ShareCorps Alumni Spotlight: Bradley's Story of Service
Where is ShareCorps now? Meet Bradley Petrella – our first of many alumni that we will be spotlighting in the coming months!
Bradley was in the ShareCorps cohort from 2019-2020, shortly after graduating from University of Dayton. As a VISTA member, he served with Festa, an organization providing multi-generational ESL classes and other services to new Americans in Columbus. Bradley originally began his involvement with Festa as a teen intern in high school, but later became a part-time staff member throughout his college career. In 2019, he was thrilled to join the team as an AmeriCorps VISTA! His project focused on program evaluation and coordination, as well as training ESL teachers, staff members, and volunteers.
As is common with members that pursue service when they are young, AmeriCorps gave Bradley the opportunity to learn about nonprofits and gain experience in the field after graduating from school. Because of his experience with Festa prior to college, he knew that nonprofit work was something he was interested in. This translated perfectly into a year of service where he was able to make connections with nonprofit professionals, see how nonprofit organizations function, and gain inspiration from leadership at Festa and beyond. These experiences set him up well to continue into a career he is passionate about.
Through service, Bradley appreciated the opportunity to evaluate the programming at Festa and implement new processes to make services more accessible to the community. His experience at Festa also prepared him for learning new systems and training others on how those systems and programs work.
Since his time in ShareCorps, Bradley has continued his passion for nonprofit work at Catholic Social Services (CSS) in Columbus. Immediately following his service, he spent over four years at Our Lady of Guadalupe through CSS, a site providing wraparound services primarily for the Latinx community in the area. He believes his experience at Festa translated perfectly into this role. As a team member at CSS, he has been able to use his knowledge of program evaluation and coordination, system implementation, and people training.
Recently, Bradley joined the development team at CSS as the Donor Database Specialist. This role, he says, brings some new experiences to his day-to-day, such as working more directly with donors and making more personal connections. However, he still taps into his VISTA knowledge as well. Especially when it comes to using online systems and developing processes for connecting with donors, he feels that his time as an AmeriCorps VISTA member was the perfect introduction to his career as a nonprofit professional.
Thinking back to his service, Bradley is grateful for the connections he made through ShareCorps. Some of his fellow cohort members are people that he is still in touch with personally or professionally, and he also remains connected to Festa staff and volunteers. In the five years since finishing service, he still reflects on the experience, relationships, and knowledge that he gained as a member of ShareCorps!
