7 minute read
Learning Leadership at the Top Level
By Carolanne Roberts
Mississippi State University alumna Vanessa Velasquez wrapped up her year as a White House Fellow this past fall, one of 15 impressive young leaders selected to gain experience at the highest levels of the federal government. Her 12-month placement with the Secretary of the Navy involved a backstage view and active role in day-to-day government.
Is it a hard act to follow now that it’s done? Not at all. In fact, in her new position as Chief of Service Partnerships with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, Velasquez oversees elements of new and emerging technology for various military branches.
It has been exhilarating so far for the woman who graduated cum laude from MSU in 2017 with a double major in international business/marketing from the College of Business and foreign language – Chinese and Spanish – from the College of Arts and Sciences.
“I was a student worker and involved in about six or seven organizations at one time in addition to the academics,” she explains. “I knew that going to college was an opportunity to change my life, and I knew I needed to do it well. I was excited to be learning and getting really involved.”
This dynamo, ambitious in the best sense and wired for positive action, arrived on campus from Vero Beach, FL. She was 11 hours away from her single mother who had immigrated from Colombia, spoke halting English and scrapped her way from homelessness to championing opportunities for her daughter.
Velasquez didn’t know a soul that first day in Starkville but bravely plunged in. Over time she served as a Roadrunner student recruiter, joined a sorority and the Fashion Board, involved herself in the Student Association and took on management roles within various organizations. In 2016, she received the MSU Spirit of State Award honoring her involvement.
All the while, Velasquez says, Mississippi State was fueling her future.
“State really set me up for success,” she shares. “That’s how hospitable the mentality is there and how the university cares about its people, and that was a huge takeaway for me.”
Velasquez’s first major career stop was a flagship Amazon Fulfillment Center outside Seattle. She was manager to a team of older employees and immediately sensed that an “I’m-the-boss” attitude would ruffle feathers on the overnight shift. Instead, she focused on communicating, an approach that benefited her team and the company.
“I made it my mission to talk to every single one of my teammates throughout the working hours. We talked about their performance, their families and their goals – and I had the opportunity to get some of those associates into better and higher roles in the company,” she says, noting that this led to being called on as a problem solver in other areas. “My managers would see a team that was underperforming, and I’d be placed there to flip them around and get them on the right path.”
She became Director of Fulfillment Center Engagement, a position in which she also led employee resource groups designed to serve and empower special interest groups focused on diversity, equity and inclusion (for example, she oversaw Glamazon for the LGBTQ population). Velasquez even partnered with several other business units at Amazon to rally volunteers to assemble 5,000 elaborate care packages for employees required to work on site during the pandemic.
“Our message was, ‘We see you; we know you’re there. Thank you,’” she says.
The corporate suite took notice. Velasquez received a promotion to Amazon’s Global Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) division.
“People don’t typically want to take you on from operations, but my M&A team saw something in me and gave me the opportunity to join as a program manager,” she says. “I had become known for fixing various problems and helping roll some initiatives out nationwide.”
Soon, an opening at Apple as a Global Supply Manager appeared, and Velasquez snapped it up –but not for long. The White House Fellowship was on the horizon.
“All roads in this story lead from the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), which still sends me alerts about opportunities,” she says of the nation’s largest nonprofit organization supporting Hispanic American higher education.
HSF opened her eyes as a young student. “We would meet Hispanic leaders who looked like we did. We saw our own possibilities.”
Velasquez was one of the three percent of applicants chosen to attend HSF conferences and receive scholarships during high school.
Still, the White House Fellowship was a long shot. Velasquez had less experience than many applicants – and no graduate degree. Most applicants seemed to be former Ivy Leaguers. But she decided to try, to simply share her story and be authentic.
The initial process – writing six essays, obtaining four impressive recommendations and completing a detailed online application – elevated her to the regional competition. She then rose to the nationals, where the playing field narrowed to 30 candidates.
Velasquez recalls the interviews.
“They’d ask things like ‘Tell something about yourself you shouldn’t tell’ and ‘Who are you – and what drives you?’ Or even, ‘Write the President a memo about a policy you want to change,’” she says.
The chance of becoming a Fellow was .01 percent, yet Mississippi State’s Velasquez attracted attention.
“A total of 17 government agencies wanted to interview me,” she marvels. “I was one of the youngest applicants and had the highest agency interest. I did the interviews, with the Navy being my first choice. The Secretary himself was a former Fellow and would introduce me to all aspects of the Navy and also one of his own initiatives.”
Velasquez won the Navy spot and has spent the last year traveling, assisting and leading an initiative addressing military education. She helped put together a Naval Education Strategy and worked on accreditations of the Naval War College and the U.S. Navy Community College. Along with Navy Manpower & Reserve Affairs, she put together a separate educational policy plan for the Seapower Advisory Board. Before she left her post, Secretary Carlos Del Toro awarded Velasquez the Civilian Meritorious Award, the third highest civilian honor in the Navy.
“Every day with the Secretary was an adventure,” she says. “One day it was breakfast with Leon Panetta, the former Secretary of Defense, White House Chief of Staff and CIA Director. We had lunch in New York with Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote Hamilton. We met with former President George Bush at his presidential library in Texas. We traveled to Navy bases across this country and globally for town halls with sailors and Marines. And sometimes we might hop in the car and go to an embassy.
“I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many leaders in government, men and women in business, governors and members of Congress,” she continues. “It has been such an honor to serve, especially when some of the former White House Fellows are people like Colin Powell, Sanjay Gupta and Wes Moore. It makes me so incredibly grateful to this country that offered opportunity to my mom and me.”
In her personal life, there’s one annual trip Velasquez treasures most each year – one that also makes her grateful.
“My best friend Hannah and I go back to Starkville for a football game, for tailgating and to eat at our favorite restaurants,” she says, noting how the campus changes between visits. “My university taught me so much – leadership, being humble and the servant leadership mindset. Those are attributes that will always stay with me. Things could get really challenging at the Pentagon, but I would always go at it from the approach of kindness and with the strategies Mississippi State taught me.
“Those were definitely the best five years of my life.”
