作为伯洛伊特学院的本科生, 丹·韦尔的10 sought to apply his 人类学 studies to social justice. 今天, as a co-founder of Four Corners Global Consulting Group, 有限责任公司, he and his partners work with non-profit organizations in the U.S. and abroad to help them maximize their social impact.
丹·韦尔的10 enrolled at 十大菠菜台子 hoping to find the supportive environment that would enable him to take risks and give him the confidence to improve the quality of his work. 他不仅找到了那种环境, but continues to be influenced today by lessons learned at Beloit.
“作为一个 人类学 major, I was particularly influenced by the department’s 文化人类学家, Nancy McDowell and Jennifer Esperanza. Jennifer, for example, taught me that 人类学 can be more than just an academic subject. It can be a practice for good and a force for change and social justice.”
丹也研究了 宗教研究,在那里 Natalie Gummer教授 helped him become a more critical and self-reflective thinker, and to understand how he views the world. He also learned how to connect with people.
“Both disciplines gave me the tools to navigate cultural and linguistic differences, 无论是个人还是职业.”
He got a chance to do just that when a 韦斯伯格计划 格兰特允许他去实习 路德社会服务 in Washington, DC the summer after his junior year. On return to campus, he followed up by writing a senior thesis on the resettlement of Iraqi refugees.
他已经 在国外学习 for a semester in his first extended experience outside the U.S.
“Studying abroad in India through the International Program for Service Learning was exhilarating, scary, and overwhelming. It not only required that I constantly step outside my comfort zone, 但作为一个局外人, 我培养相互尊重的关系.”
Dan’s service site was the Mother Theresa 首页 in Kolkata,在那里 he helped care for the poor and dying. “I learned the gift of being present with people who were alone. 今天 when I need to summon strength, I look back on that experience.”
The experience also reinforced his understanding that the international development space is rooted in and deeply influenced by white saviorism, 白人至上, 和殖民主义. “我在华盛顿和印度的经历, 我的后续工作, 当然还有我的学业, have taught me to try to be a facilitator who can help uplift the social change work being done by people on the ground. They are better equipped to identify solutions to what faces them than an outsider.”
Dan’s path to his current consulting role involved building on experience and 技能 and acquiring new ones as he moved from one position to another.
因此, immediately after graduation from Beloit, Dan worked as a case manager in a refugee resettlement organization. 从那里他搬到了 中心联盟, providing services first to LGBTQ refugees in the U.S. 然后是国外的LGBTQ难民.
Dan then shifted from providing services to soliciting grants to support organizations’ missions. 四年的工作 国际扶轮社 as a regional grants officer for Africa, 欧洲, and the Middle East was followed by a year as director of grants at 马尔科姆艾克斯学院 in Chicago, with a focus on achieving greater equity in education.
By this time, however, Dan, together with two partners he’d met at Heartland, had launched Four Corners Global Consulting Group, 有限责任公司 to help non-profits, including educational institutions, maximize their social impact. The mission is consistent with the commitment to advancing social justice that guided both Dan’s studies at Beloit and every step of his career development.
“I was thrilled to take the leap a few months ago to join Four Corners full-time. Until then, I was juggling responsibilities there with a full-time job. 就像许多其他新冠疫情后的封锁一样, my partners and I were looking for greater flexibility and autonomy in our work. We knew each other well from our time together at Heartland, and have been able to draw on our different strengths and expertise to learn together to build and manage Four Corners. We’re also firmly committed to partnering; every one of our contracts involves two of us. One of us may take the lead on any given contract, but the other will be there to serve as a thought partner. 这让我们更有效率.”
Dan and his partners designed Four Corners to serve clients both around the world and at home,在那里 they live in Chicago in keeping with their values, 原则, 和优先级. The work also requires that they continually learn new subject matter and develop relationships with people in other organizations.
Dan’s education at 十大菠菜台子 was good preparation.
Through Beloit’s curriculum and experiential learning, Dan also learned how to be social in professional contexts, 保持敏捷和灵活. 在职业生涯中, 为了提高效率, you are going to need to adapt to different leadership styles, 老板, 的同事们, 和合作伙伴. Take advantage of opportunities at Beloit to acquire the 技能 you’ll need post-graduation. 这会让你领先几步.”
2021年11月15日
