Thank you

I want to thank Carlos Rascon for giving me the opportunity to intern at education Leadership analytics, I know that at times it must have been difficult for him to have to walk me through so much, but throughout the entire process he has been patient, understanding, and an amazing teacher and mentor to me. I am a better prepared professional and a better person because of the lessons he has taught me, a thank you simply won't do him any justice, so I just want to say that I will continue to apply the lessons learned here throughout my career. Semper Fi Marine.

Lessons learned

I have learned so much from my internship that I have joked with the director about ASU owing him a cut of my tuition. I have definitely achieved all of my goals for this internship. I now have a better understanding of the private sector, which will help me develop better strategies for programs or projects involving cross-sector collaborations. Many times these cross-sector projects are abandoned because one or all sectors feel that they are not worth carrying out because of miscommunication among all sectors, being able to understand the different sectors and what they value will allow me to articulate how these projects/programs are in their best interest. This internship also taught me the importance of having data to back up your stories and research, simply put data completes the story in a way that legitimizes it and can help increase funds and donations for your cause.

Dropping my pack

I have to admit I "dropped my pack" about 3 months ago and getting back on track was torture. For the veterans in here I am sure you are familiar with the phrase "dropping your pack". For those of you that are not familiar with this term in the Marine Corps this means that you are done with your service or your mission is over. In the academic world this is known as senioritis meaning our minds have checked out somewhere between the week before or after midterms. Anyways, I fell horribly behind this semester and am now just catching up with it all. Finals are here and its time to wrap it all up, so I wish you all the best of luck and I will see you all on the flip side.

First impressions (free write)

A couple of months ago I was at a professional networking event for small business owners with a client. We were making the rounds introducing ourselves to people and everyone seemed to be so be launching some tech company or travel agency. Anyways they all sounded alike and to be honest they were boring me to death. I'm sure that their product was great and innovative but they were so boring when describing it that they completely lost me. Fortunately, I met this really nice lady there that rescued me from all of this boredom. When I asked her what her company did she told me in the most enthusiastic tone ever, "I take people dancing!" I was immediately hooked, I had to know more. She went on to describe her company in the most lively and fun way possible, In essence she runs a travel agency that integrates dance classes to their program. So say for example you always wanted to learn how to Samba, she will book you a trip to Brazil (the birth place of Samba) and schedule you a Samba lesson with a local dance studio. This way you get to visit Brazil, see the sights, and learn how to dance. Moral of the story is she could have just told me she ran a travel agency but instead she gave me an unforgettable experience and taught me a lesson about making good first impressions.

Technology (free write)

I really wish that people would stop assuming that just because I'm younger I automatically know abut technology. I know that I should probably make an effort to learn more about technology but I am a people person. It took me about a month to figure out I had to hit the PUBLISH tab on the corner of this blog in order for you all to see what I was writing. I even went and told the professors that I thought something was wrong with my blogger because nobody was replying to my post. If I have a tech related question I have a group of friends with different expertise that I call upon, funny thing about that only one of them is my age, one is younger, and the rest of them are well into their 40's. Maybe it's just me and every other millennial is on point with their tech game, if that's the case I really hope I can use my people skills to get through life.

Public Service

Even though my internship is with a private sector firm, we have a heavy focus on public service. Much of what we do is focused on raising the standard of living of every Arizonan. We constantly advocate for financial literacy programs and work with educators in making education as accessible to everyone. We also do a lot of work within the veteran community, advocating for veteran rights and constantly finding ways to improve the standard of living of the veteran community.

Strength of the organization

If I had to choose what the main strength of this organization is that everything is evidence based. The fact that we deal with numbers in an unbiased and analytic manner brings great value to the table. We work across all three sectors to provide them with the analytics they need to inform their decisions, and having an unbiased approach is helpful. If I had the opportunity to run a similar organization, I would probably be doing the same thing the organization is doing right now. Not that I think everything is perfect or that I don’t have any ideas to offer, but I honestly don’t think I would do much to change the current system. The organization has a good business model, the only think I can think I would do differently is perhaps focus on building more relationships with key leaders in all three sectors.

Leadership

Leadership is displayed in the organization every day, whether it is meeting with clients to help them solve a problem, working on projects that impact our community, or learning the systems that help us better inform our decisions, leadership is always at the forefront of what we do. That being said, each sectors has different way of viewing their role within the community, and the leadership practiced in each sector is meant to accommodate those views. Our roles as leaders is to make sure that we are empowering each sector to be more efficient and increase cross sector relations. Through this internship I have been able to grow my leadership skills and put them to practice. More importantly, I’ve learned that I have the ability to inspire others to become leaders in their communities too. 

