Trinity Fellow Class of 2002-2004
Graduate Program: Business Administration
Service Experience: Jesuit Volunteer Corps - CA
Undergraduate Degree: Rockhurst University, major in Marketing
Trinity Fellows Program Agency Assignment: YMCA of Greater Milwaukee

Upon graduation from Rockhurst University in 2000, I embarked on a road less traveled to work full time for social justice in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Everything grows better under the northern California sun. The grapevines and lemon trees didn't shade my view of the lines of the homeless people just outside the windows of my "casa" in Santa Rosa, California. I split my year between two distinct work placements. As a case manager in the Catholic Charities homeless shelter, I connected local families to food and housing resources. Secondly, I worked at Friends House, a Quaker multi-level senior living facility. I worked closely with low-income "shut-in" seniors who benefited from weekly visits to our Adult Day Health Care program. Living simply in a luxurious locale, I became aware of the challenges of community living with three other volunteers while concurrently working in solidarity with the poorest and most underserved in the hills of the wine country.

The Trinity Fellowship took me back to my native Midwest to bridge my academic business background with my passion for service in a nonprofit capacity. While pursuing my MBA, I have worked part-time at the YMCA of Metro Milwaukee in the Mentoring Department. In collaboration with local corporate mentoring partners such as We Energies and Fortis Health, I was charged with the creative task of capturing the dedicated mentor experience while highlighting the promising youth we serve. By prolifically underscoring the need for mentoring in a variety of local publications, I found my niche in the power of the pen.

In business and in life, we are in the process of constantly redefining ourselves. The Trinity Fellowship reinforces the shifting boundaries between the private and nonprofit sectors. The financial and human capital of the private sector affords the nonprofit sector sustainability in working for social change. Mission-driven nonprofits inspire corporations to adopt a more liberal sense of profit. The "triple bottom line" encourages corporations to give back through the lens of economic, environmental and social responsibility. As a Trinity Fellow, I have I have unearthed my own triple bottom line: in the context of nonprofit work by day and business academia by night, I have sharpened my career compass on the sights of nonprofit management.

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Molly Turner is Marketing Director for a nonprofit organization in Austin, Texas.