Second '71-sponsored Legacy Initiative Event Huge Success!
By David Williams, '71 Legacy Initiative Chair
Great news of a worthy event! The collaboration between Princeton AlumniCorps
and Encore.org, led by Marci Alboher, vice president of Encore.org and author
of the Encore Career Handbook, presented
the topic "Living the Nonlinear life: Building the Bridge to Your Next
Opportunity" on May 3rd at the School of International Service,
American University, Washington, DC, to an audience of over 50. Our own TINA SUNG, Vice President of the Partnership for Public Service and founder
of Experience Matters; the Executive Transition Experts, was highlighted as a
speaker, together with Grif Johnson '72, Board Chair of Wilderness Leadership
Learning and an ARC Innovator, and Hilary Joel '85, Executive Coach and
Founding Principal of WJ Consulting.
Marci introduced the topic with remarks in the
context of her own transition from corporate law to full time advocate for the "encore
career" movement. She then moderated the presentations of each of the three
highlighted speakers, who explained their personal experiences in transitioning
to high impact work in the not-for-profit sector, the skills they acquired, and
the lessons they learned. The speakers' heartfelt
comments made clear their deep satisfaction with the paths they had chosen. The
inspiring discussion surely touched every member of the audience.
Thanks to the organizational efforts
of Princeton AlumniCorps and particularly Kef Kasdin, Board Member and leader
of the ARC Innovators Project, and Andrew Nurkin, Executive Director, several
Washington, DC based high impact project opportunities were presented for
possible matching, including Friendship Place (innovative solutions to
homelessness), Mariam's Kitchen (permanent supportive housing and support for
the homeless) and House of Ruth (update and enhancement of the organization's
Personnel and Policies Manual). The conversations amongst the audience and
representatives of the project sponsors present continued after the formal
session for well over an hour. It was, by any measure, an event of which '71
Legacy Initiative can be proud.
The remaining question is: where
does our effort promoting this collaboration go from here? Marci, Kef and
Andrew all expressed excitement about this but as yet, details remain unclear.
The first effort will, of course, be to consolidate the matches and projects
which the New York and Washington sessions have now initiated. Stay tuned; there is more to come.
