Moving Forward into 2017
By Laura Chen, 2016 ProInspire Fellow
Over the past few weeks, as we have once again changed our calendars to mark the beginning of a new year, the annual tradition of making resolutions surfaces. Whether relevant and necessary or antiquated and enforced, the habit and conversation of reflections arise. What will we commit to doing in the next 12 months? What will we willfully leave behind or accept about the time that has passed?
2016 was eventful in ways that surprised, saddened, and strengthened us. We watched as global tragedies deepened, and we came together for the many events that hit our nation and tested the ongoing struggle for racial, environmental, social, and economic justice. We did our best to show up – for black lives, for women’s rights, for our LGBTQ community, for immigrant rights as contained by legality, for the just recognition and respect of tribal lands – and in these struggles, we still find our efforts insufficient. It takes decades to move just inches forward, and we are still learning over and over again that the linearity of human progress is anything but. In these spaces of uncertainty, confusion, and worry, we create our circles of community.
As a ProInspire Fellow, I find this community within our cohort and feel tremendously lucky to be able to deepen it as a DC resident. Through our brain trusts, training discussions, therapeutic happy hours, and reflective reading assignments, I know this is a circle of folks who are also navigating the experience of transition – not only professionally, but also societally and personally. This community is more than a network of successful connections; it has in a few short months provided us with the stability of each other and the relief of humor amongst difficulties.
With tomorrow’s inauguration of our president-elect and what I envision to be an interesting (to be euphemistic) next four years, much of the work of social impact-focused organizations will be affected. How we continue to move forward will depend on how we can continue to move forward together. In recognition of the years ahead, I am grateful for my ProInspire family, amongst many of my DC families, for its dedication to the important issues and for its reliably nourishing source of insight, encouragement, and support along the way.
Laura Chen is a 2016-17 ProInspire Fellow working with the World Resources Institute on the Financial Planning and Analysis team. She supports the global operations teams, institutional funding strategies, process re-engineering, staff training, and performance monitoring. Prior to her role as a Special Projects Fellow, she worked for Huron Consulting Group in the healthcare practice and served as a Programs Director for a refugee resettlement organization. In her spare time, she enjoys teaching and practicing yoga, reading and listening to poetry, learning new languages, working on social justice issues with All Souls Unitarian Church, and making a slow morning out of cinnamon raisin toast in her tiny quiet kitchen.