The "Culture" at MCLV (3 of 12)

The environment at MCLV is extremely laid back, disorganized, informal, caring and busy. It suits me well. Although I can usually expect to sit at my computer within the main area of the office and do what I need to do for my internship, I am sometimes asked to jump in and lend a hand for something that needs to be done NOW. This is fine with me, and gives my brain a kind of break from typing, researching, cutting, pasting, editing and formatting.

For example, the week before last I spent most of my long day making a banner for the Scrabble Tournament that MCLV hosted on campus. (I believe it ended up outside hanging on Stansbury Hall.) I was able to use creativity, and also some of the things I have learned from my PWE classes, such as placement, emphasis and chunking types of information together. We don't have a lot of money or employees there, so we have to make due with what we do have. While making the sign, I had no control over the size of the letters used, so I had to rely on spacing to make sure it was easily readable. (I will post some photos this week when I am there.)

MCLV relies on everyone there to get things done in a thrifty, creative, "just try it out and see what happens," and a "just do the best you can" type of way. I really like it, although sometimes it is frustrating trying to figure out how something needs to get done, because it can be rather time consuming. My supervisor, Susie, however, is always willing to listen to any question or suggestion, and always answers, comments or lends a hand to the best of her ability.

Another example: We have no IT type of person, so on the first day of my internship we had to install a new router for our networking system. Mind you, I have never dealt with routers or networks, but I can follow instructions, so I dove in and lent a hand. After a couple of days, and Susie being on the phone with "helpdesks," etc., we were finally back online and running.

I really like it there. Sometimes dogs visit, sometimes Susie cooks lunch for whoever is there, it is freezing in the office (to save money), and we listen to music, watch TV during lunchtime (I don't... I hate soap operas!) and we laugh a lot. I wish that MCLV did have more money and staff, because they work hard and are really passionate about their mission, to increase adult literacy. As Susie says, there is a lot of time wasted on trying to figure things out, and no one is providing services when this happens. But we are the only ones there, so we must tackle everything that comes along. I like this innovative approach. It is never dull, and there is a lot of problem solving (not related to literacy or my internship) but I still have plenty of time to concentrate on my projects. I mostly spend a lot of time updating web content, but that is a different story...