When I reached my first "final year" at the University of Kansas, I was on the verge of leaving with a degree in strategic communications. However, I had a major epiphany while volunteering at a breakfast program for the homeless community of Lawrence, KS where I decided that I wanted my life to be about helping people by making the world around me better.This desire to help people lead me to my second "final year" at KU, where I graduated with a degree in Public Administration with hopes to enter the fields of government or nonprofit leadership. Along the way, I managed the dispatch office for the combined city and university transit system programs at night, worked in youth services at the local library during the day, and lost more sleep than I'd like to admit finishing up my coursework in between.I ended up joining the Goodwill of Orange County Donated Goods Development Team as a coordinator for a couple of reasons. First, the organization has a strong reputation for helping the vulnerable members of our community. Second, I felt like I might be able to make some improvements to operations while there. As it turns out, my knack for impromptu but insightful performance data analysis lead to improved program and event outcomes, which earned me a promotion into a role for a newly rebuilt Fundraising and Development Team. It has been a whirlwind of change moving from KS municipal government work to major non-profits in Orange County. Through it all, my life mission has stayed the same. I still strive to help people by making the world around me better. Right now, I am pursuing this by providing the organization's services with the funds they need to make as large an impact as they possibly can. If I am fortunate enough, I plan to keep chasing my goal of a better world well into the future.
Listed skills include Program Management, Donor Management, Event Planning, Data Analysis, and 15 others.