Grace Gangitano
Grazia (Grace) is a first-generation Sicilian. She came here from Sicily and helped her parents acclimate while she navigated herself through undergraduate, graduate, and then her Ph.D. She is an amazing mentor to students and her supervision skills are impeccable. She has wanted to start a podcast for years and give back to help others learn from her expertise as well as her struggles throughout the world of work and life!
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Sarah Vandermark
Sarah is a first-generation Jersey Girl. With her undergrad in PA, then masters in Boston (which she stayed for 6 years) and then a short stint in Southern Utah, Sarah decided to come back to her Jersey/NYC roots! Achieving her PhD in 2014, she thought she would be ‘respected’ and realized how much the right supervisor and environment really truly mattered. Not wanting to ‘climb the ladder’ any longer, she chose to follow her passion and start a non-profit for first-generation and students of color to go to college for free. She then thought, this journey has been rough and we need to talk about this so others can learn and create a voice and space for women in their careers and in higher education.
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Sarah & Grace met at NJIT in Newark, NJ. Sarah was an academic advisor full-time and juggling a full-time PhD program. She had the VP of Student Affairs, Charlie Fey, believe in her and promoted her to a Director role. During that year, Sarah met and learned about Grace’s work ethic. Sarah loves writing proposals and wrote up becoming an Executive Director overseeing orientation, disability services, testing, undecided academic advising and had Grace as her new Director. Charlie, who understood women leadership, said yes to this proposal and Sarah and Grace have been complimenting each other ever since. Sarah the visionary and Grace the implementer, the doer and the memory!! Thank you for joining us on this journey of life!