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To hear Judy Schindler tell it, she learned far more during her temporary assignment with NC New Schools than the other way around.
“It will change the way I will look at our business when I return,” Schindler said before resuming her real life in Florida earlier this fall as an oral healthcare consultant with GSK, the global healthcare company with key operations located in Research Triangle Park. Under the company’s PULSE volunteer program, Schindler spent several months “on loan” this year to NC New Schools as a marketing and communications fellow, helping the organization think more strategically to deliver on its mission of helping all students graduate and achieve success.
In that capacity, her colleagues at NC New Schools say, Schindler’s business-oriented insights and perspective were invaluable –- particularly at a time when the organization is focused on refining its internal processes to strengthen its services to clients. NC New Schools, they say, got the better end of the deal.
“Judy walked in the office one day and was making a difference for the better the next,” said Joe Edney, a strategy analyst with NC New Schools. “Her consumer approach was a real asset to the organization. She’s a real problem solver.”
By happy coincidence, Schindler had recently begun to focus more heavily on “enterprise thinking” as part of a GSK business initiative. She was able to apply a similar mindset at NC New Schools, an enterprising non-profit aimed at promoting and supporting education innovation across the state. Schindler explains it this way: “You look at your business through the lens of continuous improvement – to be impatient with the status quo and to always changing for the better.”
GSK’s PULSE Volunteer Partnership is a skills-based volunteering initiative. Through PULSE, company employees are matched to a non-profit organization for three or six months full-time, contributing their skills to solve healthcare and other challenges at home and abroad. When PULSE volunteers return to GSK, they act as catalysts to change the company for the better.
Since its launch in 2009, the PULSE program has placed nearly 400 employees from 45 countries to serve as volunteers. The program has assisted 85 partners in 57 countries, supporting non-profit and NGO organizations that work on healthcare access and children’s issues.
When she first arrived at NC New Schools, Schindler said, she was uncertain how her 18 years of experience in the healthcare field with GSK would apply to the world of education as pursued by NC New Schools. “But it amazes me how much my consumer business experience and yours overlap,” she said. “You’re helping that student through the work you do; I’m helping that patient.”
Schindler’s consumer-oriented perspective allowed her to ask different questions and propose different solutions from those typically considered by educators generally and NC New Schools specifically.
“My only advice was to use every tool you have in every aspect of your business,” she said.
Schindler said she was impressed by the pace at which NC New Schools executes its work and the willingness and ability of staff to make quick adjustments.
“You implement things very quickly,” she said. “And something you do really well is take on multiple roles, seamlessly. When someone says they need something done, you guys just do it. There’s no push back.”
As for her end of the bargain, Schindler said she picked up a few pointers on adult learning that she’ll be applying in her own presentations to dental professionals. “We’re going to have even more discussions about products and protocols in my dental accounts. Having viewed first hand from NC New Schools, the additional interaction you can have by using more tools to teach the subject matter is invaluable,” she said.
