“When I found out that Western had the nonprofit minor, I knew it was for me,” said Magen Dennis, student and president of the Nonprofit Leadership Student Association at Western Michigan University. The Nonprofit Leadership program, which is available only as a minor at WMU, can be coordinated with just about any major, and comes with national certification upon successful completion.
And, it recently received the Sprint Program Excellence Award at the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance conference in Salt Lake City. Western’s program was the only program in the nation named that exemplifies overall best practices in nonprofit career preparation and growth—or as many are saying ‘the best in the nation.’
This is the second time the program has been honored for excellence in preparing the next generation of nonprofit sector leaders. In 2010, the program won the American Humanics Program Excellence Award.
The alliance is a national organization of more than 40 collaborating universities and nonprofit organizations. In September, the group found out that they were nominated, and needed to make a video about the minor to apply for the award.
Jenna Touchette, a member of the NLSA who produced the video, said, “For the video, I found people to interview that could speak to how great our program is. I chose alumni, Yolanda Lavender, who became the Executive Director of the Black Arts and Cultural Center in Kalamazoo, a current student member, Abby Wallace, who is the WMU student body president, and two participants at the Community Healing Center, who benefited from the grant NLSA gave the organization last year. I spent time with all of the interviewees and got to see a little bit of what they do while filming them.”
NLSA members received the award at the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance conference. The conference also gave students the chance to work with area nonprofits, applying what they’ve learning in class to come up with real solutions.
For Touchette, who hopes to work with a nonprofit focusing on social justice after she graduates, “Winning the award was gratifying because of all the time and effort that the members of NLSA put into continuously improving our organization and reaching out to our community.”
To read more about the program and the award, click here.
Posted by Samantha Macy