Interview

For my interview I talked to Carlos Rascon, Director Data Science & Analytics, at educations leadership analytics. In our conversation we talked about different leadership strategies and best practices that have helped him succeed along the way. For him having his MBA has certainly helped him, but the leadership skills required to be successful didn't all come out of a text. For example, his experience in the Marine Corps and working at the pentagon has helped him develop the confidence needed to lead a group of people. This also helped him learn that having the ability to work across all sectors is important. This is especially true since there is an increase trend among cross sector relations.  Also, learning the ins and outs of business by stepping outside of his comfort zone and taking risk has helped him develop more professionally. Sometimes all the training in the world won’t make a difference if you are unwilling to take the risk and just get started.

Leadership and thank you note (free write)

"Leadership is the ability to influence others" unfortunately for some this quote conjures images of commanding leaders bossing or ordering their subordinates around. However, if we notice there is no mention in this quote of a leader "bossing" or "ordering" someone around. Similarly, there is no reference to titles or positions, it simply refers to those that can influence others as leaders. Even though it is not stated in this quote, it is implied that the influence we wield should be a positive one. I know many of you know this already, and having looked at the amazing work you are all doing I consider all of you leaders. However, this past week I was sadly reminded that some leaders have forgotten that our ability to influence others should be used in a positive manner. I was at a conference out of town and was thrown aback by the attitude that many of these "leaders" had about their community and their roles in making things betters for others. I guess that in their mind after you achieve a certain level of success you can stop worrying about others and focus on maintaining that success.  Because I have been surrounded by leaders like yourself for so long now, I had almost forgotten that we are in a real leadership crisis even within our community. So I want to take a moment and thank all of you for your leadership, for your ability to influence me in a positive way, and for giving men hope that we as leaders have the ability to transform our communities in a meaningful way.

Education starts at home (Free write)

My recent post about the education system made me reflect about what I can do as a father to educate my daughter. I know that education starts at home, and my wife and I are teaching our daughter the importance of being an educated, civic minded, and respectful of others. However, I am still concerned about making sure she gets the best education possible at home. For example, my wife is an artist and she does a lot of art projects with my daughter. So I began to teach my daughter the importance of being able to communicate with others. For the past three weeks we have been doing “book analysis reports”. She picks one of her books reviews it and then gives me a presentation on her favorite part, least favorite part, and how the book can be improved. She is 5 and these books are picture books, but we take this activity seriously. She sits in front of my desk at my home office and gives this presentation. Then I give her a review of her presentation and analyze with her what she has suggested to me. She is a natural communicator and a really caring person, so I am focusing and building her confidence and learning how to communicate in a professional manner. Of course I don’t tell her this, for her it is just a fun activity with daddy.

Education System (Free Write)

Recently, I have been looking for a school for my daughter and let me say I am truly amazed at the sad state of the public education system in Arizona. It all began by doing some research of the west valley public schools near my home. I was surprised at their poor test scores, however being the opened minded individual I know that test scores do not necessarily paint the full picture; so I began to tour a lot of these facilities, and spoke with many of the administrators. That experience was so bad that I immediately contacted my state representative. After a conversation with him I realized that the best option for our family was to begin to look at charter schools and private schools for my daughter. Maybe I am an idealist but I still want to believe that we can make our public schools work for every family. With recent talks about cuts to education I am left wondering, what is left to cut? Many of the school districts around me already began to let teachers go and most of the text and materials used in these classes are sadly outdated. I did more research and found that this is not just the west valley but all across Arizona our children are being let down by a broken school system. Please know that this is not a rant against teachers, I have friends that teach and some of you I know are doing the Teach for America program, and I know that the overwhelming majority of our educators have their hearts in the right place and take their jobs very seriously. However, as a father to an amazingly smart little girl I am truly concerned by this issue.

Federal Resume (Career Service Event)

