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Trinity Fellow Class of 2003

Graduate Program: MBA

Undergraduate Degree, Institution: Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University

Trinity Nonprofit Agency: Badger Association of the Blind, Program Development Director

Full-time Service Experience, Years Served, Location:

Peace Corps, 1997-2000, Cameroon

Service Experience:

My major service work prior to starting the Trinity Fellows Program was as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon. I spent two years in the south of the country teaching science in a remote tropical mountain village. Along with my work as a teacher I helped the community organize, raise funds and construct a pipe water system that provided the first potable water in the area. I spent an additional year in Cameroon working in the north, teaching in a large city on the edge of the Sahara Desert.

Trinity Fellowship Experience:

Life as a fellow pulls me in many directions, requiring the juggling of many demands. By day I am a businessperson working as the director of program development at the Badger Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired, and by night I switch to my role as full-time student.

In my business role I create new, or change existing, programs and services for the blind and visually impaired community of Greater Milwaukee. I have been able to work in practically all areas of the organization due to my position as a director, and to the organization's small size (34 full-time employees). This has allowed me the opportunity to directly apply course material in many areas, including: accounting, organizational behavior and operations management. My education is continually reinforced by its practical application at work and the benefits of the education are almost immediately seen at the Badger Association.

This real-time utilization of the business education causes a lot of strain as it blurs the line between work and school, but there are many immediate rewards. My supervisor and professors see these rewards as I act as a conduit between academia and the nonprofit business world.

Current Position:

Strategic Business Planner, Sacramento, Municipal Utility District (SMUD)