Jenna Morris
Hi! I’m Jenna and I’m a Business Development Manager at Citeline, selling our competitive Intelligence services primarily to our West Coast US clients.
I’ve been working at Informa for 5 years now, starting off on the editorial team at Pharmaprojects. In 2007 I had the fantastic opportunity of moving to New York to work in a Client Services role, before moving to the dark side *ahem* sorry, to the sales team in 2008. I’ve been over in New York for 3.5 years now – my mum isn’t too happy about that!
Living in the Western world, it’s so easy to take things for granted. On any day of the week we can wander around Times Square or Notting Hill, go see a live show at Madison Square Garden or grab a beer by the Thames with friends. We enjoy huge privileges but it’s important to understand the huge cultural differences that exist in the world. I am really looking forward to learning that culture first-hand by living in it and helping the community, I’m sure there’s a lot to learn from them!
I applied for the program because it’s such a great cause, and one that provides benefits to the children, their families, the community and the volunteer. I can’t really think of anything more rewarding than helping families as they work hard to build the best life for their families. I have been very lucky to have an amazing and supportive family, and without sounding like a cliché I really do want to give something back to people who really deserve it.
For personal growth, it will be great to learn about Thai culture and to get to know my colleagues better. It will be such a great experience to share. Working hands-on within a community of such a different culture is going to be an eye-opening and rewarding experience and will definitely put my week to week stresses into perspective! I’m secretly hoping it will encourage me to eat less chocolate…but that’s a bit of a long shot.
End Goal
There are so many things I know we’ll all achieve, but I think the most important is to make a difference to the communities we are working with, and make of lot of children smile along the way (is there anything better?)! I am really looking forward to learning about Thai culture, and to incorporate the positive parts into my life here in New York.
What can I do to achieve this goal?
I think it’s all about being open minded, positive and working with our team of volunteers to make the experience as fun and rewarding for the children, communities and of course ourselves as possible! If everyone had the goal of helping a single person every day we could make a huge difference to the world. Better get started then eh!