Sarah Dymecki

Many Hats

With each “hat”, I’ve worked hard to bring a passion and enthusiasm for the environment and people I collaborate with in each job early in my career, but it wouldn’t be a journey if I didn’t veer off the path a bit to explore new ideas and solutions along the way. Striving to make an impact, whether it’s through creative ideas, community work, research, fundraising, or business development, I continually seek to create positive change and outcomes for myself, my colleagues and work organizations.

Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin, Menai Bay

African Impact

Dolphin & Marine COnservation project

Project Manager

Zanzibar, Tanzania

African Impact is a responsible volunteer and travel organization providing positive, impactful experiences to communities, wildlife, the environment and volunteers throughout Africa. They have numerous volunteering projects in 11 East and Southern African countries, one of those locations being Zanzibar. The African Impact Zanzibar Programme has 2 volunteering projects, Teaching & Community Support and Dolphin & Marine Conservation, which I managed.

At African Impact I was a leader, researcher, teacher, community engager, and business developer. As Dolphin & Marine Conservation Project Manager, I applied all these hats to the development, management, and communication of the project to meet the needs of the local community, international volunteers, and the coastal ecosystem.

Conservation Club students creating ecobricks

Leadership: As project manager, I led all aspects of project while handling administrative responsibilities. This included, but was not limited to scheduling, fundraising, finance management, marketing, volunteer management and project operation. Volunteer numbers ranged from 2 to 14 on the Dolphin & Marine Conservation Project, changing every two weeks. As their primary contact on the ground, I was responsible for creating a meaningful and impactful experience for them, using communication, creative individualized motivations, and conflict management. In addition, I managed and trained 2 local staff and a group of 20 boat drivers to assist with various activities.

Research: The backbone of my work was daily dolphin monitoring to analyze the relationship between dolphin behavior and dolphin tourism. Guiding volunteers through daily data collection, entry, and analysis, as well as creating weekly, monthly, and annual reports was a large part of the job. Proper database maintenance, scientific writing, and policy writing were critical for detecting and expressing any relationships found between dolphins and tourism. This research, along with daily catch fish monitoring, was conducted in partnership with Dr. Narriman and the Institute of Marine Sciences in Zanzibar.

Teaching: The second largest aspect of the Dolphin and Marine Conservation Project is conservation education with local middle and high school students. I taught an average of 30 students during a yearlong curriculum that I continued to update and plan weekly lessons for. Not only was I responsible for communicating abstract concepts to a group of students that had no previous knowledge, but many of my volunteers did not have a conservation or teaching background either. I became an expert in how to inspire volunteers to lead a classroom and how to make conservation topics relatable. In Zanzibar, the education system does not allow for many individual ideas or creative thinking, which is why I made the curriculum as fun and engaging as possible.

Ethical boat driver training workshops were the second educational aspect of project, providing environmental, customer service, and ethical dolphin tour training to any boat driver in Kizimkazi. Our training and dolphin tour guidelines were taken from international regulation and adapted to Zanzibar. Workshops consisted of 5 courses and a practical exam giving a dolphin tour for about 3 to 4 drivers at a time. During my time as Project Manager, I trained and certified 10 Kizimkazi Ethical Boat Drivers to contribute to dolphin and marine conservation and offer an environmentally responsible tour to tourists.

Community Engagement: The Dolphin & Marine Conservation Project could not operate without the continued support of the Kizimkazi Village community, making it very important to bridge the gap between volunteers and community members, as well as coordinate with local partners to ensure project operation. We organized weekly beach and village cleanups, sports days, community garden projects, and other Friday activities that engaged our students, boat drivers, and woman’s group. My favorite was local meal. Every Wednesday, staff and volunteers would walk to a nursery teacher’s home for a dinner full of local Zanzibari foods. The night served as an income generator for the teachers, but also as a great experience for the volunteers to have with the teachers they work alongside.

Business Development: To generate a greater conservation impact and economic situation for a growing number of ethically certified boat drivers in Kizimkazi, I created the Kizimkazi Ethical Dolphin Tours, a conservation ecotour alternative to the dolphin tours on the island. I used community, volunteer, and corporate resources to develop the tours and link them to the Dolphin & Marine Conservation Project, growing them into a sustainable business for the boat drivers. Marketing and fundraising was not only important to the Dolphin Tours, but to all African Impact Zanzibar projects. I created social media awareness campaigns, brainstormed creative fundraising ideas, and hosted on the ground fundraising events for tourists and organizations in our community.

