By Sally Morton
Marya grew up moving around a lot, spending most of her childhood in Russia and Hungry. She attended university in Los Angles, and then moved to Oakland after graduation to work for AmeriCorps. She just finished her yearlong term with The International Rescue Committee, which helps refugees transition into living in the United States.
She fell in love with the community of Oakland, its people, progressive thinking, and social action. She was eager to find other women who worked in nonprofits, cared about their communities, and wanted to improve their lives. She found The Women’s Global Leadership Initiative Core Leadership Program on Meetup.com and signed up! Marya was pleasantly surprised with the amount of diversity in the group, not just with ethnicity and age, but also with life experience.
Marya learned a lot about herself through the workshops and speakers, but mostly through her fellow participants in the training. She understood that people have many different ways of dealing with conflict, varying communication styles, and personality types. She began to see these aspects of people outside of the program in the world around her, especially in her workplace. The training really helped Marya work and communicate well with people of different ages, backgrounds, and experiences. She felt as though she could work more effectively as a part of a team after the Core Leadership Program because of these new aspects she learned about herself and others.
Marya looks forward to reaching out to the women from the workshop. She would love to stay in Oakland and is applying for other jobs. She definitely recommends the workshop to all women, especially those who don’t think they need it.
