Alumni Spotlight: Q&A with Caitlin Donnelly

At City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley, we are incredibly proud of our Alumni and strive to provide a continued sense of community as they embark onto the next phase of their journey. This month, we are featuring Caitlin Donnelly, Americorps volunteer for the 2022-2023 school year. Read about Caitlin’s City Year experience below!

Q: What made you want to sign up for City Year in the first place?
I originally decided to do City Year because it was important to me to do something in education after graduating. Both of my parents always impressed upon my brothers and me how important education is and how much it impacted their life. It was fundamentally important to me that I pass on this importance and dedication before I embarked on my career.

Q: What are some of your first memories of your City Year experience?
The first thing I really remember with City Year is how much fun the people I was with made it. Even the training itself was fun as long as I had the right people to share the experience with.

Q: During your time with City Year, what training or experiences prepared you for your career journey to come?
I think the most valuable gift that City Year gave me was patience and gratitude. It is easy to learn about and think about systemic barriers to entry in an academic setting, but to actually see them happening in real time is a completely different perspective. Also, working with high schoolers was incredibly helpful in learning how to communicate things in different ways to make them digestible for whoever was receiving information. 

Q: What did you learn during your experience that was new or surprising to you?
Something that was very important to me during my time at City Year was making sure that the high schoolers felt heard. It is easy when you are a teenager to feel like no one really understands what you’re going through or cares to hear about it and I really wanted the students I worked with to feel as though I at least attempted to really hear them. What surprised me, ultimately, is how much I learned from those conversations. Even if it wasn’t something I had been through or knew about, having conversations with students broadened my perspective immensely and I hope gave the students an outlet to be heard.

Q: What was your favorite thing about your City Year experience?
My favorite thing about City Year was being able to play games with the students. As important as doing homework and learning is, it is also important to make school feel fun even if it is in a limited capacity. Playing games with students between asking them about homework and classes was an incredibly fun after school experience. Outside of that, my other favorite thing was the people I met in the program. I made lifelong friends at City Year and I will always be grateful for the program bringing us together.

Q: What, of your City Year experience, will you bring into your career?
While I do not intend on going into teaching, I think the values of leadership and compassion are things that I will bring into my career in law.

Q: What advice would you give to young adults considering a year of service with City Year?
I think my greatest piece of advice for those considering a City Year experience would be to make sure they have a good balance before they start. It can be hard as a fresh graduate, undergrad or otherwise, to find balance in a workplace environment and I think being able to maintain a City Year position ultimately lies in being able to maintain a balanced life outside of working hours. For me, this meant working out and seeing friends, and just making sure I took time to disconnect from work and recharge.