Nonprofit Management- National Association of Colleges and Employers- Reflection Paper #3

This week you will meet Mr. Shawn VanDerziel, Executive Director of the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Link to the website to view the interview is: https://app.vidgrid.com/view/NjttzVwiq1MF.

Please view Shawn’s interview, and then write a reflection paper (300–500 words) describing what you learned from his interview. You may want to talk about his organization and its mission. Or you may what to describe the challenges he faces in his work. Since this is your observations of the interview, you may focus on any topic Shawn addressed in the interview.

ANSWER

Nonprofit Management

Mr. Shawn VanDerziel, the Executive Director of the National Association of Colleges and Employers, narrates about his tremendous and exciting journey in his career. Having finished his college education, he found himself unsure of what career to pursue but had an underlying passion for venturing into the Human Resource sector. After working for different organizations, he finally landed a great opportunity of being the President of NACE, and he narrates that it has been an exciting journey. According to Mr. VanDerziel, NACE navigates around its mission of linking college representatives with the representative of companies that pose as potential employers. NACE’s work is to act as an intermediary and link colleges and employers that share the same interests. NACE offers the necessary services and products to these institutions to ensure equal opportunity for both the colleges and employers to achieve their goals. Their ultimate goal is to impact successful employment outcomes for the college-educated in both public and private institutions.

The main challenge that NACE faces, according to Mr. VanDerziel, is the lack of relation to the problems that NACE undergoes by the governing board. The governing board of NACE plays a crucial role in terms of its operations. Part of their function is to hire the CEO of NACE, who fits all the requirements crucial to the successful running of NACE. They help steer the organization towards a focused future. They also help in assigning the organization with the appropriate resources to conduct its activities. Mr. VanDerziel asserts that there is a delicate balance in the relationship between the governing board and the CEO of NACE for NACE to function properly. The relationship between these two parties has to be strong and focused as it helps boost NACE’s performance. However, Shawn says that the biggest challenge is maintaining this crucial balance in the relationship as the governing board rarely avails themselves for meetings. He says that they meet once a month, once quarterly, or even several times a year. This makes them detached from NACE operations and may therefore affect its operations negatively.

References

VanDerziel, S. (2020). Interview with Shawn VanDerziel, Vidgrid. Retrieved form https://app.vidgrid.com/view/NjttzVwiq1MF