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katerina_at_engin9 karma

These days, I usually work 7 days/week from 3-6 hours a day. I have a lot of flexibility since it's my own organization, but because I really love doing it, I end up working whenever I have a free minute between kid and family responsibilities.

Before ENGin, I had about a decade of job experience working for a huge range of organizations, from an investment bank to edtech startups to the NYC government to another nonprofit. I don't think I would be able to successfully run my own organization without having done this and developed key skills like managing people, building partnerships, etc.

One piece of advice I'd have is to not get stuck in one place professionally and make sure you are always learning, growing, and moving closer to your dream role, whatever that may be. I moved a lot from job to job and did some freelance work on top, which I think was essential to developing my skills. At the same time, I know people who were lucky enough to find a ton of professional development and growth at the same company, so that works too!

katerina_at_engin6 karma

It was SO MUCH work, to be honest, a lot of trial and error. Because when you start something brand new, no one knows about you, and it's hard to get anyone to take you seriously. It was a lot of grassroots outreach to hundreds of schools/colleges here in the US to look for volunteers, as well as listings on sites like VolunteerMatch.

I came up with the idea for ENGin before the pandemic, but when everything started shutting down in March, that was an unexpected boost for us. Everyone was looking for virtual opportunities, and ENGin was designed to be 100% virtual from the start.

In Ukraine, it was a similar story - cold messages/emails to a lot of social media groups for teenagers/ed-focused news outlets, etc, and an boost in demand caused by the pandemic.

At this point, something like 30% of participants come to us through word of mouth, which I'm really proud of!

katerina_at_engin6 karma

This is still my biggest life challenge. I think girls grow up constantly hearing that they can have a career and be a great mom (at least, that's the near-universal message here in the US). So you just kind of assume that you will have both.

The reality is very different, of course, since kids require pretty much 24/7 supervision for the first few years of their lives. And if you have multiple kids, you're looking at, say, 5-8 years of your life where you have at least one little helpless creature totally dependent on you.

In the past, I've tried to basically split the day 50/50 and have childcare for 6 hours (so I could work) and be with the kids for 6 hours. The pandemic turned that upside down, and we haven't been able to find a childcare option we feel safe with. I am really lucky that my husband is taking time off work and is able to help with the kids for a few hours a day, but it's never enough time, honestly!!

katerina_at_engin5 karma

I've learned a lot about how to navigate the difficulties of relying on volunteers to run an organization! We have a few part-time employees in Ukraine, but, due to lack of $$$, we have to rely on volunteers for many key tasks.

Imagine running even the most basic business with volunteers only - say, a fast-food chain. On Monday, 20 people show up to work. On Tuesday, no one shows. Instead of 5 people each working, say, 30 hours/week, you have 50 people each working 3 hours/ week. This one won't make burgers, this one doesn't want to man the cash register. Half of them disappear within a couple of weeks because they "got busy". It would be impossible!

Volunteers always have the best intentions, but they generally ask to help with tiny chunks of very specific tasks they find most interesting, which often does not correspond with what we actually need help with and the deadlines we need to meet. They want to meet with me on their schedule - to be trained on tasks, to ask questions, to give updates, etc, which is super-stressful for me. And then after I invest the time to train them and get them started, they just disappear.

I had always thought of volunteering as this amazing, positive thing, and it definitely can be. Our core volunteer opportunity is designed to be super-flexible and gives volunteers the chance to make an impact on their schedule in just one hour/week. And that has worked really well - we get great feedback from both volunteers and students about their online English practice. But as far as all of the behind-the-scenes work of keeping the program going, it has definitely been a learning process for me in terms of trying to reconcile volunteers' expectations with the work that needs to get done.

katerina_at_engin3 karma

I had this same thought at the beginning, but it doesn't work for a few reasons

(1) Supply and demand - there aren't that many high school/college students looking to learn Ukrainian compared to the number of Ukrainians who want to learn English. Our model depends on matching volunteers and students by age, schedule, interests, etc, and that level of matching hard to do without a large pool of volunteers.

(2) Outreach - I'm not sure how I would reach English speakers who are looking to learn Ukrainian without a sizable marketing budget for targeted ads of some kind.

Right now, the draw for most volunteers is twofold. First, they can get community service hours for school/college requirements. Second, there's the social/cultural exchange aspect, which is really fun for them. And for us, it's allowed us to grow very quickly and help more students, so I think we'll be sticking with this model for now.