February 11, 2014
Anita Bohn
- Year of graduation and concentration: 1986 BA Psychology, 1988 MSW Community Organizing
- First job: Founder and Director of SERVE at the University of Michigan
- Current job: Organizational Development Lead, Student Life at the University of Michigan
Advice to current UM students
3 things: 1) Explore your passions. I’ve found that the world will conspire to bring you opportunities to act on those passions, but you have to do the work to discover what you are passionate about! Try new things, ask good questions, hang out with people who are interesting to you and who expose you to new ideas, and use these four years to get outside your comfort zone! 2) Think about “who you want to be” more than you think about “what you want to do”. What kind of person do you want to be? What do you want to be counted on for? What do you want people to say about your relationship with them? How do you want to show up for co-workers, family and friends? If you are clear about these things, you can enact them no matter what job or opportunity you find yourself in! 3) Enjoy the people you doing this “college thing” with! People told me my college friends would be my best friends forever, and they were right!
Biggest challenge you have faced in the workforce
My biggest challenge in all of my jobs has been people who are problem-identifiers vs. problem solvers. Pessimists, complainers, and “negative nancy” types are definitely a challenge for me! Challenging and critically analyzing are great but please come with some energy to try to fix things and with some hope that things might improve. Otherwise, you are seriously bringing me down!
Taking into account your tenure at SERVE, how do you go about navigating competing values and engage in community work?
I think this requires lots of thought! As we partner in communities our values and the values of our partners are constantly at play. Why am I here? Is it out of a sense of community responsibility? a value for service? a passion for social justice? a personal connection with the mission of the organization? Are the people around me coming from the same place or at least a complimentary place? If there is a conflict of values, are the values at play core values (i.e. integrity, inclusion) or just personal preferences or style differences? There is much to think about and these questions create a great basis for conversation with partners in the work. In the end, I probably partner with folks and organizations whose values I most closely connect with.
Contact
If you would like to contact Anita, she can be reached at [email protected]