Ocean SF has been an incubator for leadership and development through our Summer Internship program, which began in 2021 with our first seven interns. Sydney Chaney Thomas, an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley, taught a course called Effective Leadership and Management that summer, and she began using the class content to educate her interns on leadership and management. She used the same leadership development instruments with each intern and began meeting with them individually, working with them to understand and development their core strengths and competencies. Each weekly Intern meeting would address one of the ten modules Sydney presented in her professional leadership course.
In addition to this layer, she began creating groups where each intern could use their leadership abilities for different projects. This allowed each of them to find and utilize their leadership styles. The group was extremely diverse, comprised of college students with various skill sets and backgrounds.
In addition to this, Sydney Chaney Thomas is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). She earned this certification while working in technology but uses it as an overlay to all of her projects. Learning to be a skilled project manager is a transferable talent across all industries and has been especially helpful in clothing manufacturing, inventory control, and management of webbased platforms and social media campaigns. Sydney teaches her interns how to create a project plan and utilize tools like Asana and Trello to manage project deliverables.
Each summer since 2021, Sydney Chaney Thomas has run this program. and in 2022, the program ran through January to accommodate an intern that had deferred at NYU that year. In 2023 the program ran throughout the entire year as Ocean SF becomes more than just a company and place to work, but a true calling.
This summer we are getting a later start, but plan to make great strides with our brand. Sydney Chaney Thomas is a corporate leadership consultant working for Villa Leadership with clients in the Silicon Valley, and a member the Executive Leadership Committee for the Fine Arts Museums of an Francisco, and is also on the advisory board for the Haas School of Business Innovation Squad. Even with this busy schedule Ocean SF and the leadership concepts she teaches through the Internship Program remain closest to her heart.
I am happy to share my knowledge through internships that use my clothing brand Ocean SF as a catalyst for learning and through my ability to teach complex concepts and help others find their path and thrive. It is my great joy to work with young people as they start their careers.
Sydney Chaney Thomas – Owner and Founder of Ocean SF
When Ocean SF was struggling to find footing during Covid and afterwards with so many retail closures one of the former Ocean SF interns suggested Ocean SF be used primarily to train leaders and that profitability could be secondary to the mission of Ocean SF which began as a vehicle to drive sustainable sportswear and rid the world of plastic.
Like many great companies Ocean SF prides itself on adapting and evolving as a business.
We invite you to apply if your interests are aligned with environmental causes, sustainability, innovation and leadership.
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