‘They’re Going to Push You Forward’: How Project Alpaca Is Helping Underserved Young Adults Find and Flourish in Their Dream Careers
Patricia Pack describes her job as a community manager at a mobile game company as “the best job I’ve ever had in my life.” Not only is she a salaried employee with benefits, but Pack is picking up new skills. “Each day I learn something new,” Pack says.
It’s a far cry from the retail jobs that Pack held in order to make ends meet while pursuing an associates degree in game and interactive media design at Hostos Community College and a bachelor's degree in fine and studio arts at City College of New York.
But Pack almost didn’t land the job.
Pack heard about an opening at the mobile game company through a mentor at Project Alpaca, a program that bridges the gap between college and career for underserved young adults in New York City. But when Pack’s would-be manager at the mobile game company told her she hadn’t completed the sample assignment correctly, Pack nearly backed out of the process.
Full of self-doubt and frustration, Pack emailed the mentor who had recommended the opportunity, saying “I don't think I can do this, I don't think I'm capable of doing this.” Pack remembers receiving encouraging words back from her mentor: “She's like, ‘Yes, you can, you can do it,” Pack recalls.
Those words of encouragement hit on a theme that Pack encountered throughout her experience in Project Alpaca. Through the program, Pack and her fellow “Alpacees” attended a workshop entitled, “Confronting the Inner Critic” and discussed how imposter syndrome can paralyze career seekers and sabotage job prospects.
The workshop was a revelation for Pack. Pack says, “I find that when I’m very nervous, I feel like this inner voice was like, ‘Hey, you can’t do this. You’re not capable of doing this.’ Taking that course it helped me ground myself, like, ‘Oh, I actually can do this.’” So when Pack’s mentor urged her to take another shot at the assignment, she already had the tools in place to name and combat the sense of doubt that she was feeling.
Now set in her career, Pack still turns to skills from the Project Alpaca workshop when she feels imposter syndrome cropping up. “I think to myself, ‘What’s the worst thing that could happen?’ And when I think about the worst thing that could happen, the worst thing that could happen is me getting feedback.”
Pack is now much more open to that feedback, seeing it as an opportunity for growth rather than a rebuke. “I have now learned that feedback is kind of golden. Because then you can improve upon yourself, your work ethic,” Pack says. “And then you can look at that feedback and you can hopefully help other people that are coming in or take it to your next experience.”
That insight about learning how to create opportunity even in the face of challenge resonates for Ngozi Fisher, another participant in Project Alpaca. Fisher now works as a media planner at an advertising agency, a job that Fisher says she “loves”—but that was also hard-won.
Fisher graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer graphics and imaging from Lehman College just as the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic led to hiring freezes and layoffs. It was connections and skills that Fisher developed through Project Alpaca that led her to her current role after nearly two years of stringing together seasonal, part-time jobs.
Fisher had previously interned at her college career services’ office, so she was no stranger to the job application process. But at Project Alpaca Fisher found resources that went far deeper than simple resume templates or interview practice sessions. Fisher remembers sessions on building a personal brand and creating a portfolio as particularly insightful.
For Fisher, though, it was the personal relationships that she built through Project Alpaca that made the program particularly worthwhile. “At Project Alpaca, you can’t just hide behind the sidelines,” Fisher says. “They’re going to push you forward.”
Fisher remembers that she had mentors who made a point of urging her to go after opportunities. “What was nice was the constant support, which was ‘Reach out, do this, do that. You want to try?,” Fisher says. Crucially, mentors backed up their encouraging words with actions. Fisher remembers mentors routinely saying, “We’ll go through our network and contacts. If you’re interested, do it.”
Fisher describes herself as an “introvert,” and appreciated this approach. “It definitely was a much needed push to be more proactive,” she says of the conversations she had with mentors.
That support and encouragement paid off for Fisher who was able to land a spot in a digital marketing apprenticeship program after a Project Alpaca mentor urged her to apply. The mentor told Fisher about the positive experiences she had had hiring graduates of the program. In turn, Fisher found her current role through the apprenticeship program.
For Jeffrey—who asked his last name not be used in order to speak candidly about salary considerations—the connections built in the Project Alpaca program were important in another way. It was through his mentors that Jeffrey learned about and considered entering the field of public service.
“I quickly realized that private sector jobs pay very well, but the benefits and work-life balance are unsatisfactory,” Jeffrey says, reflecting on his conversations with mentors in different fields. “On the other hand, public sector jobs pay relatively well, have a well-funded pension system, and the work-life balance is great.”
It was this realization that prompted Jeffrey to seek out Project Alpaca mentors in the public sector and to learn more about their work and seek advice on how to put his best foot forward in applications. After a stint at the Department of Homeless Services, Jeffrey took a new job at the city’s Department of Social Services. The job pays more, is on a standard schedule, and is an office environment, unlike his previous role in city government.
Jeffrey credits the skills he learned through Project Alpaca with helping him to make that switch. The key for Jeffrey was to “break [a long-term goal] down and attack it one small step at a time while keeping an eye on the larger prize.” For Jeffrey that meant finding a role that better aligned with his interests and career goals after getting his foot in the door with the city. That strategy is one that Jeffrey plans to take with him throughout his career.
Pack also feels that the connections and skills she’s built through Project Alpaca will continue to be important as she grows in her career. Pack says that seeing mentors speak about their work inspired her to dream bigger. “I thought, ‘Maybe I can do this,’” she says.
That spark has given rise to a new goal for Pack: to serve as a mentor to another generation of Project Alpaca participants. “I like the idea of giving back to people who were like me or are like me,” she says.
Rachel Burstein, PhD, is an independent education researcher and writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work has appeared in Slate, EdSurge, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Web: www.bursteinresearch.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rachelburstein/