by Aria Pearson
Working in customer service, with little pay and no benefits, Davina Singleton saw UCSF as her ticket to a stable career.
Unfortunately, coming from the low-income area of Bayview, she had limited opportunity to build skills and experience. When UCSF's Community Outreach Internship Program (COIP) began recruiting in her neighborhood, she jumped at the chance to get a foot in the door.
"I wanted to develop a foundation and build security for my kids," says the 32-year-old mother of three. "I was determined, and I set out my goals."
Founded in 1996, the COIP is designed to provide young people with career opportunities at UCSF. So far, 84 people have enrolled in the program and most have completed it. Singleton entered the program in 2003, first completing a 10-week training class and then a five-month internship in the campus Business and Risk Management Services department.
During the 10-week class, Singleton received basic job training, including computer skills and interview techniques. But she says the internship was what really allowed her to develop her administrative and clerical abilities. "The people in the department were really helpful. I got a chance to enhance my administrative skills, which were really terrible," she says laughing.
 |
| Davina Singleton. Photo by Lisa Cisneros. |
After completing the internship, Singleton worked as a temporary assistant at the School of Dentistry, the UCSF Family Medicine Center at Lakeshore and Volunteer Services in UCSF Medical Center. She says working as a temp is not easy, but if people show they are willing to work many different jobs, it gives them a leg up in the long process of career building.
"I always knew I had to sell myself," she says. "You have to be a person who knows what you want."
And that determination paid off. Recently, Singleton accepted a career position with the Office of Continuing Medical Education.
She says that with the help of the Community Outreach Internship Program, people can achieve their goals, as long as they put their minds to it. "You have to want it," she says. "No one is going to want it for you more than you do."
COIP is currently on hiatus, pending the completion of an evaluation of the programs facilitated by the Community Partnerships Program's Economic Development Initiatives, which is operated through the office of Community and Governmental Relations.
Economic Development Initiatives, which began five years ago with support from a variety of foundations and UCSF, conducts a variety of workforce and business programming aimed at boosting participation in the UCSF employee and vendor pools among diverse San Francisco populations. The programs focus on residents and businesses from neighborhoods like Bayview-Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley, where significant numbers of African American, Asian and other low-income and underrepresented people live.
For more information about UCSF's Economic Development Initiatives, call Lisa Gray, program coordinator, at 415/514-2651.
