The author, Ashlee, graduated from college six years ago with dreams of success but has faced unfulfilling jobs and disappointments since. She acknowledges she has yet to reach her potential and believes the StartingBloc Fellowship could provide her the tools and network needed. Her constant desire over the last six years has been to promote social responsibility and philanthropy. She hopes to find ways through technology and media to encourage presence and disrupt the nonprofit norm.

1. Q3.
Is there anything else you’d like to share that we did not ask
about?
I’m Ashlee. A (late) twenty-something, college graduate making waves in my professional
career! Thus far, there isn’t anything would take back. I have made all of the right decisions,
at the right times, and am currently on track to achieve all of my professional goals.
Only, this isn’t a perfect world, and most of the above is not reality. My name is indeed
Ashlee and I did have the pleasure of attending and graduating from The University of
Michigan, but that is where it ends. Now, six years post-graduation, I can’t help but wonder
where things went wrong.
As a teen, I can remember daydreaming about the future. All I could envision was success
and stability in my professional life. Attend a great college, land an awesome (well paying)
position at the firm of my choice, and live happily ever after climbing a shining corporate
ladder. Then I “grew up”. The daydreams began to fade.
I do not say all of this because I am not proud of my accomplishments, but as an acknowledgement of the fact that I have yet to scratch the surface of my potential. I am aware that I
am standing in my own way. I strongly believe that participating in the StartingBloc
Fellowship program will present the tools, resources and network of do-gooders crucial to
bringing those daydreams back to the forefront.
Over the last six years, unfulfilling jobs, countless job applications, and even more disappointments, there has been one constant: my desire to be an agent of change. Encourage
social responsibility, connect people to their communities, and promote ‘paying it forward’.
As technology and (social) media continue to alter the landscape of interaction between
people, it is my hope to find ways to encourage presence, foster philanthropy and disrupt
the non-profit norm.
Ashlee Lawson
lawsonas@gmail.com
StartingBloc (LA ‘14)