Community

Summary

My Aunt Nancy introduced me to community service by inviting me to participate in a Multiple Sclerosis Society Walk-a-thon when I was 12 years old. It was my first experience in fundraising and doing work on behalf of someone else… for a cause greater than me. I can not envision my future without contributing my time, talent and treasure to society and encouraging others to do the same. My treasured causes are promoting education, ending poverty, and cancer prevention and research to prolong life and find that cure. 

Contributions

Organization: National Society of Black Engineers (College – Columbia, MO; Alumni – Atlanta, GA), 1997 – 2003
Roles: Secretary, Academic Excellence Chair and Alumni Relations Chair (College);  Membership Chair, College Initiative Chair (Alumni)

Greatest Achievement: While I was in Atlanta, I noticed we had a large contingency of student members – about five student chapters. Alumni nationally were struggling with how to attract more students to the ranks after graduation. I decided to create a mentoring program to: encourage stronger ties between Atlanta alumni and college students, create stronger engagement for more alumni members in our chapter, and attract a large contingency of students to the alumni organization as a whole. There were over 20 matches and most of them turned out successful. I nominated three mentors for a national mentoring award. I was awarded 2003 National Leadership Award by the alumni organization. I  learned my program became a model for a national mentoring effort and I later saw some of my writings about mentoring published in the national magazine for alumni members.

Organization: UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, Chapel Hill, NC, 2003 – 2005
Roles: Vice President of Student Activities, MBA Student Association; Co-founder, Executive Committee Member, Kenan-Flagler Toastmasters; Mentoring Program Coordinator, Alumni Affairs Student Affiliate; Alumni Relations Chair, Alliance of Minority Business School Students

Greatest Achievement: I knew I had a major fear of speaking in public and wanted to get over it while in the graduate program. I understood Toastmasters was an organization that supported getting comfortable with this task, and have an aunt and grandmother that had participated in the program in the past. I looked for programs to fit my schedule but hardly found any and thought it was unfortunate that our business school did not host a chapter. Fortunately one of my classmates was on the same wavelength so we, along with a staff member, founded Kenan-Flagler Toastmasters and began meeting during our first year in the program. Although I did become a more comfortable public speaker by the time I graduated, the best part of founding this organization was giving other students a forgiving forum to learn how to speak more naturally in public, especially our international students.

Organization: Triangle Urban League Young Professionals, Raleigh, NC, 2006 – 2008
Roles: Financial Empowerment Chair, President

Greatest Achievements: Members continued to seek networking opportunities but seemed to have limited knowledge about how to network and what to do with it. I thought it would be great to host a panel of people I knew as master networkers to help young professionals understand the ins and outs for networking. I invited other professional organizations to partner with us so their members could have the benefit of growing in this way and to increase the likelihood having a large audience. Bill Davis of Team Nimbus, Sharon Hill of Sharon Hill International and Brett Chambers of National Black MBA Association RDU chapter were gracious enough to act as panelists for an audience of about 40 attendees.

Other service contributions:

  • Treasurer, Board of Directors, Urban Ministries of Durham, Durham, NC
  • Committee Chair and Assistant Den Leader, Cub Scouts Pack (Boy Scouts of America), Mawat District, Durham, NC
  • Member, Marketing Committee, Durham Community Preschool, Durham, NC
  • Delivery Driver, Meals on Wheels of Durham, Durham, NC
  • Alumni Interviewer, Consortium for Graduate Studies in Management, Durham, NC
  • Admission Interviewer, BSBA Program at Kenan-Flagler Business School (UNC), Chapel Hill, NC
  • Greeter, Hospitality Attendant, Business Ministry Volunteer and Child Attendant, World Overcomers Christian Church, Durham, NC
  • Member, Southeast Certification Committee, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council
  • Steering Committee Member, Old Reliable Run (Triangle United Way), Raleigh, NC
  • 5- 8 yr old Cheerleading Coach, New Birth Cathedral Youth Ministry, Lithonia, GA
  • Site Coordinator, Recruitment Chair, United Way/MU Day of Caring Steering Committee, Columbia, MO – recruited most diverse group of volunteers in the program’s history up to that point

Additional volunteer contributions listed under career page.