Stories from Our Network

Brandon first heard about AlumniCorps from his boss, Khari Brown, who was a guest speaker for the Emerging Leaders (EL) program in Washington, D.C. Khari knew that Brandon and his organization, Capital Partners for Education (CPE), would benefit greatly from EL, particularly since Brandon had taken on the newly created position of Director of Learning and Evaluation.

Emerging Leaders—AlumniCorps' nine month, cohort-based professional development program— prepared Brandon to make a significant career leap. He shared: “Halfway through the EL sessions, the Chief Program Officer left CPE and I transitioned into her role immediately.” Brandon implemented his learnings from the first four EL sessions right away. “I don’t know that I would have been able to make the transition so successfully without the perspectiveand advice I got from Hilary [Joel '85, EL program facilitator] and my peers… I was surrounded by people facing similar crossroads.”

All EL participants are paired with other program participants as peer coaches, a distinctive element of the program that allows cohort-mates to reap tangible benefits from their growing leadership competencies. Brandon notes, “My peer coach made the exact same move I did, within another organization in the nonprofit education sector in D.C.” EL provides a unifying“AlumniCorps umbrella,” where non-profit, mid-career professionals are able to relate to each other in real time.

Brandon and CPE have deepened their AlumniCorps involvement. CPE onboarded their first PP55 Fellow in the fall of 2018. As a PP55 Fellowship partner organization, CPE got access to "a whole new candidate pool,” which was helpful for an organization that has limited time to focus on candidate searches. Brandon is also a mentor to a PP55

Fellow who works for another nonprofit in D.C. He helped his mentee successfully navigate the confusing apartment rental landscape.

In addition to volunteering as a mentor with the Washington, D.C. Area Committee, Brandon has created an engaging seminar series for current Fellows. He firmly believes that “EL alumni would make great mentors and seminar participants," because of their proximity to the age and career stage of the Fellows. “We’re just one step ahead of the PP55 Fellows, so we’re the ideal near-peers! I want us to see ourselves as a part of this community.” We hope Brandon's story will inspire others to get involved with the AlumniCorps network.

Briana is no stranger to civic engagement— some of her favorite experiences at Princeton University include a Princeton Internships in Civic Service (PICS) placement in Chicago; leading alternative break service trips to New York City; and Community-Based Learning experiences in Trenton and Princeton. She knew she wanted to invest her time working on issues affecting marginalized African-American communities in urban areas, so she jumped at the chance to be a Project 55 Fellow at North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN) in Chicago.

Briana explains that she was "drawn to work with NLEN by their mission of serving people who face barriers to employment such as poverty and prior incarceration.” She was especially excited to grow professionally in fundraising, marketing and communications, and data evaluation— all aspects of her role.

Briana’s passion led her to think creatively about NLEN’s work and ways to increase their impact. She grew the organization’s social media reach significantly, raising their following by 15% during her tenure. She helped lead an incredibly successful Giving Tuesday campaign in which NLEN more than doubled the funds raised over the prior year and engaged over six times as many donors.

NLEN’s Director of Development, Lauren Wesley, supervises the organization's Fellows. She said that Briana's assistance in planning and executing NLEN’s 13th Annual Sweet Beginnings Tea “illustrated her immense growth and professionalism,” as Briana rose to the challenge of helping NLEN serve over 400 guests. Lauren added that twelve PP55 Fellows "have had an invaluable impact on our organization since our inception in 1999.”

In fall 2018, Briana starts a Master's program at the University of Chicago in Social Service Administration. Briana chose this field because, after working at NLEN, she wanted to pursue an advanced degree that will train her to both deliver direct services and lead organizations that deliver social services, whether in nonprofit, government/policy or educational spheres. Briana also benefited from proximity to NLEN’s Executive Director, Brenda Palms Barber, which helped her to recognize “the importance of administrative leadership being connected directly to the community that the organization serves.” She reflected, “My time at NLEN helped me realize that I am passionate about Chicago and the residents who live here, which helped me choose to attend University of Chicago over other programs I was considering in other states.”

After living and working in New York City for ten years, Vineet didn’t feel as if he’d made any contribution to the local community outside of his work. “After the first few years of corporate life, you typically want to branch out and get involved with your community. I’d participated in the more traditional corporate community service opportunities: one-to-two hour stints collecting gifts for families in need, giving away toys during the holidays, but I was looking for a more sustained commitment.” So he started with a Google search. “I threw in terms like ‘longer nonprofit work’ and ‘innovative nonprofits,’ and I stumbled on the Princeton AlumniCorps ARC Innovators page! It looked like an impactful program, and it wasn’t just a one-time commitment.” Vineet appreciated that ARC Innovators give 5-10 hours per week over the course of a few months. He read through the projects listed on the site and Emma’s Torch in New York City jumped out at him. Emma’s Torch ‘provides top-notch culinary training to refugees and helps them find meaningful careers in the food industry.’ The mission appealed to Vineet: “I’m an immigrant myself, and my grandparents were refugees who fled Pakistan for India. In addition, food is dear to me because my cousin owns a restaurant and I’d help him out occasionally. I knew that volunteering with Emma’s Torch would be a return to my roots.”

Vineet’s earnest enthusiasm convinced the AlumniCorps’ staff that he’d be a good fit for the project. He spoke with Emma’s Torch founder, Kerry Brodie ’12, and they agreed that he could contribute to the organization by being an advocate for their mission in the corporate sector. In addition, Vineet helped them to apply for a corporate grant at BlackRock, where he works. He discovered that one of Emma’s Torch’s board members also works at BlackRock, so Vineet was able to expand his own professional network while volunteering. His efforts have been worthwhile, as Kerry reports: "Vineet has been a fantastic volunteer and we are grateful for his help. Having a fresh set of eyes and so much enthusiasm has been so wonderful for our growing organization."