We were lucky to catch up with Lisa Rossi recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lisa , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

The George Snow Scholarship Fund’s mission is to help hard working students in South Florida to graduate from college by providing financial aid and wrap-around support services. Our goal is to ensure that no student is deprived of an education because of a shortage of funds or lack of support.

Most of our students do not have the financial or emotional support system at home so we make sure to build a community of scholars who trust us and can prosper in the real world.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

After graduating college and climbing the corporate ladder, becoming the only female C-level executive in the firm at the time, I decided it was time to take a good hard look at my work and what fueled my passion. I worked for a large ad agency, 24/7 grind and nonstop selling to drive revenue to the bottom line. I was great at what I did, but I was tired and burnt out. I took a deep hard look into my strengths and outlined what excited me. I loved building relationships with clients, there was no question about that. I enjoyed getting to know them personally too. It was important to me to ask how their families were doing, how they were doing and not just a Monday morning phone call about sales numbers from over the weekend.

I was also a lead mentor and favorite amongst my peers for coaching and career guidance. I was the go-to for advice, coffee breaks, and the in between about how to handle a challenge with a coworker, how to ask for a raise or promotion or simply just be better at their job. I challenged people, A LOT. Both my clients and coworkers, in a way that drove them to think differently, answer hard questions and get noticed. I created and launched several internship and mentorship programs at the firm too.

This led me to my change in careers. I resigned from my executive position to go work in the non-profit industry. I wanted to focus on people over profit. I was presented with an opportunity to be the Director of Career Development at the George Snow Scholarship Fund. The first ever position focused on Scholars careers, not just financial aid and college education. The GSSF has provided financial aid to high school students looking to go to college for over 40 years!! We are one of few scholarship organizations that go above and beyond to prepare our scholars for the real world, before they graduate college. In fact, we start right as the enter college as a freshman.

We will be launching an online learning academy, exclusive to our GSSF scholars which includes a 4-year career curriculum for freshman through senior year. I have created a content strategy specific to each college level, everything from personality and career assessments to resume and LinkedIn workshops, mock interviews, branding yourself workshops and more. Once our scholars complete our curriculum, they will be unlocked access to meet directly with partner employers we have identified to secure job placement. This is an amazing and FREE benefit to our 500+ students currently enrolled in our scholarship program.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Continuing to prove people wrong when they judge you by your appearance or age. The first impression can sometimes leave people unsure of how “smart” you are. This was true for me on several occasions. However, after many occasions of presenting to CEOs of large companies with an executive board around the table, their impression of me changed to “she really gets our business”. Don’t let a first impression pull you down. Know your worth and keep showing off!

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Relationship building. You must get to know people on a different level, let them trust you as their friend or partner in a way that is not intimidating or quite frankly, fake! It’s not for everyone, but relationship building is not selling. It’s being truly compassionate and understanding with whoever you are working for, and possibly putting yourself in their shoes to see their point of view sometimes.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://scholarship.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georgesnowscholarshipfund
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SnowScholarship/

Image Credits
Courtesy of Lisa Rossi