BA: History with Ethnic Studies and Native American Studies minors
MA: Interdisciplinary Studies – American Indian Studies program
Graduation year: BA 2008; MA 2012
Occupation: Assistant Director of Operations, Big Brothers Big Sisters Lincoln
The effects of this pandemic differs from the effects of the recession at the time of my 2008 graduation in several ways. When I graduated with my BA, I was able to work in the service industry and in a youth group home, which both paid the bills and allowed me to connect to one of my passions - working with and on behalf of vulnerable youth. It did take me about a year to secure a well-paying job as a grant writer after graduation, but I was able to make due with other jobs. Working during this pandemic is very different, because while I continue to hone my skills to best serve our community's vulnerable children and youth through Big Brothers Big Sisters Lincoln, I am constantly worried about adapting to the unknowns. We don't know when things will go back to "normal." We don't know when we'll be able to hold regular in-person fundraising events, and/or if this pandemic will eventually have a significant impact on our donors and the money we're able to raise from donations as well as grants. This could ultimately effect our ability to continue our day-to-day operations which is really scary, and all the time spent trying to pivot and explore new strategies for staying connected and continuing fundraising/grant writing activities while physical distancing has been pretty stressful.
However, my education and preparation at the university assisted me in securing employment, because I did finish my graduate degree with some grant writing experience. Each of us in my graduate program were required to develop a grant request, hypothetically asking for money to help us with our thesis work. I never actually applied for funding from any entity, but I had become familiar with grant writing at that time so when a friend offered me part-time work as a grant writer at a small grassroots nonprofit in Tucson, AZ after I'd been looking for work for a while after graduating, I took the job. In addition, I have been able to maintain part-time side-work in grant writing pretty consistently since 2015. This has allowed me the opportunity to secure supplemental income outside of the service industry when I've needed it. It's been a big advantage for myself and my family to have these skills where I'm able to pick up side-work that I can do on weeknights and weekends that I enjoy.
