When I heard about the Board Immersion opportunity I was pretty skeptical about what it could offer me from both a professional and personal standpoint. I am a pretty outgoing guy but it was still pretty hard to break from my engineering mold in north campus. I am so glad I trusted my instincts and joined the cohort because I would definitely say that it has made me a more dimensional person than I would have been otherwise.
Even since my early childhood, my dreams for my future have always revolved around a for-profit world. Whether it was making it big, making planes fly, or whatever the case was at the time, I was pretty dead set on getting my engineering degree and building a career. Today, I am still on track to my engineering degree but I have discovered that I want non-profits and their mission to be an integral part of my personal and professional life past college. Before BIP, I thought volunteering met manual labor or spending entire days on retreats but I never dreamed of leveraging my skills gained in the professional world for a non-profit purpose. I think that boards provide an amazing opportunity for people who lead demanding professional lives to give back to their communities and I hope to get involved with one wherever my future career and passions take me. I know that BIP has given me a new perspective amongst all my engineering classes and I hope that my involvement in the non-profit sector will do the same for my professional career. I have seen many people get burnt out during their careers and hope that my involvement with non-profit organizations will balance my energies. Throughout this process Brook (from Kaleidoscope) has proven to me, in my mind, that one can lead both a successful career and a successful life giving back to good causes.
The thing that has surprised me the most about non-profits has been the level of seriousness and governance that I did not expect. I guess my initial assumption was that non-profit boards were comprised of a group of individuals who met in church basements over coffee and discussed social issues. I had no idea how similar they are to what most would consider “corporate America” or the for-profit sector. They manage finances, execute on visions/missions, and assume risk just like any company would in the Fortune 500. I am truly glad that BIP gave me direct insight so that my perspective could be accurately molded.
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