By Paula Herrmann, Accounts Payable Manager and Finance Team Lead
I spend my days putting numbers into little boxes, day after day, week after week, year after year, from one cycle until the next, as though on an endless conveyor line. I arrange those numbers into useful reports for a director, and send some of those numbers out where they magically turn to gold in a Local Coordinator’s bank account. Nearly every penny spent crosses my desk. If all is going well, you won’t even know I exist.
The Finance Department works behind the scenes, supporting the hard work that the Programs do. We make sure that partners are invoiced, bills are paid, funds are where they need to be when needed, payroll is disbursed, and that we comply with Federal and State statutes. But it is more than numbers. We provide a lot of customer service, answers to questions, and guidance. This is the human component. From my home office, I walk a new employee through the expense reporting process, discuss processes with a Department Leader, send out that emergency wire transfer, and make sure that state filing is postmarked by the deadline. Some days are emails and phone calls and Teams meetings. I think it’s amazing that because of technology, I can see and speak to my colleagues across the country or across the globe. But I really miss the everyday face-to-face interaction that was once a part of the average workday. This is why I think cultural exchange is important.
The Value of Cultural Exchange
I have travelled a little bit. I have seen breathtaking vistas, magnificent architecture, beautiful artworks. But the memories that stick with me most are the random human interactions I engaged in along the journeys. To meet a new person and find out what lights them up. What are their hopes, their worries? What do they do for fun? And as for the sacred act of breaking bread with another, I have found it advisable to learn the word for “delicious” in the mother tongue of wherever you go. If you demonstrate that you enjoy the cuisine, you make instant friends. There is no substitute for that personal in-person exchange.
I don’t have much interaction with participants. But every once in a while, such as during a Junior Greenheart Global Leadership Conference field trip to the Chicago Office, or some special event, I will get to meet some of the young people on our programs. I will see their shining smiles, hear their giggles, feel their nervous energy, their poise, their gratitude, and their pride as they give their presentations. And I might get to say, “I know your name. I send you your monthly Grant allowance check. I’m so happy to have a face to go with the name.” And they are happy to meet me too. This is why I do what I do.
In this turbulent online world, it is very easy to make up stories, whether about the person down the street or the person across the planet. But it is another thing to hear the real and first-hand stories of another human before you. This is where empathy, compassion, understanding, and connection happens between people and nations. This is why cultural exchange is important. Consider hosting a J-1 high school participant, being a Local Coordinator, hiring that international university student for your summer job, bringing a CAP Trainee into your workplace, or placing an international teacher in your primary or secondary school.
Invite the world into your life and look into its eyes.
