I currently hold a management position at the Non Profit Organization End Overdose Together where I am the Assistant Director. I have many responsibilities as Assistant Director including, but not limited to, supervising all of our financial transactions within our $100,000 grant operational budget; keeping monthly reports of our financial data as a requirement for our grant funding; preparing our organization for auditors visits; scrutinizing and organizing all paperwork and materials including invoices, employee and contracted services contracts, and payroll time sheets; handling all external communications and coordinations with contracted parties and their projects; and running all of our social media channels.
I have gained management experience outside of End Overdose Together through my internship in Muhlenberg College’s Advancement Office as well as in my work as a paraeducator for the Bucks County Intermediate Unit. Muhlenberg College’s Advancement Office has went through many employee changes during my three years there, including handling the absence of one of my supervisors as she was on maternity leave. In her absence, along with transitions among my other supervisors and colleagues, I am often left to manage projects on my own such as social media campaigns, email campaigns, major website changes, and data analytics projects. I have been fortunate enough to prove myself in our work place as reliable and organized and am usually left to manage my own projects with little to no guidance or supervision.
As a paraeducator, I worked in a special education classroom as an assistant to the teacher. I was predominantly in a social skills classroom where the teacher depended on me to work one-on-one with a student who had an IEP for an emotional disturbance. The student regularly exhibited aggressive behaviors towards myself and others and struggled to follow directions. As a paraeducator with a certification in Crises Prevention and Intervention I was relied on to keep the student on track, de-escalate violent and destructive behaviors, keep the student safe and within the building, and teach the student their course work individually. Additionally, in this position I was relied on to manage the class when the teacher was needed to support an aggressive student, teach social skills lessons and games, de-escalate fights, and many other tasks that taught me more management skills than I knew I would learn from a position in childhood education.
One of the ways I exhibit management skills in my day to day life is within my decision making. Some of my strongest skills are organization, research, and planning. When I want to make any significant decision such as where I would like to go to school or even go on vacation, I will make a spreadsheet with a weighted point system that gives more points for more important factors to consider, and smaller amounts of points for less important factors. I will research these factors, filter the sheet to show me my top choices, and then make my decision accordingly. As an example of how I use point systems to make daily decisions, here is a sheet I made recently when choosing where to study abroad. Study Abroad Options
Here is a link to our End Overdose Together website for more information on our organization. https://endoverdosetogether.org