In summary, the many hats I mastered during this time included learning new language; mastering administrative, research, and business skills; managing project operations; leading and mentoring volunteers; coordinating educational classes and conservation initiatives with local community partners, mentoring my local staff, and creating fundraising campaigns on social media.

May 2018 - July 2019

African Impact Foundation

Project Intern

Zanzibar, Tanzania

The African Impact Foundation was founded as a way to responsibly manage the growing number of donations received from volunteers working on African Impact projects. Their goal is to work with communities at various African Impact project locations to improve the lives of the individuals and families who live there, as well as create partnerships with other organisations to unify and strengthen efforts to bring about sustainable, positive change. The charity is based in Cape Town, South Africa, but interns are assigned to project locations throughout Africa to assist African Impact staff with fundraising, data collection, volunteer coordination, and project management.

I was a Foundation Intern in Zanzibar for 12 weeks during the summer of 2017. As an intern I gained fundraising, communication, and NGO management skills, as well as a passion for Zanzibar and marine conservation that led to my return to the project one year later.

Fundraising: The largest responsibility of a Foundation Intern is fundraising. African Impact project costs are funded through sustainable donations from volunteers, so it was my responsibility to host creative fundraising events, social media campaigns, and use volunteer engagement to make sure African Impact Zanzibar could continue dolphin and marine conservation, nursery programs, and adult English classes.

During my 12 weeks in Zanzibar, I worked with the Project Business Manager to identify short and long term project needs, and develop a fundraising plan and schedule to meet those needs. I hosted trivia nights at local hotels twice a month not only to raise funds, but to spread awareness to business owners and tourists about African Impact and the Jambiani community. I created weekly volunteer event nights to engage volunteers in a fun, local activity such as cooking classes, movie nights, football games, etc. to help raise small on-the-ground funds and further connect volunteers to the community they were working in. I also created a cookbook of Zanzibari and Swahili cuisine with the goal of sales to volunteers to reminisce about the food they ate and loved. I completed the cookbook with the help of other interns in 2018.

Nursery students washing hands at a tippy tap station

Social Media: These 12 weeks were my first exposure to using social media platforms as a promotional tool. I created daily posts about each Zanzibar project, developing skills to make eye-catching and fun updates. I also used social media to advertise fundraising events and create fundraising campaigns to engage past volunteers. I learned how to communicate on these platforms in an effective way to our local partners, volunteers, staff, and potential donors.

Research & Analysis: Monitoring and Evaluation of Foundation projects is the main way we can measure the impact achieved for the community. I collected weekly and monthly data on each aspect of Zanzibar projects to make sure we were still making a positive impact on the individuals involved, the community as a whole, and the environment. I analyzed data and created monthly M&E reports for Cape Town, as well as wrote monthly progress and goal reports to continue project development. I enhanced my report writing abilities and gained experience in the M&E process for NGOs and NPOs.

Project Facilitation: To aid project staff, half my time was spent on project, involved in teaching nursery classes, adult English classes, working with a local women’s group, dolphin monitoring, fish monitoring, and teaching high school conservation classes. After a few weeks on the island, my passions veered towards the Dolphin & Marine Conservation Project. I assisted with data monitoring sessions, volunteer coordination, project coordination, and data analysis. I created a GIS database to map dolphin locations over the past 5 years, providing visual evidence for our research partner and volunteers about the negative impact of tourism on the dolphin population. I gained immense knowledge in marine conservation, as well as, project operations, the ability to communicate with a variety of actors, and scientific data analysis.

Mama Rafika and Mama Asha, members of the Kanga Ladies, preparing food for local meal

Community Engagement: As an intern, just as project staff, it was my responsibility to engage and interact with the Jambiani and Kizimkazi communities in order to work effectively, identify their needs, create a positive change with them, and be a bridge between them and volunteers. Over the 12 weeks, I learned basic Swahili and created relationships with individuals that would last well beyond my return one year later. This experience reaffirmed my passion for community development, taught me how to relate to different many different cultures, solve problems effectively, and develop excellent interpersonal skills.

