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Public Allies Arizona and the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance collaborate for Presentations on Impact
Jake Teskey, a program manager for Public Allies Arizona and himself an alumnus of the program, and Anne Kotleba, program coordinator for the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance at ASU, helped emcee the event.
by Troy Hill, ASU Lodestar Center
December 4, 2019
A group of friends stood in a circle, catching up before the ASU Lodestar Center's Presentations on Impact event on November 18, 2019. Around them, scores of attendees mingled as they waited to hear from members of ASU's Nonprofit Leadership Alliance Student Association (NLASA) and Public Allies Arizona speak about the impact they had on the organizations they worked with, the communities they reached, and the personal change they experienced.
The group of friends were all in the NLASA together. Some are still in the association, some have graduated and started their careers, while others have joined the Public Allies Arizona AmeriCorps program.
There has been a growing connection between the two programs, and this event marked the first time that NLASA and Public Allies have hosted a joint event to celebrate members of their programs. Public Allies Arizona is a program of the ASU Lodestar Center, in which diverse, emerging leaders are placed at nonprofit organizations for 10-month apprenticeships. NLASA facilitates the Certified Nonprofit Professional (CNP) credential, a mark of distinction available to ASU students pursuing any undergraduate degree.
The Nonprofit Leadership Alliance and Public Allies Arizona co-hosted the event.
In recent years, several students from the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance have joined Public Allies after they graduated, while some Public Allies have enrolled at ASU to pursue the CNP. Both programs develop young leaders, but each one takes a different, complementary approach.
The Allies presenting at the November event were Alexis Orozco, placed for her 10-month apprenticeship at Science of Sport; Hunter Cordova at AZCEND; and Brandon Alkire at Seed Spot. The presenters from NLASA were Katie Bradshaw, who interned at St. Vincent de Paul, and Sarah Sikon, a recent graduate now working at Chances for Children. Magdelena Saucedo represented both Public Allies and the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance; to earn the CNP, she completed her required internship by joining Public Allies and was placed at Maryvale Revitalization Corporation.
Saucedo, a former NLASA president, said she got so much out of her education and time in NLASA and Public Allies.
“Going to school to ASU for nonprofit leadership and management and then joining the NLASA - I feel like it all flowed together,” Saucedo said. “Being able to use my personal experience, my work experience, my education, and now the NLASA and applying all of that to build capacity, to me, that’s the coolest thing to see in real life.”
Bradshaw, an NLASA member, talked about how she impacted the youth she worked with at St. Vincent de Paul by helping run programs and events. She was once even tasked with finding small crocodiles for a children’s event! She also managed to get teens far more involved with the programming. In the past, there wasn't much for teens to do in the children’s center, but she found ways to help and support them better.
Sarah Sikon, an NLASA alumna who now works for Chances for Children, said she has helped impact her organization as an event planner, a role that the organization hadn’t had before.
At a recent event they held, Sikon and her team were able to raise $960,000, which was $60,000 over their goal.
“Ninety percent of that is going straight to the kids,” Sikon said. “I think having an extra set of hands and extra mind to help with the load, you're able to get a lot more done with the same amount of time.”
Saucedo said the people and the community in NLASA made her transition into college easier and helped her succeed in the different organizations she has been involved in.
“Everybody is more than willing and able to jump in and help and I don't think I've ever been a part of a community, other than roller derby, where they were like that,” Saucedo said. “I think [there aren’t enough people] building each other up when there's so much going on in the world… and it makes me happy to see people in a community that are willing and able to help other people.”
Attendees watched six presentations by program participants.
Saucedo also spoke on how her time in these programs prepared her for her future career and helped her focus on some of her goals.
“If I could, my goal in life is to be part of building other leaders because if I see somebody doing something great and they're living their dream… that is their greatest feat, being able to do something that they love,” Saucedo said.
Bradshaw said her time in NLASA and her internship helped her immensely as she looks ahead to graduation.
“I think it's just opened my eyes to a lot of different people and walks of life and it's given me a chance to branch out and develop skills that I didn't know that I could develop,” Bradshaw said. “It gave me a chance to be adaptable, but also it gave me a family of people who all come from different places, but we all get along and we all find ways to connect.”