Undergraduate student Nancy Diaz, College of Community Resources and Development
9:00 a.m.
After spending an hour in traffic, Nancy Diaz is taking part in an orientation for volunteers at the Sojourner Center domestic violence shelter in Phoenix. She’s a junior majoring in Nonprofit Leadership and Management in the School of Community Resources and Development. Diaz also works two jobs and volunteers at another nonprofit.
The Glendale native envisions starting a nonprofit to help victims of domestic violence. The desire goes back to when she was a sophomore in high school. Diaz and other members of a student service organization got stores to donate specific Halloween costumes wanted by kids who couldn’t leave a domestic violence shelter to trick or treat. Diaz and her classmates put on a Halloween party just for them.
“It was a lot of fun,” says Diaz. “They were really happy with their costumes and the moms were really happy too.”
Today, she’s wants to see if the Sojourner Center is a good fit. She thinks it is and hopes to volunteer here once a week. The previous semester she volunteered at Christian Family Care, an agency that helps with adoptions. She still volunteers there twice a week.
10 a.m.
Diaz now heads off to the first of two jobs. She drives to the Maricopa Skill Center southeast of downtown Phoenix, which offers vocational and technical education to community college students. Diaz works part-time in student services. She’s also employed by West Valley Child Crisisas a family visitation aide. She picks up foster kids on weekends, takes them to see their parents and then writes and files reports about the visitations.
“Some families are really hard to get a hold of,” Diaz says of the parents she works with. “A lot of the moms—they’re in shelters, they’re homeless or they’re incarcerated.”
1 p.m.
Diaz arrives in Glendale to meet her supervisor at West Valley Child Crisis. They discuss the family she’s currently helping with visitations. The mom has four kids that are placed in four different foster homes throughout the valley. Diaz learns the mother is making progress toward getting her kids back. Before leaving, her supervisor talks to Diaz about becoming a parent aide. She’s excited.
Diaz is typical of many students in the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions. She works. She volunteers. She wants to make a difference. Located in downtown Phoenix, the College has more than 5,500 undergraduate and graduate students in four schools: Community Resources and Development; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Public Affairs and Social Work.
“Our students represent the full diversity of our state,” says Jonathan Koppell, dean of the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions. “We are home to ASU's highest percentages of underrepresented minority students, first-generation college students, transfer students and veterans.”
While not a veteran, Diaz is a first-generation college student who transferred from Glendale Community College.
“I love it here because there are so many resources that you can take advantage of—like all the lectures, events and career fairs,” Diaz says. “I feel I haven’t even had time to find out about all the available resources yet.”
3 p.m.
Diaz is back at the Maricopa Skill Center. She busies herself helping students with financial matters, including paying tuition and dealing with financial aid. She clocks out at 5:30, grabs dinner from a fast-food drive thru and eats as she drives to class at the ASU downtown Phoenix campus.
6:00 p.m.
NLM 380 begins promptly. Faculty associate Sarah Zelhart teaches the class--Financial Management for Nonprofit Organizations. She’s director of finance at Central Arizona Shelter Services and a certified CPA. Zelhart has a cautionary tale for Diaz and other students that many nonprofits fail because of bad management. Some drift from their original missions by chasing grant funding they can’t sustain.
Diaz soaks it all in. She knows this kind of instruction will help with the goal of starting her own nonprofit. And she’s on her way. Diaz made the Dean’s list her first semester. She’s scheduled to graduate in May 2016.