interview Questionnn!!!1

1. What is your full name?Sara Zoe Cullinane

2. Where are you from?I grew up in Massachusetts.

3. Where did you go to college? For how long? Do you plan to go back to school?I went to McGill University in Montreal, Quebec Canada for 4 years and got my BA. I'm planning to go to law school in a couple of years.

4. (If the interviewee went to college)…What was your major in college and what kind of degree do you earn?I majored in History and earned a honors Bachelor of Arts.

5. Why did you choose that field?I like the way that in history you consider a topic from many angles. I think we can learn a lot about the present from the past -- I studied Atlantic history, which covered colonialism, the slave trade and other topics that have influenced history and help me understand a lot of issues in the present, like immigration, for example.

6. What got you involved in this field of work? What inspired you to do it?

7. Why did you choose this job?I wanted to work at Make the Road New York and this was the first job opening I saw here!

8. How long have you worked here?About a year and a half.

9. What is your job title?Health care advocate.

10. What do your duties include? Or What kinds of work does your job involve?I help plan our facilitated enrollment in health insurance program by making links with other organizations and community members to let them know they can get health insurance at our office; I also look over all the applications we submit for health insurance and bring them into the Human Resources Administration (the city Medicaid office) and make sure that everyone we think qualifies gets insured. I also give a lot of workshops to the community and work with our Worker's in Action group as a health care liason.

11. What are some of the challenges you have faced working here?It's been hard to figure out the bureaucracy of the Medicaid system and managed care (health plans) system in NYC -- sometimes it feels like there is a lot of red tape in the way of people getting health care and this can be very frustrating.

12. What is the best part of your job?Supporting community members to make the changes they believe we need to improve health care, and working with my fabulous interns!

13. What is something you would like to change about your job?I wish I had more time to stay organized and to support the rest of the great work happening in our organization.

14. Did you work somewhere else before this job? Where? For how long? How was that similar/different?I was a union organizer with janitors in the midwest -- Indianapolis, Indiana and Columbus, Ohio, for a year. It was a different job because I barely spent any time in the office -- I was out talking with janitors at their buildings and homes and starting trouble with the janitorial companies!

15. What do you see as your future with this company?I'd like to continue with Make the Road New York and hopefully get involved in more organizing campaigns. Someday I'd like to come back and be a lawyer at the organization.16. Do you enjoy the kind of work you do?Yes!

17. Do you plan to open your own business one day?I don't want to open my own business, but I would like to continue doing similar community based organizing work.

18. How has having an intern helped your company or organization advance or progress?Gleny and Jeferson have helped me see a whole other side of our outreach work -- basically, how to reach youth and talk to them about health care and the importance of having health insurance in a way that they will respond to. Their creativity and also willingness to help me do some everyday tasks, like photocopying and data entry have also been very helpful.