AFTER TRUMAN...
Testimonials of recent graduates
Alumni
Update
Gifts
Careers/Employment
Lukin
Murphy '06 with a Sociology and Anthropology major
and a double-minor in English and International Studies.
He earned his masters in May, 2008 in
Intercultural Youth and Family Development
from The University of Montana.
His first year has been program instruction and his second year an
internship as an "Activities
Supervisor" at Opportunity Resources Inc. (http://www.orimt.org/)
, one of the largest non-profit organizations serving people with
developmental disabilities in Montana. He says he will miss it
very much.
This fall Lukin will be doing some independent travel by working with developing
countries and helping individuals
who want to build a better life for themselves, their children, and
their communities.
His itinerary and experiences will be kept in his own
web blog. A
few of his travels entail building straw bale houses in Hotnitsa,
Bulgaria; volunteering at the Temi Community Farm and Vineyard in
Tibilisi, Georgia; and, volunteering at a farm harvesting olives and
making olive oil on the Aegean coast, Turkey.
Lukin's final destination is Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan where he will work with the Alpine Fund
www.alpinefund.org and then hopefully work for a NGO or UN
agency.
Jennifer Townsend '09 is employed with Rosa Parks Center,
for female juvenile offenders, located on the campus of William
Woods University, in Fulton, Missouri in partnership with the
Missouri Division of Youth Services. Jennifer's position is a
Youth Specialist II. The center houses a dozen or so teenage girls
that have committed one or more criminal offenses from shoplifting
to selling drugs in Missouri. Jennifer's job is to help the
girls with everything from acquiring life skills such as doing
laundry and finding a job, to more complex tasks such as supporting
the girls in completing their "Individual Treatment Program", a plan
set in motion to help the girls with issues such as anger
management, substance abuse, coping skills, etc. Rosa Parks Center
has been featured on PBS and on primetime news for it's
uniqueness in helping juveniles. A special feature is listed
here. (http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8533158).
Jenna
Klinghammer '08
works as a Client Analyst with
Emdeon Business Services
in the St. Louis area. The Division where Jenna works designs
and prints checks, Explanation of Benefits, Explanation of Payments,
and other documents for insurance companies and payers in the health
industry. Her job entails working on a team of 4 client analysts on
different levels and as a supervisor to manage approx. 125-175
clients (insurance companies, benefits companies, health payers,
etc). She talks with clients and then designs forms, runs test
files and trouble shoots their problems before committing the final
version to production. Each day on average the division prints and
sorts 3.2 million documents a day in the production facility and
then drops them directly into the USPS mail stream. Jenna states,
"There is a lot to learn and I’m pretty sure I will have the
equivalent of a computer science degree by the time I’m done
training since a lot of the job requires us to write grammar and
rules for the computer program to reflect what the client wishes to
have print on each document. I am having fun though and there is
always something new that comes up to work through. Overall, my
critical thinking skills and ability to problem solve and
communicate are what landed me the job and what will make me
successful here. I just wanted to thank you all for your
encouragement while I was at Truman and for caring and taking the
time to make sure myself and other SOAN students got the most out of
our education. Your efforts have paid off and I am very grateful."
Amanda Nieman, December 2007
graduate, is currently living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with an AmeriCorps
position. While affiliated with AmeriCorps, she is also part of the Johnson
Intern Program. JIP is sponsored by a network of Episcopal churches and has
seven other similar programs in cities across the US. JIP brought Amanda
together with seven other young people from varying backgrounds across the US
and Germany who wanted to spend a year living in a Christian community, working
for social justice in the Chapel Hill community. Each has a different job
placement: community organizer for Habitat for Humanity; advocate for victims of
domestic violence; staff member at a clubhouse for adults with mental illness;
rehab tech in the de-tox unit of a drug rehab facility; and, so on. Amanda
states, “Picture 'The Real World' – but doing good for others, and no cameras
involved. It sometimes life feels like a circus, but we all get along and are
learning to live and laugh together.”
Amanda’s placement is at a for-profit insurance company called The Redwoods
Group. TRG insures nearly 70% of the nation's YMCAs and JCOs (similar to the Y,
but with a Jewish foundation rather than a Christian one). The company was
recognized this fall as one of The Wall Street Journal's 'Top 15 Small
Businesses' in the country and has received numerous awards for its focus on
social responsibility and doing business differently. She defines the company as
'for-benefit' rather than 'for profit' as their business model “serve others” is
one of a kind.
www.redwoodsgroup.com/
Amanda expected to get her hands dirty working and being with the
poor/underserved; instead, she is in a cubicle every day, eating lunch in the
break room and wearing heels to work. She quotes, “It has been an incredibly
rewarding experience thus far. I know almost nothing about the insurance world,
but they've been very good to me here. I work with the risk management team, and
my specific projects are focused around creating training programs for camp
counselors this spring in order to prevent accidents and help keep kids safe at
camp. This is NOT what I had in mind when I moved to North Carolina to work with
AmeriCorps, but I am really learning a lot about the potential of for-profit
business to be a positive player in communities. This placement has been vital
in restoring my hope in 'Corporate America' and reducing my stigma that business
practices are nearly always greedy and selfish. I am learning that business can
be different, and there truly are people who are looking out for their
communities first.”
Each Redwoods employee is required to complete 40 hours of service each year,
and Amanda is going to Zambia for two weeks in January on a service trip with
another employee and a group of students from Elon University to build homes
with Habitat for Humanity and work with other NGOs. She states that the company
really wants non-profits to see what good businesses can have in the world.
Each of Amanda’s roommates has very different daily experiences, and she can't
imagine what it would be like to go through this year alone. Nearly all
AmeriCorps volunteers are living at or below the poverty line, and JIP gives
them a combined food budget every month as well as paying for housing,
insurance, and allotting each a $200 monthly stipend (before taxes). She states,
“It's hard, but definitely possible. It's also a really nice place to be this
year with the financial stress - all of our bills and immediate needs are taken
care of, and by the time we enter the 'real world' in June we will be experts at
living simply and cheaply!”
Lee Anne Flagg '09 A
double-major in Sociology/Anthropology and Exercise Science.
This fall, Lee Anne is attending the