Guest post by Kate Stence
Question #1: Tell me a bit about your background.
London born and raised, I’m a city child of two loving first-generation Chinese immigrant parents. As an only child with a big extended family, I had the best of both worlds growing up: rabbles of cousins to exhaust myself with and endless hours at home honing my love affair with books, which turned out to be a thinly disguised interest in people. I studied English Literature at the University of Cambridge, graduated, and joined the UK-based children’s charity Kids Company in October 2008. I’m now completing a dual-degree Master’s of Public Administration (MPA) and Public Policy and Management with the London School of Economics and Columbia University. Currently, I reside in Manhattan.
Question #2: Why did you decide to work in the field of human rights, in particular those of children?
Since the age of fifteen I’ve worked with children in one way or another. From setting up and running an after school workshop for children with learning and behavioral difficulties with some friends to working at Kids Company, a cutting edge charity offering therapeutic, practical, and emotional support to vulnerable children. Looking back there was no isolated definable reason as to why I’ve spent the past eight years in this “field.” What I do know is that there are a lot of children, defenseless because of their very infancy. It is not a case of me choosing to care for them, but there was no way that I could not. Our children reflect back our choices as a society, our duties as adult caregivers. Collectively, we are failing so many.
Question #3: What are the biggest work-related challenges you have faced? How did you overcome them?
Time management. Work is different to a job. A job is list of tasks to be carried out; work is something to be done. I’ve been lucky as to meet so many who by example showed how work is not to be defined as a sub-category of life, but something to be lived.
Question #4: Tell me about the mentors you have had in your life (male/female).
I’ve met many inspirational characters in my life, all of whom have played a decidedly motivational yet gentle role in my personal development; they have simply allowed me to be. As if this wasn’t privilege enough, I had the fortune to meet founder and director of Kids Company Camila Batmanghelidjh originally as a volunteer assistant in 2008. No grandiose praise can capture the impact this woman has made on my life.
Camila has founded two British children charities, remortgaging her home twice in order to do so and is a dedicated advocate for children’s rights as well as psychotherapist. Her work ethic is incomparable—seven days a week, day in day out, plus she is a lifeline to so many abused and neglected children in the UK. Aside from being a shrewd entrepreneur and leader, she is fun, beautiful, intelligent, and fundamentally human. Aside from her stellar degrees, the UK academic community has so far awarded her thirteen honorary doctorates, and her list of awards include, Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2005, New Statesman Magazine Person of the Year Award 2006, Most Admired Chief Executive 2008 (Third Sector), Business Woman of the Year Award 2009, British Honours Award 2010 and Queen’s Community Award 2010). There is no warmer person than Camila, yet at the same time it can be difficult to accept that she is of this world.
Question #5: Anything you wish you had known when you were in earlier stages of your career?
“Everyone is nice, not everyone is competent.” I have to thank a friend for that. Good work speaks for itself, trying to impress or making excuses for others in the name of being nice does not help anybody. When time is limited and we’re working in chaos, as is often the case for NGOs, it is important to build a dedicated team where people are using their skills to the best collective advantage and sometimes it can be a bit of a rough and tumble. Being kind and honest is important, but quality should not be sacrificed for nicety. This can be hard when being nice is confused with being liked.
Question #6: What are leadership qualities you value most in others?
Persistence, compassion, and daring. A great leader understands who he or she leads and addresses their needs. He or she is a catalyst which requires courage, commitment, and quite often a touch of flair to grab other people’s attention. The mark of the best leader is that he or she becomes no longer necessary as their work sustains itself.
Question #7: What is your greatest achievement?
Hopefully, it’s yet to come.
Question #8: Who inspires you?
My mother, my father, and my mentor Camila are consistent sources, but I find that inspiration resides in very curious places and luckily it visits me often.
Question #9: Do you have a mission statement or a tenet that you try to live by?
The supreme evil of civilization may be expressed in one single phrase. It consists in permitting the human achievements to outrun the human imagination. —G.K. Chesterton
If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good. —Dr. Seuss
Question #10: Do you have work/life balance?
I have terrible work/life balance if they are held as separate concepts and that used to trouble me. But I’ve come to realize, first: care has no bounds. Second, my work and my joy is to care. Care often calls for tough decisions and grueling tasks. As a compass it guides you to make the choices that answer to the better part of you. This can be pretty exhausting, but indifference is the greatest loss in life.
Kate Stence is a writer, editor, and an avid endurance runner for SoleMates/Girls on the Run International and Run for Congo for Women/Women for Women International. In 2010, she completed South Africa’s 85th Comrades Marathon, a 56 mile endurance event for SoleMates. Currently, she resides in Paris, France and is the Associate Editor and a Blog Columnist for the International Museum of Women. Check out her writing at Her Blueprint.