When it comes to the stories of how our Fellows chose VFA, no two are the same. We wanted to check in with our upcoming class of 2015 Fellows and hear why they made the move to go VFA.
Devon is a proud Boston College Eagle, finishing up her final semester as an English major with a minor in Management and Leadership. While on the Heights, she has worked as a board member and editor for the college’s student newspaper, mentored freshmen in a student leadership program and as an Orientation Leader, and practiced her ever-improving Spanish skills. A foodie hailing from Philadelphia, Devon enjoys the pursuit of the magis, binge-reading, and road trips. We’re stoked Devon chose VFA and she can’t wait to tell you why.
Interested in joining Devon and her fellow trailblazers in VFA’s Class of 2015? Our next and final application deadline is March 2nd. Visit apply.ventureforamerica.org for more information on becoming a VFA Fellow.
Name: Devon Sanford
College or University: Boston College
Major: English
Hometown: Westmont, NJ
Fellow Class: 2015
This past summer, I sat at a desk in midtown New York, staring at my computer screen. I had spent the better part of my morning shuffling between my internship’s supply room and office. By the afternoon, I swiveled in my chair, an uneasy feeling in my gut. I was bored. I felt drained, and I had hardly been productive. The routine of my internship, slowly dragging on, got me thinking. I wondered, what impact am I having? Who am I benefiting? The answer, I realized, was that I was not having much of an impact at all – and those who I was benefiting were perhaps not the people who needed help most.
This summer’s internship was a massive reality check for me. While I learned a great deal about the consulting sector in which I was working, I was hardly excited to head down to midtown each morning. And I was well aware that the work, or something like it, could become my full-time job after graduation. So I started reconsidering. I decided that my work post-graduation should be as challenging and meaningful – if not more – than my experiences in college.
For the past four years at Boston College, I have had the incredible, gratifying privilege of doing what I love. As an English major, I have spent hours in a cavern of modern-American novels and evenings racing against a newspaper deadline. I have worked with campus groups as a mentor for freshmen and traveled abroad in an international immersion program. I have been encouraged by professors, sat through heated debates, and spent late nights with empowering peers. I have learned through that love. And I have figured out, along the way, that my passion and investment in work garner results.
As a student of a Jesuit college and a volunteer in downtown Boston, I have also learned the momentous importance of working for others. I understand that my college education is a privilege many are not lucky enough to receive – and is one that I can use for good, for the benefit of those in my community.
So as I returned back to campus this fall, I decided to get back to what I love. I knew I had a knack for making gears turn and I wanted to find work that moved just as quickly as those late nights in the newspaper office. The relationships I had built with mentees, the results I helped create for on-campus dialogues – I was interested in creating similarly tangible results in my job. And I wanted to work that hard, and to have the same effect on a social project. Venture for America allows me the opportunity, and the challenge, to do just that. I will be working with a team of intelligent, fast-moving individuals who are committed to impacting a community. VFA’s training program will teach me the ins-and-outs of creating a company. And the two-year fellowship will set me up with a new program to love, a different passion to follow.