Confessions of a Former Employee

I worked at an organization for 2 years. I was with a non-profit program that focused on education; I helped Latino high school students find a post secondary institution and went through the process with them along with my supervisor. I believed in the organization, staff and the executive director. We successfully helped over 150 high school students in the Memphis area, and our system worked.

Earlier this summer I started to see changes with our program. I say our program because there was very little help from the organization's staff and the main man in charge (executive director.) It seemed odd because in my opinion he didn't know how it was ran but he wanted to make changes "for the better." I was in no position to say anything since I was just an employee, even though most of the staff still saw me as an intern or just a college student. I started to see that these changes were because of some grants, but my problem is that these changes didn't seem right.

To my supervisor and myself the students weren't just a paycheck, or data for grants. We realize that they are people that just had a couple of road blocks put in front of them. Every student's situation was different, and we understood that. With the changes taking place the program wouldn't view them as individuals, it would view them as data for future funding. It turned them from students to units. It is from the information given to me that the changes happening is to reach more students, which seems great, but the personnel recently hired doesn't have the connections to help students. 

The program lost a great employee, my supervisor, because of one person's decision to change the entire system of the program. The executive director did not want to hear how we could be a part of this program and still reach the new goals. There was only one right way. I love the program; it made tutoring at ACT workshops, long road trips, and politics worth it, but to change the program completely over money that is not even going to the students they are helping doesn't seem just. 

In the executive director's eyes the changes are "for the better" of the program. Even though the changes aren't going to view the students as students, and the program will take only the "units" with the best data to look good for future funding. Maybe it's just me, but they are just doing this for the money, for the sake of something else. The actions aren't just either. But again what do I know.

-Mariana Hernandez