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by Allison Carr, '06
The transition from stay-at-home mom to full-time employee is not always an easy one. But Kristine Ruggles, '03, has found her passion as the volunteer coordinator at Spokane's Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery, and she credits Whitworth's Organizational
Management Program with giving her the foundation she needed to be successful.
When her first child reached seventh grade, Ruggles started thinking about going back to school. She says, "I loved working and having a career, but I didn't want to go back to the corporate world." As a mother she had become very involved in the community. "I just realized that I would like to take my business skills and use them in the nonprofit sector," she says. She enrolled in the Organizational Management Program at Whitworth, and she was on her way.
Taking classes at night, along with all her other commitments, was difficult for Ruggles, but in the OM program she says she found "so much reward, so much camaraderie," as she connected with other nontraditional students in similar situations.
When she graduated, Ruggles began helping her husband with his business. Then she met the chapter executive of the Spokane chapter of the Red Cross at a leadership breakfast sponsored by Whitworth, Gonzaga and Leadership Spokane. Ruggles took an unpaid position as volunteer coordinator at the Red Cross, and, after three months, she was put on staff. When she began looking for a full-time position, she found it at the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery, where she began as volunteer coordinator last July.
The nursery was founded by a group of Spokane businesspeople in honor of Vanessa Behan, a child who died at the hands of her parents. The nursery is completely funded by the Spokane community. "Our mission is to provide emergency respite care for children who are at risk for neglect or abuse and to provide support for families," Ruggles says. In her role, Ruggles trains volunteers, speaks in the community, and coordinates the efforts of caregivers, social workers and volunteers. She is an administrative staff member, but is still able to interact with program staff and the people of the Spokane community. "I believe I have found that good fit and that passion, and I feel very fortunate," Ruggles says.
Whitworth helped Ruggles to look at business principles in a different way. "My degree gave me public-speaking skills, the ability to problem-solve, and the ability to really look at an organization from a people perspective," she says. The Whitworth Organizational Management Program also gave her "a lot of confidence," she says, and she has used that confidence, and her business skills, to prepare for a job in which she can reach out to people in need – a job that is helping her to fulfill her purpose in life.
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Alumna trains crisis
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