>> So my undergraduate degree is from the University of Pittsburgh main campus.
My degree is in urban studies with a concentration on community organizations.
I also have a Master's in business administration from Chatham University.
I decided that this is what I wanted to do probably about two years into college,
so I wasn't one of those people who stepped on to Pitts campus
with a really clear idea of what I wanted to do.
Actually applied to school to try to do sports medicine or just be involved in sports medicine.
And I found out very quickly in my first semester
that that really wasn't where my passions lied.
But I worked the entire time that I was in school, and one of the things that really kind
of became very clear to me just through my job and also through my studies
at Pitt were just really the vast inequities that exist in our world.
And just growing up in the neighborhood that I grew up in, I just really always had this desire
to give back to someone and to leave the world a better place from when I came to it.
And so when I found out about the urban studies major and really sat down
and had a long conversation with Dr. Carson, I knew that that's exactly where I wanted to be.
Nonprofits, nonprofits intrigued me.
I was really just kind of just really taken aback by you know, these organizations
that were purely mission-driven and just were in existence to just provide or seek change.
And so I, you know, once I found out about the urban studies department
and just really learned a little bit more about the training that took place there,
I just knew that that was just the place for me.
The opportunity to be studying urban environments in the urban studies setting.
So I had lots of opportunities to basically try on what it was
that I was learning in the classroom.
I think that out of all of the departments
that we probably had the most out-of-classroom experience at that time.
And so I really, really appreciated that.
The reason I decided to go to graduate school is, you know, when I started doing a lot of work
in the sector, especially after my year of service with the YWCA Greater Pittsburgh,
I really became fascinated with how nonprofits were run and how they were managed.
And one of the things that came to me and probably a little bit later than others,
is that even though these are very mission-driven organizations
and they don't exist to make a profit, that they're businesses.
And I really that, you know, my passion can get me only so far.
But that in order to be really, really effective in the organizations that I was working in,
that I was working in, that I really needed to be able to obtain a very strong business acumen.
And so when I was looking for schools,
I obviously looked back and University of Pittsburgh.
The business school really didn't speak to me.
I needed to go to school part-time, and Chatham had a concentration on nonprofit organizations.
And so having the opportunity to do that, and I feel that, you know, with that,
coupled with my degree from Pitt, that I'm a lot more effective in what I'm doing.
Because not only am I looking at it from my heart,
I'm also able to just apply some sound business knowledge and skills and practices to the work
that I'm doing on a day-to-day basis.