Hoyas For Others: September Newsletter
September 2024
Hello fellow Hoyas For Others!
Hoyas for Others (H4O) aims to connect, celebrate, and foster collaboration among GU alumni of all years and programs who are professionally engaged in social impact, social justice, and/or service -- whether at a nonprofit, university, government entity, corporation, foundation, or in a volunteer role. We also strive to highlight the many University programs and initiatives that advance social change, and support students who are interested in social impact careers by connecting them to alumni through Hoya Gateway and other venues.
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NEWS
Meet the newest members of the H4O Steering Committee: Marianne Perez Fransius and Conan Louis
Communications Lead
Marianne Perez Fransius (SFS ‘02)
Marianne Perez Fransius is an experienced trainer, dialogue facilitator and peacebuilder. She has designed training sessions and trained dozens of peacebuilders in communications for social impact, conflict analysis and dialogue facilitation.
Throughout her educational and professional career, Marianne has lived and worked in the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, South America, Western Europe and the US. This international experience and outlook helps her understand different perspectives and approaches to topics ranging from communications to needs-based decision making to strategic programming. Find out more.
Member at Large
Conan Louis (SLL ‘73, GRAD ‘78, LAW ‘86)
Conan N. Louis is the founder and president of CNL Solutions LLC, a management consulting firm specializing in strategic planning and fundraising for both for-profit and non-profit sectors, with campaigns ranging from $3 million to $1 billion. With over 30 years in philanthropy, he has held significant roles at Georgetown University and Howard University, and advised various organizations at Bentz Whaley Flessner. His extensive experience includes serving as Chief Development Officer for the National Society of Black Engineers and Director of Development for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In addition to his consulting work, he is a partner at Washington Law Partners, focusing on wills, trusts, and advising small businesses and non-profits. Mr. Louis has a background in social science research, museum education with the Smithsonian Institution, and holds degrees from Georgetown University, including a law degree. A dedicated alumni volunteer, he has received the John Carroll Award and is involved in various Georgetown initiatives, including the Black Alumni Council. He is conversant in Russian and French.
CONNECT
Design an IT Roadmap to Create Value for Your Nonprofit
Where do you see your nonprofit in five years, and how is managing your IT going to help you get there? To fully utilize the power of IT to support your nonprofit, you need to have a plan. Join Johan Hammerstrom, CEO of Community IT Innovators, to learn the steps to create your own IT roadmap and incorporate IT strategy into your leadership and budget practice.
Co-sponsored by the McCourt School of Public Policy and Hoyas for Others
Location: Virtual event
Date and time: Thu, Oct 3, 2024 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET
https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/uvyxjvm
Ignatian Family Teach-In For Justice 2024
The Teach-In is a place for members of the Ignatian family (Jesuit institutions and larger church) to be empowered, re-energized, inspired, challenged, and supported by a community that sees faith and justice integrally linked. Now in its 26th year, the Teach-In has a rich history rooted in honoring the Jesuits and their companions who were martyred in El Salvador in 1989. Learn more.
Location: Washington D.C.
Date and time: October 26-28
Don’t Forget to Connect Online!
If you don’t already follow us, check out Hoyas for Others on LinkedIn, Facebook, Hoya Gateway, and our website.
CELEBRATE
Meet these Hoyas making a significant impact in their communities!
Linda Schakel (L ‘86): Making an impact in more than one way
Schakel started as a teacher for gifted elementary school students, and decided to switch career paths (which was unheard of at that time), but she was passionate about Georgetown Law. She went on to specialize in tax policy and tax-exempt financing, and also served as an attorney advisory int he U.S. Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy, where she was responsible for tax legislative and regulatory projects in the areas of tax-exempt bonds, low income housing, empowerment zones and enterprise communities, work-opportunity, and welfare-to-work.
“I can drive around DC and see all of these public good projects that I would not have been able to participate in if I had not gone to Georgetown,” says Schakel.