For my second professional development post I want to talk about a webinar I recently attended. The webinar was was part of the go government series put on by the “Partnership for Public Service” Unlike the other webinar I've attended from this organization this one was extremely helpful. So much so that I actually entered the link and watched the recording of the webinar again. This webinar was titled “resume” and as the title mentions the webinar was about federal resumes.
First let me begin by saying that I was actually in the process of applying for a federal job when I began looking at the webinar. Like many of you though I too get distracted and begin to do several things at once, but this was the best distraction I have ever had because as it turns out my entire resume was wrong! Some of you might have been aware of this already, but I had no idea that when applying for a federal job they have different resume format requirements. These are not small differences either, the entire format is different than what is taught at the career service center. Among the biggest differences is the fact that federal resumes are not expected to meet that one, two if you absolutely must, page rule that regular resumes follow. As a matter of fact it is not out of the norm for a federal resume to be 5-8 pages long. I brought this up with to a colleague of mine, who has worked for the federal government for several years now, and he said he thought this was common knowledge. He showed me his resume and it is a super detailed monstrosity with zero white space taking up 4 pages. He even said that if updated, his resume would probably be 6 pages long. Meanwhile, I'm breaking my head deleting important relevant information about myself trying to get my resume down to one page. Also, important is actually including the job post number, having minimum or zero white space, and making sure you state whether or not you are qualified for extra points i.e. veteran points, disability points, even having certain degrees and certifications can earn you points. Maryjo from the College of Public Service and Community Solutions will be posting this webinar up soon, I highly recommend watching it if you are at all interested in applying for a federal government job.

Financial Literacy (free write)

For this free write I wanted to touch on something I came across this week. Recently, I've been having  a lot discussions and reading a lot of books about financial literacy in hopes to learning what our role as leaders is in making sure that our children are given the best tools for success. One of the books I was reading mentioned that all of us learned our spending habits and financial management from our family or close family friends. Unfortunately, most American families do not have good financial literacy, hence why the majority of wealth is held in the hands of a few. For those of us that were not fortunate enough to be born into these families, the author suggest to forget what was passed down to us and learn about finances on our own. One of the ways to learn the ropes is by simply going out there and trying new things. However, this is very risky because you are gambling with your finances, most people that take this path end up being bankrupt within a year or two. The author suggest instead that reading and educating yourself before just jumping in gives you a higher chance of success. This does not mean that you have to go out and get a MBA before you can get started, but at the minimum you should learn the language used by the professionals and seek the advice of mentors, this can include books as well. Personally, I have found this to be very true. I can honestly say I have learned more in the last 8 months about finances than I have in the last 29 years of my life. It has been an amazing learning experience to see how all of the systems that are in place come together to move our massive financial machine. Learning the strategies on how to best leverage those systems to make them work for you instead of you working for them has been incredibly eye opening to me. I know many people get very cynical the moment you talk to them about financial strategies, but my advice is to keep an open mind and educate yourself as best as possible. It's important that we all do this not just for our own benefit, but for the benefits of our communities, families, and especially our children.

Federal Opportunities Beyond DC (Career Service Event)

For one of my professional development requirements I attended a webinar at the College of College of Public Service and Community Solutions hosted by the Partnership for Public Service. The webinar was titled "Federal Opportunities Beyond DC". This event was full of information and had a panel of people from various background all working for the federal government in various capacities and in different locations.

My main take away from this event was the fact that there are numerous opportunities for employment within the federal government without having to relocate to the beltway. For those that are not familiar with this term the beltway refers to the DC, Virginia, and Maryland area. This was of significance for me because prior to this event I was not really looking at federal careers because I do not want to relocate to the east coast again. However, as mentioned several times during the event every state has federal careers available, it really just depends on what it is you are looking to do within the federal government. That being said, one of the things I didn't really like about this event was that there was very little information given about the career opportunities in Arizona. They did go over navigating the USA Jobs website which list all of the career opportunities in the area, but it still would have been nice to have a panelist from Arizona to discuss some more area specific jobs. Since attending this event I have created a USA Jobs account and am currently in the process of applying for a couple of jobs in the area.

Overall this is a good webinar for those looking to gain employment with the federal government. However, there was not a lot of information provided for those of us wanting to stay in Arizona.

Opportunities and taking an active role in history (Free write)

