Jamison Edwards taps Fellow Experience to Help Others

by enFocus

Meet Our Fellows Blog Series: Jamison Edwards

Gary Gilot enFocus mentor and civic leader shares knowledge with Jamison throughout his Fellowship. 

Born and raised in Louisville (Luh-a-vul), Kentucky, that is where I call home. I also graduated from the University of Louisville with my BA in Economics. In high school, I had the opportunity to serve as the Youth Board President for a local nonprofit deaf oral school in my hometown. I was incredibly fortunate as in this role, I got my first glimpse of what I wanted to do for a career. Well, that's not exactly true. But I did learn that I loved being on a team and that I was motivated by the sense of fulfillment I could gain from helping others. Fast forward to last winter; I graduated from college and had to figure out how my skill sets developed throughout my childhood and in college could translate to the real world. To some extent, I was unfortunate in my internship experiences. I truly enjoyed all of my internships and could have seen myself working in that field upon graduation. Although I was appreciative of my positive experiences, they did little to help me narrow down my list of possible life and career trajectories.

Luckily, I found enFocus and South Bend through a childhood friend turned coworker from Louisville. After learning more about the nonprofit, it became clear what I wanted to do. Maybe not full time, but for as long as my 2-year Fellowship allows. I wanted to work at an organization that is focused on helping others while gaining a better understanding of how my skill set fits into the workforce. Along the way and through a multitude of experiences at enFocus, I still haven’t found a type of job or task I couldn’t see myself doing long term. However, I can say that the variety of opportunities has allowed me to have a clearer picture of the ones I may like a bit upon completing my Fellowship. When my Fellowship ends, I will have not only a better understanding of my career aspirations and a new set of skills to drive me closer to those aspirations.

Learn more about the 2020-2022 enFocus Fellows weekly in our Meet Our Fellows Blog Series.