My "Top 5" of 2020

Let's be honest. 2020 was not the year any of us planned for, but it happened. I haven't done a "best of the year" post in several years, but in my opinion, this is the year to do it. Personally, the initial months of the pandemic were slightly terrifying and the whole series of months has been isolating. What better of a moment to celebrate the good and the wins of the year than now? Here are my personal "top 5" best things of 2020:

1. Traveling with students.

Especially given the state of the world right now, I have been looking back to January and February 2020 fondly. In January, I was able to show 16 students the beauty of Germany. I spent a year living in Berlin and Munich five years ago, and it was incredibly rewarding to bring my students to visit some of my old stomping grounds. Guiding a study abroad trip was both stressful and wonderful at the same time. Thankfully, it was a great group, and it was personally rewarding to see how far I had come in my career since I was last there.

For Spring 2020, we had SO MUCH planned: going to North Carolina twice for student events, doing a Baltimore day trip, and going to Scotland for the Clinton Global Initiative University event.

Then, 2020 happened. Thankfully, 1.5 weeks before everything shut down, I got to go to the Elon Innovation Challenge with five of my students. I gave them the ability to pick what we did the night before the challenge. We ate cheesecake and watched a standup show. They won third place and top external team. I was very proud of them, and I am so grateful we had this time together.

2. Finding new pandemic friends and hobbies.

Who knew signing up for a place in a podcasting course would yield so much! In summer 2019, I used my first summer "off" in my career to take a painting class. When the shutdowns started happening in 2020, I was really trying to figure out what to do during the summer that would tap into the same carefree, creative energy of the painting class.

As a Bosch program alumna, I received an email that there was an opportunity to be a part of a selective, six-week-long podcasting class. I applied, got selected, and became a part of an international cohort of 20 professionals who were interested in producing a pilot episode. I had a great group and experience in the course, but I did not think too much about podcasting regularly beyond that point.

One month after the podcasting class ended, one of the course's organizers and experts reached out offering to connect me to a group who had just gotten started with a concept of interviewing individuals from different countries to hear how their lives shifted throughout the pandemic. The podcast, Record of Change (RoC) is now a significant part of my week. All of the hosts and producers live in different countries and time zones, and we meet once a week at 8 am ET. Over the months, they have become a great group of friends, and we have already seen each other through moves, a birth, and job losses and transitions.

Now, approaching the end of Season 2, through my role as a host and producer, I have two of my own interview episodes (S01-E08, S02-E08) and two end-of-season team episodes (S01-E09, S02-E09) available, and our podcast has had over 3,000 listens and downloads since its launch only four months ago. We secured baseline funding for the production for a total of five seasons, but we are hoping to be able to add additional episodes, content, or seasons beyond this...so we have a Patreon page for subscribers who want to help support us in continuing this work.

There's more to come in 2021 with both RoC and another forthcoming podcast project, so stay tuned!

3. Receiving accolades, both in person and virtually.

In the first few days of 2020, the year started with an unexpected win. I was able to secure a third-place win for the USASBE 3E Competitive Experiential Learning Exercise, "Breaking down entrepreneurial stereotypes: Exposing students’ assumptions of what it means to be an entrepreneur" on behalf of my co-authors, Karen and Mats.

Then, fast forward to October, a month with three notifications that were each awarding in their own way. First, I was notified that I had been nominated for an Excellence in Teaching Award at the University of Delaware. It was nice to hear that my students nominated me. I put a lot of time into my work, and admittedly, it can feel draining and thankless within a virtual environment. Getting that nomination notification gave me a renewed sense of energy for my teaching that helped push me through the mid-semester slump.

Second, my co-author, Maria, and I won the Best Ethics Case Award for our paper, "Go Baby Go: Scaling a Social Movement around Mobility" at the 2020 North American Case Research Association (NACRA) Annual Conference. That was the happiest moment I've had at a virtual conference, hands down (...or in this photo hands up).

Third, I was selected to be a National Board Member of the Social Enterprise Alliance. Since becoming a board member, I have been serving on three committees (stakeholder, fundraising, and advocacy/policy/education).

A big "team win" in that role has been our ability to meet our fundraising goal for the SEA 3.0 campaign, which is helping support SEA's new direction. Thank you to all of you who supported this campaign (and me as a new board member)! Now, I spend an average of three hours a week on SEA calls, so the group has quickly become a family of common values, which is greatly appreciated in such an isolated time.

4. Keeping my 2020 New Year's Resolution.

2020 was an odd year in so many ways, but one of its highlights has been that I was able to keep a promise I made to myself in late December 2019: not to buy new clothing, shoes, or accessories and to limit purchases of these items overall for one year. I went 8.5 months without buying anything at all in these categories and only started buying secondhand items in the last few months of 2020. It was a great way to reconnect with my younger roots of loving thrift shopping and the culture around it.

I made a video diary about this, in part because I had to do some test audio and video for a forthcoming project, but also to show a bit about this new orientation and hobby. My favorite website for online thrift shopping has been Shop Goodwill. Feel free to try it out, unless you are bidding against me...then, maybe, don't try online thrifting? Find a different hobby, website, or at least, item. :)

5. Appreciating what is good.

I think this sentiment is shared with many, but the best part of 2020 has been recentering on what is good in my life. During the first three months of the pandemic, I kept a gratitude journal to remind myself of what I was thankful for and to train myself to noticethe small things that "made" the day. By the middle of June, the habit tapered off because I was naturally thinking that way. I was finding the positive aspects and opportunities hidden within the chaos, and I hope to continue that orientation as best I can in the coming year. (Also, the picture of the rainbow above was taken on a walk in my neighborhood this past summer. Cool, right?)

For 2021, I have a few things in the pipeline that are looking promising and exciting, and I will share them as they come to the surface. Otherwise, I am just hoping we all stay healthy and sane because that above all else is what really matters.

Thank you for reading! What were your top 5 of 2020? What are you looking forward to in 2021? What do you want to change for 2021?