Grant Recipient: Class of 2011
Major: Anthropology and Feminist, Gender, and Sexual Studies
Organization: Women’s HIV Collaborative
Location: New York, NY
Working for The Women’s HIV Collaborative of New York has undoubtedly been a learning experience. The collaborative itself is still relatively new and thus it lacks direction and leadership. The biggest function of the collaborative is to provide data, research, and be a resource for other organization which provide care and counseling to HIV positive individuals. This means that both networking and research make up a major portion of my role here at the collaborative. Meeting with other organizations has definitely been the most rewarding part of my time here. Hearing from a variety of organizations has broadened my knowledge on not for profit organizations and how they function. This being said I’m disappointed by my overall experience at the collaborative. The organization is extremely understaffed, and the executive director is hardly ever available or in the office at all. I find myself at the office alone a lot of the time. Under these conditions it’s been very hard to stay motivated or passionate about the work I’m doing at the collaborative.