Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Becky Jorgeson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Becky, appreciate you joining us today. We’re complete cheeseballs and so we love asking folks to share the most heartwarming moment from their career – do you have a touching moment you can share with us?
A young homeless woman kept getting kicked out of a local clean and sober living house…the owner thought she was on drugs – she was – but the wrong ones. She was bipolar with duel diagnosis…she fended up in the local shelter where I found her. When she got kicked out of there, I found her on the street and took her up to mental health … spoke with a shrink there who got her on the right meds.
On Friday I called Transitions Mental Health Assoc and told them her story. By Tuesday, she was in a house under their program. Told her if she went back to the local community college, I’d get her a computer. She enrolled, we got her the computer, and she was there for four years getting her requirements to get into Cal Poly, our local four year university. She graduated in another two years and TODAY SHE IS TEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY.
HER NAME IS HOPE, AND WE ARE NAMING OUR VILLAGE AFTER HER!
Becky, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Becky R. Jorgeson, M.A. 157 Watering Place
Templeton, CA 93465
[email protected]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Education:
B.A. in Social Science, Minor in Anthropology, U.C. Berkeley, 1972
M.A. in Education, with a Specialization in Counseling & Guidance, Cal Poly, 1990
Work Experience:
Cal Poly State University
Assistant to the Dean Work closely with the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts; independently organize various year-round events for the office; write confidential correspondence on her behalf; review and edit confidential personnel documents; work with associate dean handling day-to-day operations of busy office; review all office processes and procedures to streamline business practices; manage dean’s and associate dean’s calendars; coordinate travel process and reconciliation of travel expenditures for budget analyst; copy editor of web page.
Budget/Administrative Analyst: (1991-2006) Worked with Vice President of Admissions, Recruitment & Financial Aid; wrote and edited letters, annual reports, brochures, web site information, and all documentation leaving the office (served as quality control person); independently managed a four million dollar budget from six funding sources; prepared all financial reports, annual projections of staff salaries, benefits, and operating expenses; made all unit purchases (and controlled inventory) of supplies, equipment and computers; managed remodels at various times of different areas of unit; coordinated unit programs such as on-campus tours for the general public, and special tours for students; served on advisory councils with campus faculty and administrators; was liaison for VP of prospective students, parents, administrators, faculty, staff, and the media.
Grant Writer: (1990-1991) Assisted administrators, faculty, and staff with proposal writing and editing for numerous grants from a wide variety of funding sources.
Legal Assistant: Duenow, Burke & Smith; Sinsheimer & Schiebelhut; Michael Devitt, & Fitzpatrick, Dorrance and Barbieri (1975-1990):
Worked as a legal assistant in family law, personal injury, workmen’s compensation and estate planning; personally met with and took client depositions and summarized same; prepared legal documents for filing with the courts, served as bookkeeping and personnel manager.
2006 – Present: Outreach to homeless people in San Luis Obispo County; founded Hope’s Village of SLO (received nonprofit status in 2013); gave 100+ presentations to various organizations, churches and other nonprofits regarding homelessness and how Hope’s Village can help. Have passed on 146 vehicles to local veterans and their families through the ‘RVs for Veterans’ program.
Have 13 outreach volunteers on the streets passing out food and water, etc….still looking for land for our sustainable community village of cost effective tiny houses to get more people off the streets.
Got into this line of work because our parents taught us to speak up for those with no voice. And it’s unconscionable we have so many people in this country who live int the dirt.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
We stay connected with monthly meetings and every year-end we get together for a luncheon and confab. We are all volunteers and in this for the long haul. Over the year, everyone gets updates – not just our five women board – to keep all apprised of our successes.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Our story about Hope above shows our resilience…we all persevere one way or another.
The head of a local veterans organization said: “I built my 40+ year business career based on “relentless pursuit.” I was an amature compared to you.” (I read this every single day).
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hopesvillageofslo.com
- Facebook: hopesvillageofsanluisobispo, rebecca jorgeson
Image Credits
All my own photos