How an idealistic veterinary receptionist became the assistant director of a non-profit

All my life I’ve wanted to change the world. People have told me that goal is too “idealistic” and that if I want to be taken seriously, I need to set “realistic” goals. Public Allies taught me what those people didn’t know: changing the world is realistic; you just do it in small ways, every day.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. As you may have read in my bio, my parents raised me to value equality—to see similarities in people rather than differences. This could be because they were theater majors in college, or it could be because they’re just awesome like that. Regardless, something in their lives made them realize that they needed to teach their children how to treat people with kindness and compassion no matter what.

I learned at a young age that equality sometimes needed to be fought for and always needed to be defended, and I took this to heart.  During High School I was very active in creating and running my school’s Gay-Straight Alliance.  We created it because my close friend was unable to take his boyfriend to prom. After that I took every opportunity I could to advocate for LGBT rights, traveling all over New Jersey and New York. I even served on the board of the Central New Jersey chapter of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). I was certain that I wanted to be a Political Science major and that I would use that to change the world.

However, even the best-laid plans can change. During my time at Drew University I realized that I liked working with people more than I liked working with policies and I cared more about leadership, empowerment, and movements from the ground up. The problem was that I graduated at a time where jobs were scarce, especially in the nonprofit sector. I started to feel like it didn’t matter if I wanted to change the world and had faith in my ability to do it when no one would give me a chance. That’s when I found Public Allies and my life changed forever.

Public Allies saw my passion for service-learning and youth development, and my dedication to changing the world from the ground up and believed in me. Throughout my first year they helped me hone my leadership skills, introduced me to my first true mentor, and gave me the opportunity to work as the Assistant Director of a nonprofit in Baltimore. Being accepted to Public Allies Maryland is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. My time with Public Allies was so amazing, in fact, that I had to stay for another year!