What advice would you give to the next generation of strong women? Believe in yourself, but remember that we’re better together. Help each other rise up and draw strength from your community. I recognize that some of my greatest achievements can be traced to an opportunity that someone else brought to my attention, so I try to do the same for others. When we set each other up with a chance to thrive, we all flourish together.
What’s one thing someone could do today to make them stronger? That thing you want that you think is out of reach? Identify the steps to make it happen. When a big goal is laid out into smaller increments, perspective can change and you might see just how attainable that dream can be.
When has your strength been personally challenged and how did you respond? There was a time in my life when I was living paycheck to paycheck with a salary that placed me below the poverty line in an already expensive city. I had a bachelor’s degree and a resume with experience, but the pay scale for the corporate job I had with a Fortune 500 company dictated compensation based on length of service. Regardless, I put forth my best effort each day which was largely disproportionate to the amount of compensation I was receiving. In the months following the company made exceptions for me that broke the pay scale not once but twice to recognize and reward my work ethic. I couldn’t have done this alone, I had the support of a conscientious manager who fought on my behalf. Although I gained valuable experience from this company, I could see that a long-term trajectory with them did not match what I wanted for myself. I scraped together funds from my already meager budget to purchase a laptop and enroll in a certificate program at the University of Washington. Four years later, I’m two years into a new career and my investment in continuing education paid off far more than I ever dared imagine. I’m with a new company in a markedly different field and they’re paying my way through a Masters program. I am grateful each day for how far I’ve come and that I didn’t settle. Most of all, I’m beyond thankful for the people who believed in me and set me up with opportunities to succeed: the referrals for interviews and grad school applications, the ones who went to bat for me when I didn’t have a voice, the generous souls who covertly covered my share when I turned down invitations due to budget constraints… I can’t thank you enough.
Maria’s Intentional Act of Kindness
How did you use the $100? I donated $50 to Mary’s Place through NEDDIE (www.neddie.co), a social impact platform. NEDDIE has a 0% platform fee for charities, so I tipped $50 to help them continue providing this service. My employer has a generous matching program, so to comply with their policy I made a separate $100 donation of my own money to Mary’s Place. To sum it up: the original $100 was matched by my $100 which will be matched by my company’s $100 to make $300 total. Mary’s Place will receive $250 while NEDDIE was given $50.
I had a few ideas for how I wanted to use the $100 to enrich the community, but I posed the question to my inner network on how they would invest it. A friend connected me with NEDDIE, a female-led social impact platform that connects nonprofits, individual donors, and companies to collaborate on causes that matter to them. One of the co-founders is my friend’s cousin, whose passion for nonprofits and helping others inspired her to leave her job at Amazon to create this startup. While browsing through the nonprofits and fundraisers listed on NEDDIE, I found a cause that I already had in mind. Mary’s Place helps women and children in King County meet basic needs such as hygiene, shelter, food, and clothing; and provides access to tools, information, support groups and resources to find employment, housing, medical, and financial services.
According to the Mary’s Place website: A $35 donation will cover the cost to bring a child in for one night. A $76 donation will cover the cost to support a mom and her newborn by providing a safe place to stay and access to nursing care, meals, diapers, and supplies. A $266 donation will cover the cost to provide two families with shelter, meals, and access to 24/7 wraparound services (collaborations between state or local government agencies and organizations that provide behavioral healthcare and management services) for one day. By donating to Mary’s Place through NEDDIE, my goal was to maximize my impact by supporting a local nonprofit, a local female-led startup, and local women in need. Since I have access to a corporate matching program for charitable donations, I knew my own additional donation plus the corporate match would be worthwhile and make a significant difference. It was also while discussing 100 Souls Strong and Intentional Acts of Kindness that another friend pointed out how nonprofits through their connections and expertise can make my donation stretch further than what I could do on my own. By reaching out to my network I was able to make a bigger difference and I’m deeply appreciative of those who participated in these Intentional Acts of Kindness with me.
What was the 'Intentional Act of Kindness' process like for you? At first, I didn't think $100 was enough to make a meaningful impact but then I remembered how much that would have been for me just a few years ago. When I’m having a tough time, I remind myself how easy I have it compared to others. I imagine working moms who might also be in school that do it all then tend to their families on top of that already heavy workload. Then I think about the struggles of other women like in Stephanie Land’s memoir "Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive" where as a young single mother Stephanie was barely getting by despite her hard work and was trying desperately to keep her child insulated from the struggle. The donation to Mary’s Place was the best way I could think of to provide an opportunity to a local woman and her child to rise to a better place. It’s a small foothold, but it’s a start.