Community Partner: Baltimore Corps
Peer Mentor: Claire Zou
Site Supervisors: Kaetlyn Bernal and Dani Faulkner
What is Baltimore Corps?
Baltimore Corps works to enlist talent to accelerate social innovation in Baltimore and
advance a citywide agenda for equity and racial justice.
Whenever people ask me what Baltimore Corps is, I always describe it as the talent-matching agency
of the social sector, which usually elicits a chuckle and some follow-up questions. If they have more
than a few minutes to spare, I’ll give an elevator pitch of the four main programs we operate—Fel-
lowship, Public Allies, Elevation Awards, and Kiva Baltimore—but that still only scratches the surface
of our day-to-day. As I reflect on these past eight weeks, I realize that even a thought-out, well-pol-
ished summary of my experience cannot fully capture the profound ways in which Baltimore Corps is
serving our city.
Working at Baltimore Corps this summer has added several dimensions to my understanding of
socially impactful work. From hearing about how Elevation Awardees are using their grants to start
nonprofits to talking with our tech team about best metrics for measuring impact to everything in
between, I have come to appreciate the vastly different ways people can use their talents to strive
towards the same mission. Perhaps most eye-opening has been learning about how entrepreneur-
ship can be a pathway to equity and justice. These past eight weeks, I have been immersed in the
world of micro-lending as I support my supervisor Kaetlyn in building up Kiva Baltimore’s presence
in the city. Kiva is a micro-lending program that utilizes the power of crowd-funding to provide
zero-percent interest loans up to $10,000 for budding entrepreneurs, especially for minority- and
women-owned businesses that may be excluded from mainstream sources of capital. With Kaetlyn’s
guidance and trust, I have advised potential and current borrowers through the loan application
process, planned a networking series for the upcoming year to recruit new borrowers, and met with
several Kiva trustees and partners to develop a long-term engagement strategy that will strengthen
those relationships. To say that my experience with Kiva Baltimore has been uniquely transformative
would be an understatement.
I thank Kaetlyn, Dani, and the rest of my colleagues at Baltimore Corps whose relentless dedication
and energy are a constant source of inspiration; their infectious commitment to our city has reaf-
firmed my desire to continue serving Baltimore beyond my undergrad years, and for that I am so
grateful.
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• Outlined a detailed long-term
Partner Engagement Strategy
that aims to bridge entrepre-
neurial pipelines in Baltimore
and increase borrower referrals
for Kiva
• Created a proposal for the
Social Innovation and Entrepre-
neurship networking series in
order to recruit more applicants
for Kiva and Elevation Awards
• Drafted MOUs for both Kiva
Borrowers and Trustees that
clearly delineate both parties’
responsibilities
• Supported Kiva Manager in
ensuring that five borrowers’
loans were fully crowd-funded