Her Story
About Olivia
I have been working in the nonprofit sector for nearly 9 years, and my main area of expertise is program development. In my current role as program director, I lead an outreach program and run our after-school and summer programs. A typical day for me generally looks like supporting youth and supporting adults. I started as a volunteer and worked my way up to this position, which shows the unlimited opportunities for growth in this field. My most notable professional achievement is making a positive impact on everyone that I've encountered with, whether that's the youth that I serve or the staff that I am mentoring, supervising, and helping to develop into strong, bold leaders. My professional development has been shaped by my associate's degree and college credits (I'm about a semester away from completing my bachelor's), but the most impactful trainings have been the retreats and leadership events I've attended. I got a chance to go to the Ron Clark Academy, which really helped develop me into a better program facilitator, a better supervisor, and just overall improved my programs in general. I've also done training with Prevent Child Abuse Iowa, where I was awarded as a Community Hero. Through them, I learned a lot about mandatory reporting and how to keep the youth we serve safe, how to prevent things, how to spot and detect things earlier, and just be able to provide them with the support that they need.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Olivia
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would definitely say my upbringing, my childhood, and just really, generally, just wanting to make an impact and a difference, and be a lot of what I was missing coming up, to other people, to youth, and to adults as well.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice that I've ever received is to always do something that you love, because regardless of the days, if you love what you do, you'll have enough strength and willpower to get up and do it the next day. That's something that stuck with me, and that's one thing that I feel is true, especially within my career. I don't see what I do as a job, although it is a job and I have to come in and I have responsibilities as an adult, but it feels more like my call of duty. It's something that I enjoy doing each and every day. There's not a day that I dread coming into work where I'm like I gotta go in and work with youth, or I gotta go in and support staff. It's really just fun for me. So that's the best career advice I've ever received, is to do something that you love, and not be motivated by financial gain.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell them to definitely do a better job at taking care of themselves. I think once you have a certain goal or something in mind that you want to achieve, and you know what you want to do, as long as you're putting in all of the work behind that, you'll be successful. But I think we're just in a space where we need to put a little bit more focus on ourselves, and just make sure that we're in the right mental space to be able to do our jobs effectively.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I would say the opportunity is just a never-ending opportunity for growth. I feel like there's always ways to grow and different things that you can achieve in this particular role. I started as a volunteer, actually, and worked my way up to program director. So, I would say the opportunities here are unlimited.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty and integrity. I think with those two, everything else just falls in line.
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