My career path to storytelling for social impact
“How did you get into this type of work?”
People ask me this question often.
The answer is it sort of just happened as a result of various projects I was working on. I first started learning about strategic communications when I was an undergraduate student studying sociology and political science at Santa Clara University. Between class projects and community organizing with other San Jose residents, I developed useful skills like copywriting, drafting press releases, and project management.
I secured a full-time job as a research assistant for the Kaiser Family Foundation after completing my undergraduate degree. In this role, I was in charge of creating charts to represent data from our public opinion and survey research reports. I also prepared our research documents for publishing and uploaded them to the organization’s website. This role as a research assistant was where I learned how to manage website content (and troubleshoot) on WordPress.
After a year and a half, I left that job to participate in the Rise Up, Be Heard Journalism fellowship with Fusion Media Network, a venture between Univision and Disney-ABC. I started to learn more about writing and investigative reporting in this fellowship, where I worked with experienced, well-respected journalists and editors. I learned how to develop pitches and conduct interviews for investigatory stories. I also learned about the power of storytelling to create social change. In particular, I learned about the tremendous importance of counternarratives.
My role on the strategic communications team at Beneficial State Foundation is the job that has had the most significant impact on my professional development. In this role, I have learned (and continue to learn) about the solidarity economy, alternative finance, and the role finance plays in every system or institution in our society. Our financial system impacts every one of us, even if we don’t think we can feel that immediate impact.
Socially responsible finance is a growing field that can provide the solutions we need—but only if we listen to ideas from those who have been excluded from the banking system and most burdened by the extractive economy. Like many other sectors, the socially responsible finance sector prioritizes the ideas and work of people who have benefited from the same systems that are destroying our planet and creating even more inequality. That needs to change.
I have spent the past five years learning about the extractive economy and alternative economic models that prioritize community care and wellness. I look forward to sharing what I have learned about the power of socially responsible finance and inviting you to learn more about the solidarity economy and the people who are building it.