SMIF: Search Everywhere
Design Corps
Christine Johnson, MBA2
Issue date: 12/3/01 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
This is one of a series of articles highlighting the different experiences students have had on their summer SMIF internships.
Although I rarely check the New York Times online, I happened to peruse its contents about this time last fall. The lead article in the House & Home section described a nonprofit organization that built innovative and low-cost housing for migrant farmworkers. The pictures of the housing caught my eye and the story about its founder, Bryan Bell, caught my imagination. I was immediately interested in working at Design Corps; the organization combined my interests in social entrepreneurship, architecture, and agriculture policy.
By March I had submitted a lot of resumes and gone on a couple of interviews but still hadn’t heard anything back from the email I had sent to Design Corps months earlier. I decided to try again and this time I quickly received an excited email from Bryan Bell. We spent the next couple of weeks figuring out how a business school student could be helpful to Design Corps and how the internship would be structured.
Since Bryan Bell still can’t afford to pay himself four years after founding Design Corps, my salary was paid for by SMIF and a local fellowship, the Sustainable Communities Leadership Program (SCLP).
When I arrived in Raleigh, NC, I showed up at Bryan’s house the first morning, since the Design Corps office is 30 miles outside of Raleigh in a rural area. I did most of my work from his home and from my apartment while I was in Raleigh--I only went to the office twice the entire summer.
Design Corps is made up of Bryan Bell, the Executive Director, and seven interns that are recent architecture graduates and are working for Design Corps for one year as part of an AmeriCorps fellowship. As the only non-architect I was the “expert” on accounting, finance, marketing, operations, and everything else not related to architecture.
Design Corps had recently received a lot of media attention as well as increased inquiries from farmers and state agencies about how to build high-quality migrant farmworker housing. My job was to figure out how to capitalize on the increased interest while also pursuing a partnership with a larger nonprofit that would allow Design Corps to grow.
The result was a Five Year Strategic Plan that describes Design Corp’s strategic partnership, lays out financial projections for the next five years, creates job descriptions and a workplan for employees, and establishes surveys and contract agreements for farmers. To create the plan, Bryan and I lobbied members of Congress in Washington, DC, and initiated a partnership with the Association of Farmworker Opportunities Program (AFOP). The partnership will help Design Corps move into new regions each year, by placing Design Corp’s interns at AFOP offices and using AFOP connections to the agricultural community to develop relationships with farmers.
When I returned to California I met with growers in the Bay Area and wrote a proposal for Design Corps’ eventual expansion to California.
My favorite part of the summer was being immersed in the world of architecture and learning about building materials, touring prefabrication plants, and commenting on architectural designs. My advice to job seekers in both MBA classes is to search everywhere until something really catches your interest and imagination.
Although I rarely check the New York Times online, I happened to peruse its contents about this time last fall. The lead article in the House & Home section described a nonprofit organization that built innovative and low-cost housing for migrant farmworkers. The pictures of the housing caught my eye and the story about its founder, Bryan Bell, caught my imagination. I was immediately interested in working at Design Corps; the organization combined my interests in social entrepreneurship, architecture, and agriculture policy.
By March I had submitted a lot of resumes and gone on a couple of interviews but still hadn’t heard anything back from the email I had sent to Design Corps months earlier. I decided to try again and this time I quickly received an excited email from Bryan Bell. We spent the next couple of weeks figuring out how a business school student could be helpful to Design Corps and how the internship would be structured.
Since Bryan Bell still can’t afford to pay himself four years after founding Design Corps, my salary was paid for by SMIF and a local fellowship, the Sustainable Communities Leadership Program (SCLP).
When I arrived in Raleigh, NC, I showed up at Bryan’s house the first morning, since the Design Corps office is 30 miles outside of Raleigh in a rural area. I did most of my work from his home and from my apartment while I was in Raleigh--I only went to the office twice the entire summer.
Design Corps is made up of Bryan Bell, the Executive Director, and seven interns that are recent architecture graduates and are working for Design Corps for one year as part of an AmeriCorps fellowship. As the only non-architect I was the “expert” on accounting, finance, marketing, operations, and everything else not related to architecture.
Design Corps had recently received a lot of media attention as well as increased inquiries from farmers and state agencies about how to build high-quality migrant farmworker housing. My job was to figure out how to capitalize on the increased interest while also pursuing a partnership with a larger nonprofit that would allow Design Corps to grow.
The result was a Five Year Strategic Plan that describes Design Corp’s strategic partnership, lays out financial projections for the next five years, creates job descriptions and a workplan for employees, and establishes surveys and contract agreements for farmers. To create the plan, Bryan and I lobbied members of Congress in Washington, DC, and initiated a partnership with the Association of Farmworker Opportunities Program (AFOP). The partnership will help Design Corps move into new regions each year, by placing Design Corp’s interns at AFOP offices and using AFOP connections to the agricultural community to develop relationships with farmers.
When I returned to California I met with growers in the Bay Area and wrote a proposal for Design Corps’ eventual expansion to California.
My favorite part of the summer was being immersed in the world of architecture and learning about building materials, touring prefabrication plants, and commenting on architectural designs. My advice to job seekers in both MBA classes is to search everywhere until something really catches your interest and imagination.
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