My First Day on the Road with ICF
By: Connie Tooker, ICF’s Assistant Office Manager
Crossing the San Diego-Tijuana border and driving into Baja California’s cities, sites, and sounds, I was ready for a new experience – my first full-day of site visits as a new ICF employee. The purpose of site visits is for ICF to programmatically evaluate its grants and to ensure that funds are being used charitably. Amy Carstensen, Senior Program Officer and I visited three organizations in Baja California on this trip: Pronatura Noroeste and University CETYS in Ensenada, and the Cruz Roja in Rosarito.
Pronatura, one of ICF’s biggest and most important grantees (winner of ‘Grantee of the Year’ in 2004), is an environmental nonprofit that works on land conservation and research projects throughout Mexico. Pronatura staff, Amy, and I discussed various environmental projects that ICF is funding in Bahía de los Angeles, Laguna San Ignacio, and along the U.S.-Mexico border.
CETYS University (and its affiliated high school) in Ensenada is an academic institution that emphasizes in technical/scientific studies. For several years, Sempra Energy has supported CETYS through its donor-advised fund at ICF; our purpose was to observe the results of those grants, in particular the high school science program, which entices high school students, through activities, seminars and projects, to choose careers in engineering. It was CETYS’ last day of classes, so Amy and I were able to observe the students’ final projects. It was thrilling to watch 16 teenagers present their work with intelligence and enthusiasm.
Finally, we visited the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) of Rosarito, a nonprofit that has helped its community for the past 50 years. This particular Cruz Roja is designed as a medical clinic to aid local people and visitors by providing free and low-cost medical services. Through ICF, Sempra Energy helped Cruz Roja purchase a much-needed ambulance. The staff gave us an impressive tour of the clinic, including a visit to the ambulance.
As a new staff member of ICF, I never would have imagined how wonderful it could be to personally speak with grantees and donors and to feel like you are contributing to something greater than yourself. I am very fortunate and grateful to the ICF community for giving me the opportunity to participate in international philanthropy. I hope this will be the first of my many ICF site visits!
Welcome to ICF, Connie!
