Introducing Our New Program Director
After over 100 applications, 10 serious candidates and 3 interviews, we hired Joann Chen as our first full-time Program Director. Her responsibilities include Child Sponsorship, Transformation Trips and support for other partner development initiatives—including the Zambia poultry farm. Joann started in January, and we are now getting a chance to highlight her to Spark friends and investors.
What is your full name?
Joann Jen Chen. Jen actually comes from a character in my Chinese name that means benevolence, or love of one’s fellow man.
Where were you born?
I was born and raised in Plano, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.
Your family…
My parents were both born in Taiwan. My dad’s side of the family has been in Taiwan for a couple hundred years, but my grandparents on my mom’s side were born in mainland China. They moved to Taiwan because my grandfather was a soldier in the Nationalist army.
One childhood memory…
I lived in Taiwan for a year when I was four, and I spent a lot of time at my paternal grandmother’s home. It was in rural Taiwan, and it had none of the things I was used to from my home in the US. We had to heat water in a pail and use it to take “showers” outdoors, and there were always little lizards crawling on the walls. Living with my grandmother, as well as hearing my dad’s stories about the even deeper poverty of his childhood, instilled in me at a very young age a compulsion to help others. I feel lucky that this compulsion has stayed with me to this day.
Your education…
I went to the University of Chicago, and I majored in Economics and minored in African Studies. Studying at the University is one of the experiences in my life for which I am the most grateful.
Your international volunteer work…
During college, I spent about a month in Togo, a small Francophone country in West Africa. Along with a group of European and Togolese volunteers, I taught at an elementary-level summer school and also gave talks on HIV/AIDS prevention. I had wanted to go to Africa since before I could remember, and this was my first trip to the continent. I realize now that before the trip I still had fairly uninformed notions of Africa, aid and my place in Africa’s development. I like to think that by the end of the trip I had a small but growing understanding of the intelligent, sustainable solutions that can create real change.
What interested you about Spark Ventures?
Pretty much everything! If I had to narrow it down, though, I would say it was the emphasis on impact and sustainability. I had seen, read about and studied so many organizations that, despite the best of intentions, were incapable of producing real and lasting change because there was at the core no thought to long-term solutions. Spark was on the opposite end of this spectrum, focusing on accountability and sustainable impact. I can’t even describe my excitement at the thought that I might be a part of this intelligent, informed and passionate work.
3 highlights in your first 4 months on the job…
This is such a hard question. These first four month have already been filled with so many life-changing experiences.
I think the most powerful experience I’ve had so far was meeting Steward Chileshe, a 14-year-old student at Hope Community School whose father died and whose mother committed suicide, leaving him to take care of his four younger siblings, including his youngest sister, Grace, who is only one year old. I keep Steward’s picture on my desk because nothing motivates me more than thinking about his strength and resilience.
The most exciting experience I’ve had is helping to define further and shape the implementation of the third step in our Partnership Model, Sustain. I cannot wait to see our model help Hope Ministries and our future partners to become self-sustaining engines of development and growth in their communities, and I am proud to have contributed what I can to that process.
The most inspiring experience I’ve had is
talking to Teacher Ng’oma, the Headteacher of Hope Community School, during our trip in February. Talking to him and seeing his passion and commitment made me so hopeful for the future of the children in Ndola because it is the leadership and work of people like Teacher Ng’oma that will really transform Africa.
What excites you about Spark’s future?
In terms of tangibles, I am incredibly excited about the construction and opening of the poultry farm with Hope Ministries. I have such faith in the staff both at Hope and at Spark and in the work that we have put into ensuring that this will be a revolutionary step for Hope’s ability to provide quality and dependable services to the vulnerable children of Zambia.
In a broader sense, I am constantly excited by the fact that Spark is always learning from its experiences. Spark has already had incredible achievements, and I think our commitment to continuing to learn and grow will make these great feats seem small in comparison to what we have yet to achieve.
