Blog Archives

Helping Launch Gen Z Careers

1/25/2021

Amidst the global pandemic that has impacted virtually every aspect of our lives, many members of Gen Z question how to navigate the complex labyrinth of finding a job and launching a career. Covid-19 has changed the ways that we interact with one another in many ways, and some of the effects of those changes have spilled over into the job market. One of our missions at Jezuba is to help members of Gen Z transition into the workspace more fluidly, despite the pandemic, and as part of that mission we hosted an online seminar, led by three professionals in recruiting, about this process.

The webinar took place on January 13th, and was the second of our planned sessions regarding career advice and navigating the job market. This session focused on how to create the best resume, cover letter, and online presence, as well as general advice about how to launch a career for newer entrants to the job market.

Christine Dasig-Aguada, a representative from Robert Half, began the session by providing guidance on how to write resumes. Afterwards, she highlighted the importance of cover letters, explaining that they are useful to describe qualifications and skills that aren’t listed on one’s resume. She also mentioned the importance of thank you notes, emphasizing that they help make one stand out to an interviewer.

After the initial presentation, the full panel of recruiters, which included Christine as well as Amanda Cretcher from WePay and Charles Jo from Power Integrations, took questions from the audience. In a lively and engaging discussion, the recruiters made many useful points. They emphasized the importance of not selling oneself short in interviews, negotiating salary, and getting job descriptions and offers in writing. They also warned participants about sharing too much of one’s personal information online, because it can easily follow one forever.

The conversation and advice shared during this seminar were extremely valuable to the attendees, including myself. We are hopeful that, due to this webinar and future career series webinars to come, Jezuba will continue to make a positive impact in the job market and successfully deliver career advice to aspiring professional Gen Zers.

Gavin Cartier
Content Strategists

The Journey

1/20/2021

During Jezuba's GenZ Career Series webinar, as we were discussing the difference between soft and hard skills, Rebecca, co-founder and director of Jezuba, brought up that I have developed an exemplary set of soft skills through my time at Jezuba. Though slightly embarrassed by being thrown into the spotlight, I was taken aback by her honesty. Had it not been for Rebecca’s comment, I would have never noticed this growth. Her words stuck with me as I reflected on my journey.

I started working for Jezuba during my sophomore year of college. At that time, I was clueless as to what I wanted to do career wise. Eager to learn but with nowhere to start, Van, my leadership coach from Braven, introduced me to Rebecca. From there, I joined Jezuba as the very first intern. Starting as a content strategist, to becoming the co-chief of staff and now the operations manager, I was able to experience all the ups and downs of a newly launched business and nonprofit organization. I have been so proud to see Jezuba's growth as we added more interns, took on new projects, and engaged in a large audience but I never realized that with Jezuba's growth, came my own.

My reliability has always served as a foundation for me, but I now know that I am also capable of taking on new challenges and learning new things. Engaging with passionate professionals, expressing my thoughts to a larger audience, organizing meaningful events, and connecting people around the world to make our team- all of these opportunities were only possible because Jezuba encouraged me to challenge myself.

Jezuba's goal will always be to empower youths to make an impact. Now, as a recent graduate and official staff member of Jezuba, I truly understand this simple but powerful mission statement. I’ll forever be thankful to have received this chance to get started on my journey and will work to pay it forward.

I hope this also serves as a gentle reminder to everyone getting started on their journey that hard work will never go unnoticed. Be kind, be forgiving, but most importantly believe in yourself.

Lauren Young
Operations Manager

Credit Lauren Young - Jeju Island, South Korea.

Brighten your Healthcare Hero’s day with a Jezuba Valentine this February!

1/19/2021

Let Jezuba help you bring some joy to our Healthcare Heroes this Valentine’s day with our handwritten cards! Choose a Greeting Card featuring original art work by a Jezuba artist and the Jezuba Healthcare Heroes team will hand write and mail the card on your behalf or anonymously. Choose from a pre-written message or personalize your card! Not only will these cards help support our Healthcare Heroes during this difficult time, the net proceeds from your purchase will go toward Solar LED Lamps for school children in off-grid rural Myanmar. Join us in thanking our Healthcare Heroes for all that they have done for us during this pandemic.

Let Jezuba help you say thank you to our Healthcare Heroes this Valentine’s Day! Visit this link for more details. Click here to learn more about Jezuba and meet our Healthcare Heroes team!

Izzy, Evelyn, Kat, and Alicia
Healthcare Heroes Program Managers

Happy MLK Day 2021!

1/18/2021

During this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. day on the 18th, many of us will be grateful for the three-day weekend as a time to recharge. Beyond just relaxation, however, I call on us to spend this holiday reflecting on King’s work for civil rights and justice, especially in the wake of the events over the last year showing the need for us all to continue his work.

A quote of King’s that resonated with me is “There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.” For many problems in the world, this issue isn’t the existence of resources or technologies to solve it; the main hurdle is the cooperation and teamwork that is necessary to get these resources to those people who need it the most.

