What is your proudest achievement outside the workplace, and how has it impacted you? (700 words maximum)
I have a passion for public service. After college, I joined Teach for America (TFA) in the Mississippi Delta because I wanted to give students in one of our nation’s poorest regions a chance to have the same education opportunities I had. But as I left teaching behind, I searched for ways to continue serving, often outside of the workplace.
In 2010, I took charge of the TFA alumni board’s first-ever service project – a book drive for More than Words, a used bookstore. This bookstore hired youth who had served in juvenile detention, giving them job training plus academic support for college. It depended on used books as its main revenue source. Our goal was to collect 1,000 books among five board-members.