Read to the end for CSL Requirements Tips & Tricks!!
I sat down with Triece Thomas, the Community Service Learning Coordinator in the Upper School, to learn more about her and her role in the Fieldston community:
Shayna Sacks: What is your job as the Community Service Learning Coordinator?
Triece Thomas: I work with Ms. TO, the Director of Community Service and Community Outreach. Ms. TO is like the umbrella that I am under. I coordinate all of the field trips for community service classes, community service meetings and our coalition with the hilltop, which is Horace Mann and Riverdale. In addition, I maintain outside partnerships, like the Friendly Fridge, and help us keep our budget so we can have money to do more drives and order materials. I also see students when it’s time to propose the project for the independent service part of the year. I can approve their proposals, or disapprove, which never really happens with me.
Shayna Sacks: What was your path to Fieldston?
Triece Thomas: I’ve always worked with nonprofit organizations. I worked at an organization called Search for Change. It’s an in-house psychiatric institution that houses people ages 30 to 60 with serious mental illnesses whose families can no longer take care of them. I was a counselor there for six years and I still work there part-time overnight. I also worked at the Cedar School in Greenwich, Connecticut and then I did a little stint at Indeed.com working from home, which I loved. But working from home can get really depressing and I needed to leave the house. I wanted to get back into the school and business side of things. I like the weekends off, you know, but also the kids. The kids are great. To be around better and younger personalities is better than being at home by yourself all the time.
Shayna Sacks: How did you become interested in Community Service and Community Service Learning?
Triece Thomas: My undergrad degree is in psychology and each job I got in that industry seemed to be with nonprofits. They were always community-related. Either I was working in the Homeless Division for Westchester County, or I was working for the Mental Health Division for Search for Change. It’s always with people who don’t have the same access to resources that we have. I always knew I had a passion for that clientele. Not so much the corporate side, even though I do have a master’s in business. A lot of people would think, “Oh, go into banking or go into consulting.” But the community still needs someone with an MBA Degree. You have the power to tell the community’s resources where to go. Being hands-on is what really drew me into the Community Service field, always with nonprofits and always in organizations. I worked at a food bank for two years, Feeding Westchester. That was a really interesting job because I got to see different types of food people eat every single day that you would not even imagine, like powdered milk. I took a class to a food bank because I knew for a fact they had never seen powdered milk. And literally, they were like, “Woah people drink this?” I said, “Yes, from the foodbank people need this or if [they’re] sick [they] can’t drink it, you gotta mix it to make it a little thicker.” You learn a lot about the community working for the community.
Shayna Sacks: What are some other things you do on campus that aren’t associated with the CSL office?
Triece Thomas: I sometimes run my own drives, for example with the migrant families that are coming over now. I made contact with a woman from the Friendly Fridge and she let me know there is a hotel with migrants and they need clothes. I sent an email out and we got a lot of clothes that we filled her car with – it was great! I am also a field hockey coach for middle school and last year I was a track coach for middle school. I like having the opportunity to meet kids in eighth grade and seventh grade. I get to see these kids in the upper school one day so it’s nice to get to see them in seventh or eighth grade and build that rapport with them. And I’m the advisor of a club, Days for Girls, and I have an advisory. It’s my first year being a Form III advisor.
Shayna Sacks: What are three fun facts about yourself?
Triece Thomas: I have one cat, I love Italian food – anything with pasta – and I started the Serving Selflessly Community Highlights!
Triece Thomas’s Tips & Tricks:
