By Patrick Huang
I’m in Red Wing, Minnesota this summer as an intern with Every Hand Joined, which is focused on ensuring children in this town find academic and lifelong career success. The nonprofit organization is structured around the concept of collective impact, a term that describes how different members and sectors of a community align their goals to tackle some larger issue. Every Hand Joined’s roles include the facilitation of meetings and conversations between people (whether they work for the school, a business, the hospital, etc.) in hopes that everyone is contributing to the children’s success in their particular sphere of influence.
In the past month, I’ve mainly been working in data-related projects with Every Hand Joined’s community partners. For example, I’ve been helping another nonprofit Hispanic Outreach create databases for their clients and donors and adopt systems that will allow them to stay on track for their 3 year strategic plan. I’ve also been collecting data for Summer Blast, a program meant to encourage younger students to continue learning and acquiring new experiences during the summer.
My office is in the “downtown” area of Red Wing, and I work with four other full time Every Hand Joined staff. They are really passionate about the work that they are doing and have taught me quite a bit, even if it’s not strictly data-related! By attending and participating in the meetings where community partners talk about the progress made and needed moving forward, I’ve gained a better perspective of the motivation and stories behind the data I’m working with.
In my free time, I cook, exercise, read, or play guitar in my room. I was also fortunate to meet some other interns here in Red Wing that I was able to travel a bit with (since I don’t have a car myself). We went to a cheese curd festival in Wisconsin the second weekend I was here, and kayaking in Minneapolis another time. The town may be smaller than I’m used to, but I find there are ample opportunities to explore or to rest here in Red Wing.
