Javita Thompson, a member of Elizabethtown College’s Senior Leadership Team and Director of the Center for Community and Civic Engagement, started her journey in a different way. Thompson left college at 19-years-old and returned years later after having two kids, a husband and a mortgage. She reached the decision to return to school after evaluating what she enjoyed most at her job, which was the community engagement components.
“I loved connecting people. I like programming. I like being out in the community and doing community service. I loved building relationships. I need that job.”
She went on to complete her undergraduate degree in communications from Millersville University in only two years. Thompson attended classes all the way through from that first summer back to her final spring semester two years later. Her final semester consisted of two courses, an internship and a graduate course her mentor recommended. This pushed Thompson to pursue her master’s degree in emergency management.
“I was going to be doing crisis communication because this was very soon after Hurricane Katrina,” Thompson said. “The things that were shown [on television] were vulnerable people who needed food and medications, looting places when it was a survival method when we didn’t do our part and that we could have done a better job…. I want to be that person to really put a different spin on what was happening at that time, in that space.”
Someone who inspires Thompson is, Liz Ackerman, current executive director of Northern Lancaster Chamber of Commerce, who worked for Junior Achievement of Central Pa while Thompson started volunteering. Throughout her years there, she watched Ackerman steer the young people they mentored in the right direction.
Ackerman created a program with Junior Achievement that bused female high school students from several places to Elizabethtown College. These young women would sit at round tables to discuss career aspirations, what volunteers at Junior Achievement were doing with their careers, professional demeanor and much more.
On top of her work with Elizabethtown College and Junior Achievement, Thompson has worked in a variety of other roles including Leadership Lancaster, United Way of Lancaster County’s Impact Committee, graduate assistant at Millersville University and a professional staff role at Shippensburg University. “The journey of being in higher education and the work that comes along with it is super rewarding and it makes you really appreciate what you do.”
Thompson, leaves young women getting into nonprofit work this advice: “Grab a friend and go and do something. Get involved in some way, volunteer in some way. Whether it’s at a shelter or a food bank or an animal shelter. Whatever the vision turn it into an opportunity that could really turn into something more.”
