engage in lots of work with New Orleans youth. This is why I was jumping out of my seat with excitement when I found out that I would be working with Playworks through the service learning component of my intro to social innovation course. I was even more enthused when Jill Vialet, founder and CEO of Playworks, gave a guest lecture in our class about her work as a Social entrepreneur. But it seems I’m getting a little ahead of myself, let me explain a little bit about Playworks and what they do.
Their website says it best: “Playworks is a national nonprofit organization that transforms schools by providing play and physical activity at recess and throughout the school day.“ Recess? What could they possibly do at recess, that’s just time for free play? People commonly respond in this way after initially hearing what Playworks does. What they might not realize is that Recess has become a huge issue in schools for 2 reasons:
1. Schools are removing recess from daily curriculums to make more time for academics.
2. Recess has become a chaotic mess of aggressive play and bullying, doing more harm for the kids than good
Now located in 22 cities, 360 schools, and serving over 270,000 kids a day, Playworks has found the solution to these problems. By planting a Playworks coach on the recess yard of their partner schools, Playworks is taking control of recess across the country. These coaches manage the recess grounds by implementing structured games that teach the kids valuable socioemotional skills like leadership and conflict resolution. Statistical studies have clearly shown that Playworks has immensely reduced bullying in schools and increased physical activity along with creating a much stronger learning environment.
Now that we’ve cleared up the gist of Playworks, let me get back to my encounter with Jill Vialet. Following her guest lecture, I approached her after class and told her a little bit about the work I’ve done with New Orlean’s youth. Following a little bit of small talk, I told Jill I lived in New Jersey and asked her about possible internship opportunities for the summer. She gave me somewhat of a mini interview and offered a position to me right on the spot. Who knew the power of networking was so strong? Just 45 minutes before that, I came to class anticipating another normal day of learning and within minutes I was walking away with the opportunity of a lifetime.
Which leaves me here, a third of the way done as a Playworks intern. Considering this is my first post, let me break down how this internship is planned out.
Phase 1: Work in various Playworks schools and get a feel for the on-the-ground work this extraordinary company does.
Phase 2: Work in the Playworks Greater Newark/Greater New York office with the goal of learning what a non-profit office environment looks like.
Phase 1 is nearly done and I cannot be enjoying it anymore. With that, I’ll leave you guys off with a piece of networking advice–a piece of advice that I carry around with me at all times:
“Walk through every door that opens for you, because you can always walk back out.”
Rest assured, I definitely won’t be walking back out of this door.
Thanks for reading!
Max
Max Seidman's Playworks Blog 