Who helms Central Penn scholarship fundraising?
Meet Sandra Box
By Gabryelle Breski
Knightly News Reporter
gabryelle.breski@mymail.centralpenn.edu
Throughout the summer term, I had the opportunity to work with Sandra Box, director of development for the Central Penn College Education Foundation.
Photo by Gabryelle Breski
As I finished my internship, I asked Box about how she got to Central Penn and became director of the education foundation.
The education foundation is the organization that raises funds for Central Penn student scholarships and student experiences on campus. Through my internship, I gained incite to and a greater appreciation of the foundation, and of what Box has been able to do for my peers.
Where did she get her start in nonprofit organizations?
Box began working with nonprofit organizations at Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Foundation, which accredits Pennsylvania hospitals as trauma centers. Hospitals must maintain specific requirements to be considered trauma centers.
After that first foundation, Box, or Sandy, as many people know her, began working at Harrisburg Area Community College for that school’s education foundation. She spent 10 years there as a donor specialist. She came to Central Penn in September 2011 as associate director of the education foundation and was named director in 2018.
As she does at Central Penn, she worked at HACC to assist students in their education.
Best advice for seeking a career?
“If you can find something that you are good at and something that you love, and combine those two things into a career, you will never feel like you worked a day in your life. We work for a long time, but if you enjoy what it is that you do, then you don’t get bored or you don’t get tired, or you don’t get as frustrated. The last thing you want to do is wake up on a Monday morning and go, ‘Ugh, I have to go to work.’ You don’t want to be that way. Find something that lights your fire.”
Box looks at her work as, “Oh, what am I going to do today that’s going to help someone else?”
She looks at her job as asking others for money to further someone’s educational journey.
What made her choose higher education?
She took the job at HACC and learned as her career grew. She saw students’ reaction to receiving scholarships and those reactions “fueled her fire.” Box came to Central Penn to cut back a step by working three days a week.
Advice for students finishing college courses
Box said that opportunities can lead to life lessons or possibilities, whether they are in a career or a volunteer role.
“You don’t know who you might meet,” she said.
Networking is a large part of growing a career and enriching life. As a student, I’ve met many influential individuals who have guided me on my path in many aspects of life.
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to share what Box does for the college and her journey to here.
The biggest impact on my life has been learning other people’s stories, and what I related above is just one of those stories. I encourage anyone reading to not just know one page of someone’s book, but to read between the lines and understand one another.
Breski is president of The Knightly News Media Club @ Central Penn College.
Comments or story idea? Contact KnightlyEditors@CentralPenn.Edu.
Edited by media-club co-adviser and blog editor Professor Michael Lear-Olimpi.