I find that this quote especially applies to the world today, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The vaccine for the pandemic was created in record time, thanks to the many efforts of the scientists and researchers in charge, but the question mark of transportation and logistics for vaccination still remains. As of Sunday January 10th, California Governor Gavin Newsom said that the state had received almost 2.5 million doses of the vaccines, and that 783,476 had been administered[1]. Clearly, in a time of record Covid-19 deaths and hospitalizations, this vaccination rate is not acceptable. To honor the sentiment in King’s quote, state and county leadership and health departments must make it their first priority to assemble the right resources in the right places to get all available vaccines into people’s arms. And in order to make sure that everyone gets the vaccine safely, equitably and effectively, we need to show love, care and cooperation with one another as we help others to get their shots and wait our turn.

Here at Jezuba, our hope is that we can continue to inspire and empower the next generation and each generation to come. In the present moment, that starts with making sure we are all protected from the pandemic that has sickened and killed too many people around the world. I hope that on this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. day, we can all learn about how we can cooperate and work together in service to solve society’s most pressing problems, one step at a time.

Gavin Cartier
Content Strategists

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/us/california-vaccinations.html

Saying No to "Feminine Hygiene"

1/15/2021

To break down the stigma around menstruation we must talk about periods. The terms, expressions, and euphemisms we use can provide insight into how our culture views periods. Changing our language can then become a route for changing those cultural views. This post is going to tackle the term “feminine hygiene” and argue that the phrase supports the stigma around menstruation. This year, we should resolve to leave the term “feminine hygiene” back in 2020.

1) Feminine hygiene implies that women are especially unclean. Hygiene refers to the things we do to achieve cleanliness. Using “hygiene” together with “feminine” creates an association between women and dirtiness or disease. “Feminine Hygiene” products, therefore, help clean up and manage inherent feminine dirtiness. We don’t call band-aids “human hygiene products” so why do we call tampons, pads, and cups feminine hygiene products? Because advertisers are trying to convince women that they need to buy their products to achieve cleanliness.

2) Feminine hygiene is pernicious in its vagueness. The vague phrasing of “feminine hygiene” increases the taboo around women’s bodies and menstruation. The phrase is a cop-out because it lets shoppers, store managers, and advertisers skirt around acknowledging the specifics of the female body. It represents society’s menstrual shame and discomfort. The non-specific phrasing lets avoid meaningful engagement with the variety of products it references. When people refer to feminine hygiene, are they talking about douches? Vaginal wipes? Pads? Tampons? Cups? Sea sponges? Deodorant? The broadness is indicative of our cultural unwillingness to practically engage with or think about women’s reproductive health. Call a spade a spade, and refer to them as menstrual products.

3) Feminine hygiene results in placement issues in stores. At my local Walgreens, “feminine hygiene” products are in the same aisle as family planning supplies like condoms, lube, and pregnancy tests. What is the logic behind pad placement? “It has to do with a vagina, so… put it with the sex stuff.” This placement showcases how society is only comfortable thinking about or seeing female genitalia when sex is within easy reach. This stems from our collective discomfort regarding women’s bodies. It’s simply more comfortable for everyone if women’s genitalia are things we only think about when we’re also thinking about sex, even though menstruation has very little to do with sex. Why aren’t period products with the band-aids; where one could sell tampons as effective for menstruation AND controlling nosebleeds?

4) Feminine hygiene is an inaccurate description of its consumers. Not everyone who needs menstrual products is a woman; there are trans masculine people who menstruate and need menstrual products. Many trans masculine people already experience dysphoria about their periods and exclusive language in advertising only adds to these feelings.
You may see these products also referred to as feminine care. While feminine care avoids ascribing special feminine dirtiness to women, the term is still overly broad, alienates part of its user base, and presents placing issues. I prefer something basic and informative: Period products or menstrual supplies. Let us know if you have other preferred phrases by commenting below.

Rachel Desmond
Women's Health Program Manager

Credit: Discard Feminine Hygiene Products Here Sign, SKU: S2-0942 (mydoorsign.com)

The Scientific Reason I Dumped My Boyfriend

1/11/2021

Here’s a secret- every time I’ve broken up with someone, I’ve been on the cusp of my period. I always thought it was a weird coincidence, but then I looked into the science explaining what happens in your brain during your menstrual cycle. Now everything’s starting to make sense…

Julie Holland, MD, clearly explains the science behind your mood swings in her book, Moody B*tches. Your mood swings can be attributed to two main chemicals: estrogen and serotonin. Both of these neurochemicals make you happy. Serotonin acts as a mood stabilizer, making you feel emotionally stable, focused, and energetic. Estrogen increases the amount of serotonin in your brain, and also helps modulate your feelings and suppress your stress response.

