SRQ M AGAZ I N E WOM E N L E ADE RSH I P I N T H E RE GION : : O CTOBE R 2021
IN C ONVERSAT I ON
at small private institutions and large public colleges includes a track record of fostering collaboration and community partnerships. JESSICA ROGERS, VICE PRESIDENT OF PHILANTHROPY, CHILDREN FIRST Jessica Rogers believes access to opportunity for all is the base for building a strong community. This belief has transformed her passion for helping women, children, and families into a professional career focused on the well-being of humankind. As a mother, she raises her daughter the way that her mother taught her, to strive to make a difference in the lives of those within her community. With 20 years of experience in nonprofit management, fundraising, finance and education, Jessica Rogers serves as Vice President of Philanthropy at Children First, Sarasota County’s exclusive Head Start Program, which ranks in the top 1% of Head Starts nationwide. She represents the agency in advocating for the support of early childhood education and breaking barriers of poverty. During her tenure, she has transformed fundraising and outreach efforts allowing the agency to serve the greatest number of children and families in its 60-year history and being named WEDU PBS’s Nonprofit of the Year. Rogers’ volunteer and philanthropic engagement is wide ranging. She serves on the Sarasota County NAACP’s Freedom Fund Awards Gala commi ee and is a former board director for the Junior League of Sarasota, most recently receiving their 2020 Sustainer Community Service Award.
getting through times like what we’re working through now, we’re going to feel bad, we’re going to feel pain, we’re going to feel anxiety and depression, we’re going to be angry. But, I do believe we’ll get through it, and ultimately, we will be in a better place, I have to believe that. So, as a CEO of an organization like mine, that’s one of my goals is to help our communities survive this, and really develop our resilience and come out of it better somehow. I don’t know what that’ll be yet, I just believe that we’ll get there. PROBSTFELD: One of the things I’m most proud of is that many of the students that come here never even thought that college was for them. We try to be that place where people are safe and where they can access resources that they need. We once had a young girl, a high school dropout. She was a single mother and pregnant. She got her GED and came to an open house for our biotech program. The professor in the program told her, “You can do this.” He told her she was very smart. She took the class, excelled and went on to an internship. That professor was the first person who ever told her she was smart enough to do anything. And so I think it’s that ability that we have to make every interaction with a student a positive interaction, and to give them the belief in themselves and the support they need to realize their dreams. Our big challenge is getting them here, but we’re reaching out to the communities and helping potential students to overcome challenges, whether financial, transportation, childcare, domestic violence, mental health—we have strong connections across the community to help make students successful.
IS THERE A MOMENT IN YOUR CAREER WHERE YOU WERE STRUCK BY HOW MANY PEOPLE YOU HAVE BEEN PART OF HELPING, HOW MANY PEOPLE’S LIVES YOU HAD CHANGED? LARKIN-SKINNER: I’ve had people over the years who’ve come up to me, and who I hadn’t thought about in years to say, “Thank you, you really made a difference. Your organization made a difference.” But I think that probably for me, what makes me realize that I must have done good things in my career, I must have helped people in our communities is that now, people seek me out—other professionals, our local politicians, the law enforcement—for information. So, what that tells me is that I am trusted, which is important to me, because integrity is number one to me. People recognize that the years I’ve been around, that I really am doing it because I care about people, because I want to help others thrive, I want to do what’s best for our community. Yeah, I’m the CEO of an organization, but I’m not all about this organization, and how much money we can make. It’s not about that for me, it’s about doing the right things that help make us all stronger, and happier. ROGERS: My mother and grandmother were big believers in making sure that their children and grandchildren were the same people when no one was looking as to when spotlight may shine on them. And that, attitude is something I really strive to carry through to my personal life and to my professional life. Recently, where it really hit me that my actions are directly contributing to positive change in the lives of others was when I received an email from the National Head Start Association, to say that I had been nominated
by a member of our staff for the NHSA Bold Leadership Award, for my contributions to the agency during COVID. The nomination came from an individual who works on the program side of our house. For me, that was kind of the aha moment that said, “You’re making this difference right now, and we can see that.” PROBSTFELD: There are so many stories. It’s hard to just pick one, but I think of a young lady who I met early on when I became president. She and her mother were victims of domestic abuse. They made the decision to to leave their home in the Northeast and they landed in Bradenton. She came to us on a whim and we helped her get her GED. She spoke at my inauguration and that day, she was notified that she had been selected to go to Columbia University. We were here when she landed to help her realize that dream. And every day, I hear the stories about students whose lives have gone from what it was to what it could be. And that’s what makes it worthwhile. Come and walk on my campus and stop any student. You’ll walk away saying, “The future is in good hands.” SRQ
12 | srq magazine_ OCT21 | SHE ROARS MAGAZINE live local
SRQOCT21_FEATURES-_IN Convo-Nonprofit Innovators.indd 12
9/14/21 10:24 PM
