Entrepreneurial Achiever
sees an opportunity, figures out a way to acquire the needed resources; and works long and hard to turn the opportunity into a reward
Theories of Nonprofit Leadership (Fall 2012)
My sophomore year in the leadership studies program I was enrolled in the Theories of Nonprofit Leadership class. In this class we studied different components and challenges of nonprofits and applied content to our partnership with a local nonprofit. As a final assessment piece we were given the opportunity to collaborate with one of our classmates to create our own start up nonprofit and present a portfolio detailing mission, vision, values, board governance, stakeholders, primary services, community research, budget, fundraising strategy, marketing and public relations, grant opportunities, metrics for determining success, partnerships, risk management, and volunteer management. One of the content pieces that had really stood out to me in this class was the idea of the “nonprofit clone wars”, in which nonprofits with similar missions were competing for limited resources. For this final project, my partner and I decided to look at the Kansas City community and to design a nonprofit whose function would be to promote resource sharing among other existing nonprofits. The mission statement of our organization, ONEImpact, was to “advance the Church by connecting resources and organizations for increased efficiency and greater Kingdome impact”. Our belief was that collaboration and sharing of resources would not only decrease organizational need and competition, but also ultimately lead to more people reached, served, and loved. In our Logic Model, the inputs that we planned to invest were our staff, time, research, and technology. The outputs or activities we planned to use included networking, consulting, workshops, and a shared resource database for our partner organizations. Our anticipated outcomes in the short term were the formation of connections, an increased knowledge of resources, and an increased knowledge of other partner organizations. We predicted that these short term results over time would lead to increased collaboration, and eventually in the long term, more efficient quality of service.
Facing Hunger Community Event (Fall 2014)
The bulk of my work for my internship with the Facing Project was split into two parts, the publishing of the stories and the planning of a community event and book release. The mission of the Facing Project is “connecting people through stories to strengthen communities”. Publishing the book was a way to hear and share the stories of members of the Manhattan community who were facing hunger. However, in order to really connect people with the hopes of building a stronger community, we needed a time and space to allow for people to hear and respond to these stories. Our hope for the event was not just to preach to people who were already working in the trenches, but to create an opportunity for those who were working in and around the issue of food insecurity to connect with people in our community, both who have experienced hunger, and who have no idea food insecurity is an issue in our community.
Recognizing this opportunity, my supervisor and I gave a lot of thought and attention to the program and other resources that would be available on the day of the event. At the bare minimum, we knew that some of the stories that were printed in the book were going to be read or performed in some way. Starting with that very basic foundation, we had room to dream about what additional resources might create the most meaningful and catalytic experience. We asked ourselves, wouldn’t it be cool if the audience members did not just hear the stories, but had an opportunity to respond to them? Wouldn’t it be cool if the audience members could ask questions about this work to people who are doing it regularly? Wouldn’t it be cool if there were a way for audience members to explore different means of engagement and possible next steps? With all of these things in mind, I began talking to some of our partners in the community and asking them the same questions. Additionally, I asked them to think about from an individual and organizational standpoint, what might their “wouldn’t it be cool if” statement for the event might be. After this kind of initial brainstorming and idea sharing, I made plans with my supervisor to utilize the side gallery room of the arts center where the event would be held to turn it into a “connections” room. In this room, I created a visual display of the mission statement along with a place for people to hang up their notecards with their next steps written on them. Additionally, along the walls of the gallery we set up tables where specific nonprofit organizations and community partners that I had invited came to share what they do with the community and to have a conversation about needs and opportunities for engagement.
Beautiful Things (Summer 2012)
Over the last four or five years I have grown to care deeply for pre-teen girls, their beliefs about themselves, and their dreams for the future and how these things impact their development and the choices that they make. After my freshmen year at K-State I returned to my hometown of Lincoln, Kansas and worked as a nanny. Lincoln is a really small town with a combined junior high and high school. Additionally, both of my parents teach at the elementary school so I spent a lot of time there. That summer when I returned home, I knew a lot of the girls who were headed into or were already in junior high and knew that most of them knew me. That summer I was just really burdened for these girls, the questions I felt they were beginning to ask about themselves, and the answers and messages they were getting from other people. I did not feel like I was qualified or had authority to speak into their lives, but at the same time was so convinced of the need for change, and so aware of my potential for influence, simply because I already had these girls’ attention.
I saw an opportunity for influence, but did not know how to enter into this type of relationship or conversation. I began to brainstorm about different ways to bring a group of girls together, different formats, different lengths of time, different commitment levels, different spaces, and different levels of cost. After weighing some of these different ideas, I decided it would make sense to host a single afternoon event and to make decisions about future engagement after evaluating the outcomes of the first event. One of the material pieces that I was hoping to use to talk about identity was a survey that distinguished between fine china, coffee mugs, and styrofoam cups. To communicate this idea of worth and value, I I decided that I would host a tea party. Using the school directories to look up addresses, I sent invitations to all of the girls who had just finished sixth through eighth grade along with a letter to their parents explaining the event. I rented a room at a community building in town and bought simple ingredients to make refreshments (lemonade in tea cups, fruit, finger sandwiches). I bought mismatched teacups at different thrift stores and borrowed tablecloths and fine serving china from family and friends. When the girls arrived, I had a large banner with the words “beautiful things” written across it. I invited the girls to cut out pictures from magazines and to use markers to add their own contributions to the banner of anything and everything that was beautiful. The girls sat down at tables and enjoyed some tea party refreshments while I spoke to them briefly about identity—about the messages we sometimes receive from the outside world about what is beautiful or valuable, about who God says we are and how He sees us, and about how we see ourselves and how that influences the decisions we make. The girls were able to take home their teacups along with a note from me including some reminders about identity and my contact information as a means of continued communication and relationship.