I have always been a very aspirational person, and I have always aspired to do something great with my life. As I grew older and approached adulthood, however, my abstract dreams of “greatness” needed to become something concrete and I still did not know what that looked like or meant. I didn’t know how I could turn ideas into action, but I wanted to learn. After graduating high school, I decided I needed to find the passion and leadership that would steer my future. Therefore, I took a leap of faith, took “the road less traveled,” and applied for Public Allies Arizona.

From the get-go, through each step of the admission process, I witnessed myself growing. To be able to meaningfully pitch myself, I had to grapple with who I was and what I would bring to the table. Though it may have been nerve-wracking in the moment, I loved having to interview with so many organizations and having to think on my feet. Through being tested, my confidence grew. I saw myself rising to each new challenge. I would eventually be matched to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona (BBBS), where I would become the Community Relations Assistant and—later—the Community Relations Specialist.

At BBBS, my work has consistently been about engaging and empowering others. Starting out, my main focus was recruiting community members to become change makers and role models in children’…

During my Master of Nonprofit Leadership and Management (MNLM) studies, I gained an appreciation for volunteers and an interest in how volunteers can engage in advocacy. Volunteers are considered the backbone of the nonprofit sector. According to the Corporate Social Responsibility Wire, 80 percent of nonprofits rely on volunteers for critical activities but admit they do not have the resources to manage them as they might like.

In addition, according to a Stanford Social Innovation Review report, nonprofit leaders are not taking the time to develop or support volunteer talent adequately, resulting in a weak or bland experience that leads to an unmotivated volunteer who has little reason to return.Nonprofits can enhance the operation by utilizing volunteer skills, talent and expertise. It is vital that nonprofits seek out volunteer talents and interest during the hiring process and assign volunteers to tasks related to their area of interest and skill.

However, volunteers can also be advocates. The terms advocacy and lobbying are generally used interchangeably to describe how nonprofits influence legislation and public policy. During my MNLM studies, I learned to appreciate a new definition of advocacy…

Before becoming a Public Ally, I somewhat understood the nonprofit sector, since the year before I had served as a City Year Corps Member in Chicago through AmeriCorps. I was knowledgeable enough about the fundamental role of specific nonprofits, but I never fully grasped the role of nonprofit agencies and their effect on social justice issues as a whole. 

Becoming an Ally enabled me to comprehend new perspectives regarding the fair and just relations between the individual and society. Further, it has exposed me to worlds and circumstances I’d never seen and were often difficult to witness. As a result, I have gained a new perspective on the importance of breaking barriers for social mobility and creating safety nets and economic justice. Consequently, my desire to play a role in transforming the world has truly been ignited.

Being a part of Public Allies in a state that was new to me challenged me to step out of my comfort zone and really immerse myself into every project put before me. I chose to see each project as a new opportunity. I told myself in the beginning of the program that, no matter what, I would always try to have an open mind and open heart. 

Through this program, I have been able to gain knowledge not just about the social injustices that have been the undercurrent of society for many centuries, but I also acknowledged my own privilege. I…

In September 2017, I applied to be a Public Ally after first applying for a student worker position with Public Allies Arizona. When I first applied for the student worker position, I really did not know what Public Allies was; I just knew they helped youth get involved in the community. 

After my interview, the director sent me an email suggesting that instead of taking the student worker position, I should apply to be a Public Ally myself because they had an organization that was looking for someone with my skill set. I was beyond ecstatic. During my interview, I learned that the program worked with young adults who wanted to make a change in their community with different nonprofits throughout Maricopa County. I had recently moved to Arizona from Michigan for graduate school and was so excited to learn more about the nonprofit community in Phoenix. After I was accepted into the program, I interviewed with Opportunities for Youth and was offered their data analyst intern position.

Opportunities for Youth, an initiative that had just recently moved to ASU from Maricopa County Education Service Agency (MCESA), is an organization whose mission is to “harness the power of cross-sector collaboration to create a comprehensive system of opportunity that reengages our Valley’s disconnected youth.” Through my service as a Public Ally at Opportunities for Youth, I have helped build a just and equitable society – a key part of the Public Allies mission…

In August, I was fortunate enough to spend a week at the Aspen Institute. Along with 14 other global nonprofit leaders, I was selected as an American Express Leadership Academy Aspen 2.0 Fellow. The fellowship, focused on the Aspen Institute tradition of values-based leadership, brings together leaders from the sector to discuss a core set of readings drawn from texts ranging from Plato to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Over the course of the last two months, I have had time to reflect on the fellowship as well as my overall experience with the American Express Leadership Academy. Combining Aspen with my experience with Class IX of the American Express Leadership Academy at the ASU Lodestar Center, I have spent considerable time discussing and thinking about themes and challenges that are common across the sector. These challenges are faced by organizations globally, organizations of all size and scale and across focus areas – from education to equity; homelessness to environment; immigration to arts. Many, if not all in this sector, are aware of the challenges and can rehearse them on-demand: funding, capacity, retention, burn out, etc. Many of these challenges tend to be thought of as resulting from…