Context
For the next 450 years, the résumé continued to be simply a description of a person, including abilities and past employment. In the early 1900s, résumés included information like weight, height, marital status, and religion. By 1950, résumés were considered mandatory and started to include information like personal interests and hobbies. It was not until the 1970s, the beginning of the Digital Age, that résumés took on a more professional look in terms of presentation and content. ~Wikipedia
I find resumes challenging because they focus so much on accomplishments. I am more of a collectivist and so far have not dedicated my life to accomplishing individual projects, but to plugging into and contributing to collaborative projects that I find meaningful.
Capabilities
By training I’m a language student and translator. I speak Russian, French, Chinese and am now learning Tibetan.
I have a lot of “soft skills” that facilitate glue work in projects and communities. I have strong communication skills and orientation to details and systems. I am always looking at how to improve existing processes and communications or create new systems for better work flow—not just what gets done but how it gets done.
I am a translator, a resource librarian, a project manager, a coordinator, a listener and a healer. Above all I am interested in projects that help individuals, communities, and environments to be well-cared for and to flourish.
I’ve put on many different hats on my life. I’m still wearing many of them atop one another in a precarious stacked collection like this fellow:
An illustration from the book Caps for Sale. Expand for a text description.
A man with a mustache sits dozing under a tree. He wears a dapper suit and a tall stack of 16 hats of different colors on his head.
Contributions
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I have coordinated humanitarian aid efforts for refugees and migrants, providing health care and social services to support vulnerable communities.
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I have managed online dharma study courses and helped organize meditation communities, facilitating group discussions, guiding meditations and planning ongoing curricula.
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I have engaged in direct action & organizing for the environmental movement to ensure a beautiful, healthy future for all beings on earth.
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I am a web designer and maintainer, amateur programmer and lifelong learner, reader, tinkerer and armchair philosopher.
In more detail
I have been a volunteer for 5+ years for the Tergar Meditation Community of New York, organizing and leading meditation sessions and discussion groups for people interested in the Joy of Living path of meditation outlined by Mingyur Rinpoche.
I worked at Tricycle: The Buddhist Review for 6 years, managing the online course platform, overseeing the production of six new courses per year.
I worked with a Methodist church-led organization providing medical, food, and social service assistance to migrants and refugees in Moscow, Russia. We coordinated numerous health education programs, language classes and other skill development programs in addition to clothing and food assistance. I conducted outreach to partner organizations to collaborate on programs and fundraising efforts and managed the program budget and day-to-day operations of the health center, including translating into Russian for French and English-speaking patients seeking medical care.
I am a CELTA-certified teacher of English as a foreign language. I have worked as an assistant teacher at a Montessori kindergarten, creating English language materials for children 3-6 years old.
Personal interests
I’m deeply interested in communication and its role in facilitating healthy relationships, communities, societies. I’m also interested in how we can communicate effectively and respectfully through conflict. To this end, I’ve worked a lot with the enneagram as a way of better understanding how we each communicate differently based on our individual inclinations and priorities.
Reach out
That’s me in a nutshell! Please get in touch if you would like to discuss anything, collaborate on a project or hire me.
Find a time to meet or write to hello at danyala dot org.