Year of Graduation: 2013
Major: English
Current Address: Muncie, Indiana
How were you engaged with ARC? Not just the seminar/internship/fellowship but describe the type of project.
I was thankful to have had the opportunity to work with the United Way of McLean County on their Reading Buddies program. With the staff of the United Way, I was able to work with them on a grant application to secure funds to continue purchasing stuffed animals and books for their program.
Where are you now?
I recently completed my M.A. in Student Affairs Administration in Higher Education at Ball State University. Luckily, a job opened up in the Office of Student Life, and I was fortunate enough to be hired. I serve as the Assistant Director of Student Life, where I primarily work with the Greek community.
Where did ARC take you professionally? Are you doing work that connects back to ARC in some way?
One of the core values of any Greek organizations, is either service or philanthropy. When I was engaged in the grant writing course, I did not realize how beneficial it was until I actually had to write grants either for programming or further research. I feel like I learned the tools and resources I needed to be a successful, novice grant writer!
Where did ARC take you personally? Are you engaged in community work that is ARC-like?
In my professional role within the Office of Student Life at Ball State University, we have Student Voluntary Services. This departmental area focuses on service learning, immersion experiences, and volunteer engagement. I often get the opportunity to connect with non-for-profit organizations when our office does a service project or we attend student’s service events for those organizations.
Did ARC teach you what we were supposed to teach you? Did we teach you anything that was a surprise or outside of the learning objectives?
I always tell people at IWU if they can engage with ARC/Deb, they need to make sure they do so. I believe in immersive learning and engagement with the community you live in while attending college. Not only are you a student at IWU, but a citizen of the Bloomington/Normal community. Without ARC, I do not know if I would believe in that concept as much as I do!
Share a great memory about ARC/IWU.
There was nothing more meaningful than taking the grant writing course with members of the community who were not IWU students. I learned so much from community members in the course through their lived experiences, and it just added to the quality of the course.