I had a long career in technology at IBM Research and, after leaving IBM, I wanted to turn my passion for community service into a new career. Discovering Encore.org and its programs led to my applying for an Encore Fellowship, a program that matches skilled, seasoned professionals with nonprofits in high-impact, paid part-time assignments.
I was placed at a mentoring organization in Burlingame, California called We Teach Science. WTS brings corporate talent together with middle and high school students who need math and science mentoring. The student and mentor meet online once a week. Facing the prospect of serving a growing number of students, We Teach Science needed a more robust collaboration platform for the online meetings.
During my fellowship, I led the organization’s effort to identify and implement a new platform, which now provides hundreds of students and their mentors a better experience. They can hear each other better, see each other better, and have better facilities for sharing. The new platform is more robust than the platform it replaced, promising better reliability, and it can scale to support even more students and their mentors.
I did not work with students directly as part of my normal duties at WTS. However, I did serve as a mentor for a middle school student for several months. The experience provided me with valuable insights into how the program worked for our hundreds of volunteer mentors, knowledge that helped me provide better services for them. I looked forward to my one hour a week with my student, helping her learn some math and encouraging her to be persistent when faced with challenges. She was a good student in our sessions and I hope I had some lasting impact.
My part-time Encore Fellowship with We Teach Science because a full-time position as Technology Manager there in July 2015. Sadly, a year later, I had to leave WTS as fundraising challenges – so common to the nonprofit world – led to the elimination of my position. On Linkedin, my manager praised my work saying “I will really miss having Doug on my team.”
All these experiences have left me more convinced than ever that people of all ages, of all backgrounds, can contribute. Much of work and life is about solving problems and taking on challenges. The best solutions to problems frequently come from diverse teams where each individual on the team can bring their own unique skills and experiences. Older workers who have a lifetime of experiences can contribute to meeting the challenges we all face today.