Meet Sharon Wasko!
Sharon Wasko is GCSEN's Director of IMCSSDD- Integrated Marketing, Communication, Sales, Sponsorship, Database and Development. She has been with GCSEN since 2018 when she began work as the graphic designer on our book featured in Google News, Get to WOW! Exploring Your Inner Social Entrepreneur, shortly after finishing her classes in the SUNY Ulster Graphic Design Program.
Graphic design is a new career for Sharon, a mom of two who moved to Rosendale from Philadelphia, PA with her partner Mike Erwin, a social worker, in 2013. In Philly, she ran a pet-sitting business, her first entrepreneurial venture. Now, running her own freelance design business, she says, "Working at GCSEN has taught me a lot about what it takes to keep a venture going. It's not just about having a skill or a great idea. Funding is essential, and among other things, GCSEN helps people figure out where the cash flow and money for self-financed growth comes from, as well as debt and equity and where it needs to go."
Since Get to Wow!, Sharon has designed many impactful and beautiful pieces of print media for GCSEN, including a recent white paper that received praise from Jesuit Business Schools Deans from around the world at the IAJBS Conference in Washington, DC.
Below, the panel presenters with the large banner that Sharon designed/made to accompany and advertise the white paper presentation:
In her role as Director of IMCSSD, Sharon wears many hats, working on not only graphic design projects, but communication with prospective donors and client data, keeping track of endorsements, and website organization and improvements. She also provides creative and editorial leadership for GCSEN blog entries, the basis for future GCSEN Podcasts and sends out our GCSEN News via our MailChimp platform.
The highly impactful "GCSEN Histogram" we created and sent out last year as part of our successful $100,000 Sobrato Challenge Matching Grant end of year appeal:
Sharon is excited about finding a place at GCSEN. "I love the idea of using entrepreneurship to improve the world! I get really worried about the world my kids are going to inherit, but when I hear about the projects that GCSEN students and graduates are pursuing, it makes me feel better. There is reason to hope in GCSEN 4P Social Entrepreneurs. At GCSEN, there are people working so passionately on the projects that will really help- with the environment, with the economy- especially local economy, with mental and civic health, with bringing people together for positive change and increasing rates of peace and prosperity."
Some of Sharon's other design projects for GCSEN include a revamp of the GCSEN logo, including the graphic that incorporates our logo with our 4P Values. You can read more about the logo project at her website, here.
