Today we’d like to introduce you to Selena Bennett.
Hi Selena, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am a retired educator with thirty years of classroom and school counseling experience. I have taught grades 4-11, mostly language arts and social studies. I have also worked as an elementary counselor and a middle school counselor. I retired in June 2011, knowing that I was not going to stay retired for long. I wanted to continue to work in some capacity. The job as executive director of what was Communities In Schools of Wayne County opened up in October 2011. A board member reached out to see if I was interested in interviewing for the position. I had never had any experience in non-profit work, but fell in love with it- the challenges and the rewards. I worked closely with Communities in Schools of North Carolina who assigned a consultant to work with me. CISNC was going through some major changes, so our board made the decision in 2017 to pull out of the CIS network. Our new agency, Communities Supporting Schools of Wayne County was launched on July 1, 2017. Modeled after the best practices that we had learned from CISNC, CSS moved forward with its own model. This allowed our agency to expand the work that it was doing – both in the schools and the work in Restorative Justice. Fundraising had to expand, which meant more grants, more work, and lots more energy for the job! CSS is now an agency with 15 staff members- and we could use several more positions. We have just helped to renovate a new office in downtown Goldsboro, which we hope to purchase one day. CSS has staff in 10 schools offering additional support from everything to reading programs in 4 elementary schools, to mentoring at the middle school level. In the two high schools where we serve, the focus is on helping students to graduate by working through whatever challenges they might face. The mission of Communities Supporting Schools of Wayne County is to provide opportunities for students to stay in school, graduate, and be successful in life.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has definitely NOT been smooth! Nonprofit work is a challenge on a good day. However, the rewards are tremendous. I love the opportunity of finding new grants, of remaining involved in education, and seeing student success. While we do keep data, the successes that we see do not always happen immediately. When a student returns to tell us what our program has meant to them, that they went on to graduate, that they are going to college or joining the military- that is success!
Finding grants and fundraising in a community where everyone is looking for the same funding is definitely NOT easy. Finding board members who remain dedicated is another challenge. Fortunately, CSS has a great board of fifteen members- all dedicated and willing to work.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am still an educator at heart- and always will be. I l0ved the classroom- getting to know my students, finding out how to help them become interested in learning, and seeing growth in my students. Being the executive director of a nonprofit allows me to still work with students, but through an entire community. I love building partnerships, reaching out to the faith-based community, to other organizations, and finding opportunities to better our organization. I think that my strengths are in finding the BEST people to work with in our programs and in forming relationships within the community. I have learned to be a grant writer and to find them! (And would love to find the money to hire a resource development director to handle all of this and the fundraising.)
I will never learn everything that I need to, but I am now in my fourteenth year of this work. I do not have plans to retire anytime soon because this agency has grown so much- and we have so much more to do!
How do you think about luck?
I believe that I have been most fortunate to have had two careers that I have been passionate about. You can say that it is good luck, but it has also been all about hard work, dedication to a cause, and the faith that I have that keeps me going. I have a supportive family and great friends and colleagues. Nothing has been accomplished alone in this work. My team is the best!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.waynecss.org
- Facebook: Communities Supporting Schools/Facebook