During the first phase of your cycle, which starts after your period ends, serotonin and estrogen are both relatively high. These neurochemicals peak during ovulation. During the next part of your cycle, these hormones begin to decline. This brings us to PMS. PMS occurs the week before your period after you’ve ovulated and the egg hasn’t been fertilized. Your estrogen levels and serotonin levels drop. You're less stress-resilient. Your pain tolerance is at its lowest. With these lower levels of neuromodulators and stress-deflectors, it’s no wonder your mood might be different than the rest of the month.

Holland describes how these hormone fluctuations make sense from an evolutionary perspective. The higher estrogen levels the rest of the month create what Holland refers to as “a veil of accommodation”(Moody B*tches, 39). Estrogen is highest when our bodies are trying to find a mate to reproduce with, right when we’re at our most fertile before and during ovulation. Estrogen makes us flirty and easy-going, both useful when trying to find a partner for that egg. When these estrogen levels drop before your period, that veil is lifted. Your sensitivity increases and your mood is less stable. Your body is less inclined to accept substandard treatment from a partner (or anyone, for that matter) because you’re not going to have a baby. You don’t need those essential support systems in place for pregnancy, because you’re not pregnant.

It can be tempting to ignore the things that get under your skin and chalk them up to your period- you were just PMS-y when you cried after your boyfriend was late to pick you up, or when your mom and you got into a shouting match, or when you threw that towel at your roommate after she left it on the floor. These outbursts and displays of emotion get swept under the rug as we diminish them by attributing it all to our fluctuation hormones. But what if we didn’t dismiss them?

Instead of minimizing and pretending these unruly feelings don’t matter, we can instead choose to take the time to sit down and listen to ourselves. I’d bet that whatever you’re having an outburst about on your period is something that bugs you all month, and you just keep a lid on it (aided by the higher levels of happy chemicals).

Take advantage of this time of insight. You don’t have to dump your boyfriend, but you can listen to what you’re feeling and devote time to journaling, taking a meditative walk, or talking with a close friend about the state of your life. What commitments can you shed next month? As your serotonin and estrogen levels drop, lean into the rawness that surfaces. What’s weighing on you?

And finally, no more saying, “Oh, ignore me. I’m just PMS-ing”.

Rachel Desmond
Women's Health Program Manager

Credit: Sarcastic 1950s Housewife Memes That Hit Oh So Close To Home | Team Jimmy Joe

The art of quilling - virtual event

1/9/2021

Join us for the virtual event. Sign up here.

Leaning In to Cycles: Resting and Recharging

1/4/2021

I’m blessed to attend college in the Northeast, where the seasons make themselves very known. Summer is hot and humid, fall is marked by the fiery orange and red leaves everywhere, winter is unmistakable as it seems the snow doesn’t leave for three or four months, and spring is announced by hundreds of flowering trees. Our lives used to clearly align with nature's cycles: in the past, our largely agrarian based communities would work long hours during the summer and fall harvests, and shorter hours once winter hit and the light started disappearing. However, modern life seems to look down on cycles. Professor Breanne Fahs makes this clear in her essay entitled “In Praise of Cycles”. Fahs, who teaches Women’s and Gender Studies and Sexuality Studies at the University of Arizona, argues our current unwillingness to engage in seasons of life and cycles is hurting us. She describes how the “monotony of the year-round 9-5 job with little vacation time and, more importantly, no cycles of work and play, creates the most havoc on people’s lives”. Work culture fails to acknowledge the cyclicality of human nature, instead asking for machine-like consistency in our working lives.

Periods offer a unique opportunity to get back in touch with our bodies natural cycles. Tuning in to what your hormones are doing, and working with instead of against them, can be valuable. Women often report feeling tired, low-energy, or unmotivated during their periods. You might not feel like going out on the town or squeezing yourself into a pair of pants, so just… don’t. Lean into this phase of your cycle and prioritize rest.

Cancel your optional plans and luxuriate in your free time. Take a warm bath (also helps with cramps!). In the break from your routine, make time for an afternoon siesta. I like to mix up my workout routine and swap a longer run or weight session with restorative yoga or yin yoga. It’s a great way to get really relaxed and move around a little bit. Honor that your body is not a machine- it’s unfair to ask it to work hard everyday. Give yourself permission to be unproductive (or just less productive) during this time.

One of my favorite ways to rest during my period is to declutter. As my uterus sheds its unneeded lining and it exits my body, I like to do the same with the other aspects of my life. My physical space is one prime area for getting rid of old stuff. I ask myself each month- what do I no longer need? I go through a different space each cycle; my bathroom, bedroom, or closet; and figure out which items bring me joy and which ones need to be transferred or trashed. I love this minimalist blog which offers great tips on decluttering. As an added bonus, the monthly decluttering helps keep my space effortlessly clean the rest of the month. Win! Once I’ve decluttered, I like to kick back and enjoy more rest by watching Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.

What are your favorite ways to relax? Do you find it hard to give yourself permission to relax during your period?

Rachel Desmond
Women's Health Program Manager