For this free write I wanted to share my experience about my participation on President Obama's immigration policy. Through my work with some community organizations, last year I had the opportunity to participate on one of the many advisory boards put together by the White House regarding immigration reform. I had the opportunity to travel to DC and share my story with those that were putting together the policy that President Obama was to announce later.
I specifically advocated for the immigration rights of veterans and their families. Many people do not know that not all veterans are citizens and that many of them have family members such as spouses, parent, and siblings go through deportation proceedings. Even less know is the fact that since 1996 many legal resident veterans are themselves getting deported. Due to our advocacy effort President Obama added his "parole in place" policy for veterans and their families to the immigration executive order.
However, what I really want to focus on for this post is the subject of opportunities. More specifically not being afraid to take on opportunities when they present themselves to you. I first met the organization I traveled to DC with at an event our organization hosted at ASU Downtown Campus. When the director of the organization approached me to tell me that he had enjoyed our event we struck up a conversation. He knew I was a veteran and said he was planning a trip to DC in two days to do an advocacy event on behalf of veterans and asked if I was interested in going. Looking back on it now, I really think he was expecting me to say no because of the short notice. However, much to his surprise I said yes. I did my best in two days to prepare for the event because I knew we were going to be talking to various Congressmen and their staff. On a side note, I have also for years been taking advantage out of every opportunity I have had to do public speaking, for those that have had me in class you know that I am always the one to speak up. Well, I do this not because I am a great orator but because I know that public speaking is a valued skill set and one that I need practice in. Fortunately, the director thought I did a good job and we have collaborated on several different projects.
As I look back on this experience now I realize that had I not taken advantage of the first opportunity when it presented itself to me, I would not have had the other opportunities that have presented themselves to me. Due to my work with this organization I have been able to meet various civil rights leaders, high ranking public officials, and leaders of industry, which has lead to my participation in truly historic events in Arizona and nationwide. So please do not be afraid to take on new opportunities because they often lead to bigger and greater things, but do prepare yourself as best you can for them to ensure that you make a good impression.

A witness to history (free write)

For this free write I just wanted to continue on my experience with President Obama's immigration policy. On November 21st President Obama gave a speech at Del Sol High School in Las Vegas Nevada about his immigration policy. I had the opportunity to attend this event as a special guest and must say it was quite the experience. Although I must admit that on both occasions I did not vote for President Obama, I have always been an admirer of his orating skills. I know some say that without his teleprompters he would not be able to speak as eloquently, but I can tell you he has a certain magnetism about him when he speaks that cannot be conveyed by teleprompters. Anyways, at a certain point during his speech I came to the sudden realization that I was witnessing history.
After the event some of my colleagues and I spoke about immigration and President Obama's policy, the good and the bad. What we wished he would have added and taken away. During our conversation I pointed out that our children would someday read about and view this speech just like we read and viewed the speeches of President Kennedy and other great presidents. The table was silent for a while as we all contemplated the fact that our children would ask us about this very speech, and that we would be able to tell them that we were there and witnessed this historic speech. It was truly a humbling experience to say the least.

A typical day at my internship

A typical day at my internship consist of me learning the various systems involved with running a successful business and learning best practices in the private sector. Learning systems such as: QuickBooks, Saleforce, Nexonia, as well as some databases built by the company to provide analytic services takes up a good part of my day.  This has given me hands on experience utilizing the systems that are being used in the workforce today, regardless of whether it is a nonprofit or a for profit entity. Although I am not the best numbers person out there, these systems are simple enough that with enough practice anyone can learn how to use these.
When I am not learning these systems I am discussing best practices in regards to how the private sector works. Thus far I have learned of the importance of providing value to people. Although having a good product is important, value does not necessarily mean your product needs to be the best in the market, it can also include customer service and time. I have come to realize that time is a commodity in the private sector that has a lot of value. The more time you are able to save your client the more time they have to provide better services to their clients, so anything you can do to save people time is of extreme value.
Furthermore, because this is a smaller entity, I have had a lot of time to discuss other important matters with the director. Another big part of my internship has been identifying problems in the community and coming up with solutions that the company can help lead. This includes things such as financial literacy in low income communities, political advocacy for legislation that helps improve the lives of Arizonans, as well as a plethora of different problems plaguing the veteran community. Being able to look at these issues from the private sector perspective has taught me think of efficient and practical solutions to these problems.

The importance of self awareness and relationships (free write)

Recently it seems like I have been having this conversation with a lot of people and I'm not sure why so many people are having a problems with understanding that life is cyclical, but you can get yourself stuck in a rut if you are not actively engaging others in your growth. Self awareness, is about knowing the who, what, when, why, and where (yes physical location matters) of your life.
To be clear I do not claim to have all the answers, but being a self aware person means that I understand that not having all the answers is a big part of life. Knowing when to ask for help, who to ask, as well as in what manner you ask, are things people need to consider when they find themselves in a rut and without any idea as to how to get out.
It's important be comfortable with yourself, and know your strengths, but most importantly know and understand your weakness. It's OK to ask for help! I don't understand why people keep trying to go through life trying to do everything on their own. Personally, I think this is due to our misconception of what it is to be entrepreneur, in other words we have this erroneous idea that self-made people are really self-made. However, people don't understand that being self-made does not mean you go at it alone. If you look at the wealthiest people the Vanderbilt's, Rockefeller's, and Carnegie's they all have one thing in common. They all knew when and how to ask for help. Without the Cornelius Vanderbilt, the John Rockefeller's would have never amassed the wealth that he did. If Thomas Scott would not have mentored Andrew Carnegie, he would have never of learned the ins and outs of business that made him such a success. Even geniuses like Edison needed the help of people like JP Morgan to take his inventions to a global scale.
I guess what I am trying to say is know yourself, where you are in life and seek those that can help you advance and reach new heights. You will be surprised to see how many people are genuinely interested in watching you succeed. However, very few people have time to mentor people that are not ready to be mentored, especially if they still haven't figured out who they are or what they want to accomplish in life. So again be self-aware pay attention to your surrounding and see how you best fit into that world, and don't be afraid to ask for help, but seek those that truly help you.

