Please join Business Volunteers Maryland in welcoming Lara Blaize!

Lara has been selected as a fellow for the 2021 Sondheim Nonprofit Leadership Program. Fellows of the program are placed at a nonprofit organization full-time under the mentorship of a dedicated team member from June 7-August 13, 2021. These emerging community leaders attend orientations and seminars targeted to strengthen their understanding of the functions of nonprofits and examining community needs through social challenges. Using the skills they develop during their internships and participation in the program, undergraduates and graduates will complete a group research project studying a community challenge impacting Maryland and design an innovative way to address this challenge.

Lara is a sociology major with a focus on African diaspora at Morgan State University. She believes much of the conflict in the world is caused by a different perspective that goes unexplained and hopes to use her lived experience and degree to combat at least a few of these misunderstandings and create a more inclusive, understanding, and equitable world.

While she is with Business Volunteers, Lara will be supporting our Nonprofit Service Coordinator with various programs and services. Some key tasks include nonprofit relationship management, supporting planning for fall 2021 programs, and supporting the work of the Marketing and Communications Team. She will help develop content for social media including writing and editing blogs and captions, designing graphics, and editing short videos.

Lara will be the driving force for the development of our nonprofit outreach and relationship building by researching benchmark institutions and new nonprofits, co-facilitating internal discovery meetings, independently conduct external relationship meetings, and writing reports that will be presented to our team.

Please join Business Volunteers Maryland in wishing Lara good luck as she embarks on this journey and brings a unique perspective to our team!