Building on his previous efforts to promote civil discourse and civic engagement on his campus throughout his freshman year, Jason wanted to branch out to expand his impact on a national level. He discovered Project Pericles, and reached out to explore how he could best contribute to our campus-spanning efforts.
“What brought [me] to Project Pericles was the mission of the organization, [and] their dedication to civic engagement and democracy in higher ed space[s]. But what made me… stay at Project Pericles is the fact that the whole team really values my opinion and perspective,” he says. “They assign me tasks that are directly relevant both to the organization and to my own personal and professional interests and sort of areas of career development… We’re close and I really enjoy being able to have robust discussions with everyone.”
Jason advances Project Pericles’ work on many fronts, supporting everything from administration to communications. He is an ace with data-oriented tasks, including tracking and evaluating Pericles’ programming and managing the organization’s databases, such as the Civic Engagement Resource Database. He also supports Pericles’ development efforts through grantwriting, funder prospecting, and researching potential partnerships with other organizations in the civic engagement and higher education space.
Over the past year, Jason has accelerated Project Pericles’ efficiency by helping to establish, build out, and update systems and infrastructure for many of the team’s processes. By lessening the team’s need to spend time on repetitive tasks, he bolsters productivity and frees up time and focus for longer-term projects.
Having a direct and tangible impact on the organization’s direction and operation excites Jason the most. Some of his most memorable moments include representing Project Pericles at the Gulf-South Summit, meeting with Periclean Faculty Leaders and other faculty grantees, and supporting Project Pericles’ 3-Day Program Directors Conference at Swarthmore College last October. Over the last several months, Jason’s insights, contributions, and perspectives have also helped mold Pericles’ new Strategic Plan to carry Project Pericles’ past years of success into the future.
Project Pericles is very fortunate to have Jason Vadnos as a contributor as is the broader civic sector.