Most Important Skills for a Project Coordinator at Legal Aid San Mateo County
Maraina, a Project Coordinator at The Legal Aid Society, finds the most rewarding aspect of her role is "the immediacy of being able to help people," contrasting it with previous roles involving lengthy processes. This is exemplified by her work securing crucial benefits like IHSS, enabling families to receive thousands of extra dollars monthly, a feat she finds "incredibly gratifying."
Problem-Solving, Project Management, Communication, Helping Others, Community Support
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Maraina Weyl
Project Coordinator
The Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County
Syracuse University
Santa Clara University School of Education and Counseling Psychology- M.A. Counseling
International Relations & Affairs
Government & Public Sector, Nonprofit, Foundations & Grantmaking
Consulting
Scholarship Recipient, Pell Grant Recipient, Worked 20+ Hours in School, LGBTQ, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Helping people directly and seeing immediate results is the most rewarding aspect of the job.
2. The role allows for tangible problem-solving, such as reinstating benefits or accessing programs like IHSS.
3. The work provides significant financial assistance to families, often exceeding several thousand dollars monthly, by connecting them with existing but unknown programs.
Transcript
What do you enjoy most about being in your role?
What do I enjoy most about being in my role? I think the immediacy of being able to help people is probably the best part about my job.
This is especially true coming from previous roles like organizing, which is an incredibly long process. You have to get people's buy-in for some greater good in the future that may or may not affect their literal children or lives.
With this role, you make a phone call and you get to fix a problem. You get to reinstate a benefit. You get to get someone signed up for something they didn't even know they could have.
One thing we handle a lot is IHSS, which is in-home support services. On its face, this means if you have a child with a severe medical disability, an individual comes to the house to take care of your child.
But what people don't know is that parents can be providers. This means you can get paid to take care of your child in some cases. For many families, that's three, four, or $5,000 more a month than they're currently getting, and they didn't even know it existed.
Being able to tell somebody about that and then make it happen for them in a matter of a week or a month is incredibly gratifying. It makes it worth all of the nonsense we have to deal with with some of the bureaucracy.