Introduction to the organization

My internship is at an analytic company named, education Leadership analytics (eLa). This company has a variety of clients across the 3 sectors (business, government, and nonprofit) and provides their expertise to empower their clients to make the correct business decisions. The reason the L in leadership is capitalized is because this company understands that without the proper leadership the education and analytics pieces fall apart and are unable to really affect the change the community needs. This company views itself as launch pad for change and progress in the community.
As I said in my previous post, with analytics you get numbers, and even though people can add whatever interpretation they want to those numbers at the end of the day those numbers will still be the same. Even though I don't have an extensive experience in analytics I consider myself a community leader and understand that having the numbers to back my statements and positions will make me a better Leader. At this internship I will have an opportunity to learn about data and how it comes together as well as learn the systems used in the for profit sector, many are these systems are the same for the nonprofit sector.

In leadership the when is as important as the who (free write)

Regardless of where you fall politically there is an important lesson to be learned from Mitt Romney's decision not to run for president a third time, especially for those of us seeking leadership positions in the near future. That lesson is, that when speaking of great leaders, "the when is just as important as the who". The current message coming from most Republican leaders is that Romney would have been a great president had he won in 2012, but that his time has passed. This message reinforces the concept that timing matters when speaking of leaders. This can be confusing to some and very hard to accept for others, after all none of us want to consider ourselves irrelevant. Personally I have faced this issues on several different occasions. There have been times when I wanted to step up and take the lead on the issue but I was not the best person to do so. However, what must be kept in mind is that just because it is not your time to lead in one area that does not mean you cannot lead in another.
As I continue to expand my work as a community leader I have come to realize that leadership comes in many different forms. Sometimes you are called to lead the charge other times you are meant to take a support role. Being able to identify this and not letting your ego get in the way will place you in a stronger leadership position when it comes time for you to step up and be the face of a movement.

Hello everybody my name is Luis G Cardenas Camacho, but everyone calls me Camacho. I'm currently a senior working on my BS in Public Service Public Policy with a concentration in Public Leadership and Management a minor in Nonprofit Leadership and Management and a certificate in Public Administration and Public Management. I am originally from Mexicali, Baja California Mexico, but I moved to Arizona at a very young age and it has been my home ever since. I served four years in the Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq on three separate occasions. I am very proud of my service and consider it an privilege and responsibility to serve as an advocate for my fellow Veterans. Currently, I am the President of the Student Veteran Association at ASU Downtown and hold other leadership positions in organizations like The Mission Continues and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Through my advocacy work I have come in contact with some great people, many of you included, and organizations that really care for the well being of our Veterans and together we are working for the betterment of our community.
This semester I will be doing my internship at an analytics company named, education Leadership and analytics (eLa). This company has a variety of clients across the 3 sectors (business, government, and nonprofit) and provides their expertise to empower their clients to make the correct business decisions. The reason the L in leadership is capitalized is because this company understands that without the proper leadership the education and analytics pieces fall apart and are unable to really affect the change the community needs. The reason I chose this internship over other opportunities is because I believe in the way this company views themselves, not only as a for profit entity but as a launch pad for change and progress in the community. I believe that in order for us to become the leaders our communities need we need to be educated and well informed, be willing to be a capital L Leaders by taking risks and having the interest of others at heart, but also we need to have the facts on our side and that is where the analytics piece comes in. With analytics you get numbers, and even though people can add whatever interpretation they want to those numbers at the end of the day those numbers will still be the same. That being said, I am not a numbers person and have very little experience in analytics, however I consider myself a community leader and understand that having the numbers to back my statements and positions will make me a better Leader. As far as this internship goes my three goals for this semester are as follow:

1. To better understand how and where the three sectors interact and in what areas can they learn from each other or collaborate.
2. To gain a greater understanding of the analytics process and determine how analytics can be beneficial to each of the sectors.
3. To get hands on experience and thus a better understanding of the private sector, since most of my career experience has been spent on the nonprofit and government sectors.