Bidtah Becker (SFS ‘93): The go-to institutional memory
Becker is currently the Chief Legal Counsel for the Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President. She spent formative years as a kid in Albuquerque, where Georgetown’s NCAA championship win put the school on her radar! She shares a lot about influential professors and memories of laughter at Georgetown. But what she credits most is Georgetown’s emphasis of “people in service to others.” She loves working in the law field and with water, because as she puts it “unlike other fields of law, Mother Nature is in control and I like that we’re talking about and working with issues that are … outside of our human control.”
Daniela Hurtado (SPP ‘19), Kitchen of Purpose
A chef by profession, Hurtado has always been passionate about food. She also experienced the inequity of what happens in kitchens, particularly for immigrants or non-English-speaking workers. She found her way to DC Central Kitchen, and became passionate about nonprofits. She is currently the Director of Operations and Programs at Kitchen of Purpose, which uses the power of food to create social and economic change in low-income communities. She shared that the Nonprofit Certificate Program at the Center for Public & Nonprofit Leadership has been one of the most rewarding experiences in her professional career!
Check out these exciting social change initiatives on campus!
Center for Public & Nonprofit Leadership
Housed within the McCourt School, the GU Center for Public & Nonprofit Leadership provides advanced education in leadership, public and nonprofit management, advocacy and philanthropy, with domestic and international applications.
One of its programs, the Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate, is designed as an experiential leadership lab to explore the pressing issues that nonprofit leaders face and strengthen the management capacity of those working with nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.
On Wed, Oct 16 at 5:30 ET, the Center will offer a virtual Information Session about the Certificate program and an opportunity to meet faculty. To RSVP click here.
The Social Responsibility Network (SRN) is a mentorship program for Georgetown University College of Arts & Sciences students interested in pursuing service-based and social impact careers. Students will have opportunities to learn from College alumni who have found success in service-related industries, from health accessibility to educational administration.
COLLABORATE
Here’s how you can support Hoyas For Others
Be a BellRinger!
On Saturday, October 26, thousands of riders, volunteers, and supporters will set off from Georgetown University on a mission to end cancer. Since 2022, the BellRinger ride has raised over $3M—100% of which is being used to further groundbreaking research at Georgetown Lombardi. Register today.
Give back during National Hunger Awareness Month
Lucie Leblois, (CCT ‘08) co-founder of DC Food Project, is helping school children and their families get additional food during the school day and over the weekends when school meals are not available to them.
The DC Food Project founders created a 501(c)(3) to fill what they refer to as "the gap" -- what happens when lunch is over? This gap has an impact on tens of thousands of students, with 1 in 5 children struggling with hunger in DC alone. In Washington, D.C., there are 72,000 individuals experiencing food insecurity, of whom 17,880 are children.
How can our Hoya Community Help? Donate and/or Volunteer!
Get featured
We will regularly highlight Hoyas doing amazing social impact work in the community. To make it easy to share what you're working on, we've created a short form below that we'll use to share information in our monthly(ish) newsletter. Share your news
Support Hoya-run/founded Organizations
Want to support fellow Hoyas doing awesome work in their communities? Check out our Giving Guide, featuring Hoya-run and/or founded nonprofits. If you have one you’d like us to include, feel free to email us at hoyas4others@gmail.com!
Join our Steering Committee
As we ramp up this year, we are looking to bring on more members onto the steering committee who are passionate about helping to build our network. We are particularly interested in finding alumni who can help lead our Membership, Communications, and Programming goals. If you are interested in learning more, feel free to reply to this email and we can find a time to chat more!
Forward to 5 Hoyas
Help us grow our network by forwarding this newsletter to five other like-minded Hoyas encouraging them to join through the links below.
As always, we’d love to hear from you on the work we are doing.
Hoya Saxa!
H4O Steering Committee
H4O is in its first year and incubation phase as an Alumni Alliance/Affinity group. Alumni Alliance/Affinity groups provide a way for Georgetown University alumni to organize around an industry, shared interest, identity or community. Groups seeking to create a new alliance/affinity group follow a phased multi-year approach to demonstrate interest and sustainability for the group. The first phase is an incubation phase where groups begin to recruit volunteers, engage alumni and begin developing an engagement plan to be an active recognized group.