Today we’d like to introduce you to Christy McClendon.
Christy, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Having grown up in a rural, farming community, I learned early on about hard work and service to my community. If a neighbor’s crop didn’t yield, I learned the value of holding them to next year…because next year, it may be us who needed help. I have carried that sense of community throughout my career.
My passion for empowering youth from low-income families and communities goes above and beyond my nonprofit sector executive role. Having been raised by my grandparents who had eighth-grade educations, I know firsthand the powerful intervention of a caring, stable adult who helps create possibility out of hopelessness.
Because of the power of mentoring in my own life, I was able to use my sense of community service to become a first-generation college graduate as a Master’s Level Social Worker in Social Entrepreneurialism.