May 2017 - August 2017

Pardee School of Global Studies

Research Assistant

Boston University

During my third semester in graduate school, I was chosen to be a Research Assistant for Professor Mahesh Karra. Dr. Karra is an Assistant Professor of Global Development Policy at the Pardee School and the Associate Director of the Human Capital Initiative at the Global Development Policy Center at BU. I applied to work with Dr. Karra due to his research and specializations in population, health, and economic development in low-income countries. As a Research Assistant, I was involved in the planning and offsite development stages of an ongoing randomized controlled trial to evaluate the health and economic effects of increased access to family planning and maternal health services in a village in India. I created a detailed electronic survey and questionnaire that would be used to collect field data over the course of 1 year. I continued to aid in this process during my fourth semester, as well as training other assistants to take on the survey creation after my graduation.

September 2017 - May 2018

Samiotes Consultants, Inc.

Project Surveyor/gis technician

framingham, ma

Before entering graduate school, I worked as a Project Surveyor for a Samiotes Consultants, Inc. for three years. Samiotes Consultants is a small civil engineering and land surveying firm located in the Boston area. At a small firm, one needs to wear many hats and contribute to the team in a variety of ways.

Field Work: From an intern to Project Surveyor, field work was a large part of my job. I mastered the use land surveying field equipment including Topcon robots, Leica Robots, Leica GPS, and a Leica 3D laser scanner. I mostly surveyed large public parcels of land and existing building sites throughout the Boston Metropolitan Area, but have experience with smaller, private plots as well.

Document Production: After any field work, it was my responsibility to take that data, transfer it into AutoCAD Civil 3D, and draft a plan of land. As an intern, I mastered the software in a matter of months, and was chosen to create a brand new drafting template for the survey department having only a year experience with the program. This template made data input in the field and in the AutoCAD more efficient, consistent across users, and reduced drafting time.

Environmental Regulations: As a Project Surveyor, I worked very closely with the civil engineering department, exposing myself to town, state, and federal environmental regulations, sustainable watershed management techniques, and ordinance interpretation. I have a full understanding of environmental regulation language, the purposes behind these regulations, and the design requirements needed to meet these regulations. Having returned to the firm in 2019, I am working even more closely with the civil engineering department, analyzing sustainable watershed management designs, best management practices, and drafting civil design details.

Management and Engagement: From communicating with team members to clients, I acquired excellent oral and communication skills with a variety of actors. During the course of a project, I had open communication with the client, providing progress updates and deliverables throughout the project lifetime, as well as constant coordination with other consultants involved in the project. I attended client meetings, worked with a number of town and city departments throughout MA and Boston, and prepared documents for town hearings. I also effectively managed and communicated with our survey field crew in order to create the most accurate topographic survey as possible.

I displayed an attention to detail in the projects I managed and the final products I created for clients and the engineering department, as well as an ability to meet deadlines, multitask in a fast-paced office environment, and delegate to my team. In my final year at the firm, I drafted work proposals, including project timeline and budget, with my Director, and kept myself and my team on schedule. I returned to the firm part time in 2018, using my drafting abilities and management skills to help in the busy spring season. After a year in Africa I returned once again, showing my commitment to a business that I respect and believe in, as well as the type of team member and employee I am.

October 2013 - August 2016, January 2018 - May 2018, November 2019 - Present

Greenpeace

Intern

washington, dc

During the summer of 2012, I was accepted into a five week internship program with Greenpeace. The bulk of the internship consisted of environmentel education, cavassing, marketing, and community organizing training. Training concluded with a week long trip to canvas for a Greenpeace campaign in Charlotte, NC. My team of fellow interns and I campaigned with local community members to attain public support to close a coal fired power plant that was linked to many medical conditions in the surrounding neighborhoods. We learned the power of grassroots organizing and the power that one’s voice has.

After my five week term, I was asked to continue as an intern coordinator for the second group of students that summer. I helped train and teach, as well as build on the skills I had just learned in the weeks prior. For our final week, we traveled to Cincinnati, OH, to start a similar campaign against coal as in Charlotte.

June - August 2012

CV