Spring 2008 PDF - University of South Carolina Upstate

USC Upstate alumna Carolyn Turner ‘07
organized the tax preparation clinic at
the Middle Tyger Community Center to
help low income and elderly community
members file their taxes online.
More Than a Paycheck
BY HEATHER ALEXANDER-ENGELBRECHTENGELBRECHT
For a relatively small program that has
only 40 majors, USC Upstate’s Nonprofit
Administration students and professors
logged more than 5,636 hours
in 2007 volunteering or interning with
nonprofit organizations to help make
our community a better place to live,
work and play. The Nonprofit Administration
program, offered by the Center
for Nonprofit Leadership as both a
major and a minor, prepares graduates
for careers in management and administrative
positions within a wide variety
of nonprofit organizations such as social
services, youth activities, health, the
environment and the arts. Basic leadership
and management principles are
key components of the curriculum.
Students also gain real-world experience
through the required internships
and service learning projects with local
nonprofits and have a chance to see
if a career in the nonprofit sector is a
good fit for them. “We’re able to connect
academic majors with practical experience,”
says Dr. Theresa Ricke-Kiely,
director of the Center. “Often an organization
will mentor the student during
the internship and create a position for
them after they graduate.”
And more often than not, the hard work
and energy the students bring to their
internships continues to flow into the
community after graduation as most
nonprofit leadership graduates find
full-time jobs with nonprofits in the
Upstate. At one such organization,
12 University Review
the United Way of the Piedmont, several
recent USC Upstate graduates are
working in the community through the
AmeriCorps*VISTA program, a national
service program that places volunteers
with other agencies in communities
to alleviate poverty by building capacity
and programs to sustain their missions.
Rochelle Ladson ’07 is working with
Bethlehem Center in Spartanburg, providing
public relations assistance and
volunteer recruitment and has made it
a personal goal to help keep the food
pantry stocked. She joined the VISTA
program “because I wasn’t done giving
back.” Ladson graduated from Upstate
with a degree in interdisciplinary studies
and credits her experience with the
nonprofit leadership program as shaping
her as a person. “Nonprofit leadership
is a good fit for people who aren’t
just looking for a paycheck,” she says.
Lakisha Spears ’07 agrees and says
all students should take at least one
class in nonprofit leadership. During
her senior seminar, Chris Steed,
vice president of community impact at
United Way, gave a presentation about
the VISTA program and she liked what
she saw. “I was the first person to sign
up!” Spears is working at SAFE Homes
Rape Crisis Coalition in Spartanburg
providing domestic violence and sexual
assault education in an age-appropriate
manner to K-2 students. The outreach
program she is helping to develop will
eventually be used in all schools in
Spartanburg and Cherokee counties.
Spears will soon begin a new position
with the Girl Scouts of South Carolina
Mountains to Midlands as a development
and marketing assistant. Her advice
to students “Join AmeriCorps. It is
a great learning experience,” she says.
As a nonprofit administration intern
with the United Way last spring, Carolyn
Turner ’07 helped Chris Steed write
the grant that now funds the VISTA
program at the United Way. She is
now a VISTA member herself, working
with the Middle Tyger Community
Center where she is researching parenting
among adolescents, creating a
volunteer training manual and writing
a report on programs to address teen
pregnancy. Turner says working with
the center “makes you very appreciative
of all you have.”
“The agencies we work with have
had great experiences with VISTA
members,” says Callie Hammond, director
of Volunteer Connections &
AmeriCorps*VISTA at United Way.
She adds that the nonprofit leadership
graduates “have a clear understanding
of the structure of nonprofit agencies;
however I think they have really learned
a lot from actually working in nonprofits.
They all have been extremely grateful
for their experiences. What you learn
in a book can often be a lot different in
reality.”