by Anna Rhoads March 5, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jennica Machado (MPA \u201917) is Thurston County\u2019s new Economic Development Manager. Starting this position in November 2019, Jennica wears several hats in her new role: public advocate, community collaborator, and project manager, helping Thurston County engage in opportunities to enhance the vitality of the local economy. When Jennica began the MPA program in 2014, she initially focused her studies on nonprofit management. Little did she know she\u2019d be working in economic development for local government a few years later! Jennica says she began the MPA program hyper-focused on certain topics and ideas but left Evergreen with a greater understanding of experiences and ideas. Going through the program helped her uncover new interests and career paths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jennica was able to expand her skill set through the flexibility of MPA\u2019s Individual Learning Contracts<\/a> (ILCs) and electives. For one ILC, she worked with former faculty member Larry Geri to design a program monitoring and evaluation course. She later connected her coursework to her capstone project, where she traveled to Cambodia and designed a monitoring and evaluation process for a local NGO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jennica also took the opportunity to learn and work with MPA alumni. After listening to Meagan Darrow (MPA \u201914) and Meghan Goldenberger (MPA \u201914)<\/a> guest lecture about their nonprofit organization TOGETHER!, Jennica approached them and asked about opportunities to learn more about their organization. A year later, she was hired at TOGETHER! as a Program Manager. Jennica\u2019s advice to current students is \u201cto take advantage of your status as a graduate student. MPA alums really want to help current students through mentoring, informational interviews, and networking. Remember, you are always interviewing! Your peers in class could be potential employers or coworkers. You just never know when someone will be part of your future professionally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with her current position as Economic Development Manager, Jennica sits on the Board of Trustees for Morningside, an organization that advances the employment for people with disabilities. Jennica strongly believes that she wouldn\u2019t be working where she is now without her MPA degree. \u201cMy experience in the MPA program created a fundamental shift in how I think and how I approach work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Anna Rhoads March 5, 2020 Jennica Machado (MPA \u201917) is Thurston County\u2019s new Economic Development Manager. Starting this position in November 2019, Jennica wears several hats in her new role: public advocate, community collaborator, and project manager, helping Thurston… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9454,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1991,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990\/revisions\/1991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}