Our #EdCareersForSocialGood campaign continues shining a light on some of the career paths students who are motivated by giving back to communities might like to consider.
We’re delighted to have a guest post from Jazlin Rosewitz, a Program Coordinator at diiVe which gives us an insight into her working week. diiVe is a social enterprise based in Cape Town with a focus on empowering students and graduates, helping them connect to their personal purpose and drive real impact in their future careers through intensive global internship experiences.
A week in the life of a diiVe Programme Coordinator
I completed an undergraduate degree in Psychology and English and then a postgraduate degree in Business Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of Cape Town. I have always been a generalist, never fully knowing what career to pursue and in an ideal world I have always wanted to be more than just one thing.
In Summer 2021 I completed the diiVe Summer Virtual programe and then I started working here in May 2022 so my journey could be described as coming full circle. I applied for this paid role with diiVe after completing the virtual programme as I was intrinsically drawn to the core values of the organization, feeling as though they resonated deeply with me. The internship experiences that diiVe offers aim to empower students and graduates from across the world to surface and define their specific purpose and values, and align those to their own career direction so that they can effectively make life decisions and find real meaning in their future work.
My role is all about coordinating these virtual and in person training programs, which start off by teaching students the hard skills required for consulting and social impact work, before sending them into virtual and in person internship projects with real clients based in South Africa. Students have developed financial lending products for female entrepreneurs across Sub-Saharan Africa, built a waste reduction strategy for one of the largest retailers in South Africa, and tackled systemic problems in the country’s education system by evaluating and testing a new online, affordable high school – to name just a few examples.
A week in the life working at diiVe never truly looks the same, each day and week is different, but I will do my best to give you a sense of what a week typically entails.
My alarm buzzes at 7am sharp and I don’t feel the need to hit snooze, roll over and go back to sleep. I have always said that I want to work because I want to and not because I have to (and in all seriousness I do have to work, for all the reasons everyone else has to work), but for the first time in my life, I don’t hit the snooze button because I want to work.
My Monday morning begins with a scalding hot shower to wake me up followed by an even hotter coffee as I begin my 35 minute commute from the quiet suburb of Constantia to the bustling working hub of District Six in Cape Town, where the diiVe offices are located. I have roughly an hour to settle in, say my good mornings and then head straight into our daily diiVe check-in meeting. Today’s personal check-in question was asked by Elspeth (our CEO) – ‘What is your favorite character? From a book? A movie? A series? Or even a poem.” After everyone has shared their favorite character, revealing another layer of who they are, we jump straight into our work check-in, running through our extensive to-do lists for the day and the week ahead.
Some days at diiVe consist of back-to-back meetings in which we launch into sales strategies, funding opportunities, securing important partnerships, planning for events and website design. Between the team meetings, I make sure our social media reflects our diiVe personality, keeping our entire community up to date with what is going on behind the scenes before we launch into our 2023 JTerm and Summer programs. The week consists of each team member conducting interviews with potential students for our programs and the hunt for an ambitious intern to join our team in Cape Town. Other days at diiVe consist of less meetings, more coffee breaks, consistent banter and even more admin tasks, where we each plug in our earphones turn up the volume on our music of choice and dive into what we call ‘our work hole.’
Although each day and week working at diiVe looks dynamically different, some things tend to remain consistent; the feeling of working with people that feel like family, the smell and taste of good coffee a 2 minute walk from and the office, an environment that allows me to be more than one thing everyday and feel like I’m making a difference, which is why I never hit snooze on my alarm.
Find out more about the opportunities diiVe are recruiting for, along with many others by searching #EdCareersForSocialGood on MyCareerHub
