Myiesha Shaikh: Growing Roots for a Greater Reach: Applying Foundational Business Skills for Community Work
Working at Veggielution for several months now, I have had the opportunity to work with an array of stakeholders and continuously learn from the variety of assigned projects. While I am continuously learning, skills such as clear and effective communication, understanding my audience, and cross-departmental collaboration have been integral to my learning in these past few months.
Firstly, clear communication is an essential skill to ensure multiple stakeholders are on the same page and well informed. Recently, I have had practice with communication through my presentation skills. Not only do slides need to be easily readable for audiences but can serve as an opportunity for showcase creative skills and lead to better engagement. Earlier this quarter I presented a few ideas for community collaborations and partnerships with local organizations and incorporated a creative theme with watercolor images of fruits, vegetables, and animals. These graphics were able to make the presentation more interesting to listen to because of the relevant images and were able to showcase my artistic skills and vision for future projects. This presentation was able to grab the audience’s attention and understand the overall theme of the content with more than just the speech.
Being a better communicator means understanding your audience and tailoring messaging to be best understood by a variety of stakeholders. For example, when creating flyers and newsletters I need to take into account how I can best communicate information in an accessible format. This means deciding if newsletters should be available through email and print, should bright colors be used to grab people’s attention or should colors associated with the organization’s brand be used. These are just a few considerations to consider to ensure messages are being interpreted with clarity and with little room for confusion.
Getting experience collaborating among different departments and stakeholders has proven to be very beneficial this quarter. I have been able to understand problems in local communities through different lenses and understand constraints that I had not previously considered. This quarter by working on projects focused on youth education and enrichment, I have been collaborating alongside other stakeholders who are much more involved in Veggielution’s Youth Garden. I have been able to work alongside others who are much more involved in the Youth Garden to understand how to best engage with youth and families and what their interests are when planning for events and future projects.
Overall, I have gained a new perspective on how a diverse set of business skills are needed in community work and hope to continue improving these skills throughout the rest of my fellowship experience.