Week 6:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15UpWR1YE2xhS_dku_z0IhaabmJvZYOmbgD_i4QCP9H4/edit

My experience has greatly expanded my knowledge of how tourism organizations think and how they are beginning to respond to the climate crisis. I feel much more adept at sharing information related to climate and tourism. I have also learned how to better express myself in Spanish in the fields that interest me.

My supervisor Gabriel has helped shape my project. He has given me more confidence to express my more environmentalist lens within the tourism industry here in Chile. He has provided me with confidence to ask more direct, sensitive questions to tourism businesses about their sustainability practices. Generally, the tourism industry still has a long way to go to find ways to make sustainability profitable, largely due to the large carbon footprint associated with air (and cruise) travel. Many organizations who are beginning to count their emissions and become “carbon neutral” still do not include the airfare of visitors coming to their properties and programs. Asking direct questions about this sensitive subject for them was something I was unsure about, given my representation with the Federation of Tourism Enterprises. However, I feel more comfortable approaching these themes (respectfully, of course).

Week Five:
What new skills and/or knowledge have you gained from your summer experience? Have you met anyone who has been instrumental in shaping/helping you conduct your project? Briefly, how has this person impacted you? What have you learned about leadership from this individual, and how might it influence your actions, work, and self in the future?

On the practical side, I have learned to work with a lot of different programs in new ways (including but not limited to Polaris, a library site; Raiser's Edge, a finance site; Adobe InDesign; YouTube; Instagram; and Blackbaud, a general organization site). I have also learned a lot about how a real nonprofit functions - it requires a lot of intercommunication to make sure things don't get done twice or not done at all. I have been working a lot with the head of Events, who is not technically my boss but who has been offering me a lot of advice on getting work done (do it early in case you make mistakes and have to go back!), on working in a library (the patrons come first, as do the donors) and on life in Paris in general (don't take the train after 11pm because they don't come as frequently).  I think that her advice has taught me that leadership is very site-specific, and it can't really be taught; you just have to absorb knowledge from others and be willing to pass it on. There is no such thing as "general leadership skills" except being polite, patient, and a clear speaker.