It’s been a year since Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico. While the country continues to recover, a Georgian Court alumna reflects on doing her part to help.
Stefannie Nicholson ’13, ’15 was sent to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria to help coordinate disaster response.
But helping those in need was nothing new. The call to assist on the island came less than a year after she worked with FEMA Corps, a fairly new partnership between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Corporation for National and Community Service. After she was selected in late 2015 for FEMA Corps, she trained for 10 months, starting in California and journeying across the United States. During that time, she responded to national disasters in South Carolina and Georgia and learned about emergency preparedness and disaster relief. She also assisted in the aftermath of West Virginia’s devastating 2016 floods.
So when disaster struck the U.S. territory, Stefannie—by then a reservist with FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security—was ready to head to Puerto Rico.
Serving comes naturally for Stefannie, and much of her time was spent preparing critical reports detailing incident action plans—plans that were part of a larger effort to coordinate disaster response activities.
The Business of Serving
At first, Stefannie’s two GCU degrees in business (B.S. and M.B.A.) may not seem applicable, but she has found them to be a valuable foundation. Communication, a vital proponent in the business world, is much-needed in the face of disaster—and that’s what she facilitates for the federal government.
“Now I’m in a position where what I do affects a lot of people,” she explains.
Even though she’s far from her days living on campus, the Mercy core values of service and compassion are still very much a part of her life. And though she participated in community service projects prior to attending college, her time at GCU was where she picked up a passion for servant leadership.
“Leadership isn’t always about you. It’s who you serve,” says Stefannie. “Being at Georgian Court inspired in me a different level of wanting to serve.”
Leveraging a Passion for Service
Looking back, Stefannie finds that her time spent training in the FEMA Corps was a lot like residence life at Georgian Court, where she was a resident assistant. She met large numbers of new people, many of them recent college graduates like her, and had to learn how to work with them—individually and together.
“I found myself stepping into a lot of leadership positions, even though I wasn’t in an official leadership capacity,” Stefannie recalls during her time with FEMA Corps.
That included mentoring others—something she did as a student at GCU. In fact, the things she learned and the principles instilled in her at GCU have been helpful in shaping her professional life.
“Georgian Court has really played a tremendous role in my life, starting from the time I stepped on campus up until even after I graduated,” says Stefannie. “Georgian Court still walks with me throughout life.”
Though she works in a role where she directly helps others, Stefannie says all graduates can integrate service into their post-grad lives.
“No matter where I am, it always goes back to the Mercy core values,” she adds.
Story contributed by Kristen Fischer.
