Career Talk podcasts debut with M.A.O.L. grad Essraa Nawar

A new subseries of Brandman University podcasts, Brandman Speaks: Career Talk, launches with Master of Arts in organizational leadership (M.A.O.L.) graduate Essraa Nawar talking about how she got her job as coordinator of development at Chapman University's Leatherby Libraries, her longterm career goals and what she loves about working at an academic library. Those libraries also support the students at Brandman (Inside Brandman: Virtual library provides instant access). Nawar grew up in Egypt and worked in a number of positions. Her M.A.O.L. degree helped her move up to her current job. Also on this podcast, Katy Curameng, director Career Services, talks about the purpose of the podcast series. Transcript Welcome to Brandman Speaks. I’m Cindy O’Dell, communications manager at Brandman, University. This is the first a new series of podcasts focusing on the careers of Brandman alumni. Katy Curameng, director of Career Services, explains the purpose of the Career Talk podcast. Katy Curameng: Many students come to Brandman University while also working full time. Often their reasons for turning to higher education are to help them find a path to a new career or to advance in the career their current career. We hope that by sharing how Brandman graduates utilize their degrees in forming their career trajectory current students will find guidance and inspiration in the development of their own career paths. O’Dell: Recent Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership graduate Essraa Nawar is the coordinator of development at Chapman University’s Leatherby Libraries. She’s also a blogger, has contributed articles to the Huffington Post and Orange County Register and recently talked about overcoming stereotypes in a TEDx talk in Munich, Germany. We wanted to know more about her career path. Essraa Nawar: It's quite interesting because I've had three jobs so far since I graduated from college. I started as a data entry specialist at the embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington D.C. and that was right after I moved from Egypt to Washington D.C. and Virginia. My husband was doing his Ph.D. at George Mason University, and I was kind of looking for a job and because I am bilingual they wanted somebody who speaks Arabic and English fluently and be able to do some data entry in both languages. So I kind of picked that job and it was really fun and great to be around the diplomats and great people and really it was a great experience just being in the D.C. area, living in that metropolitan area lots of experiences and lots of fun. So then later when we moved back to Egypt, between 2005 to 2009, I worked as the head of Gifts and Acquisitions for the Library of Alexandria. And this is where I fell in love with libraries and I decided at that point that I have to complete my career – libraries will be, you know, the career that I would pick for myself. Not necessarily a librarian at that point but working in libraries. But then when my husband got an offer to join the Chapman faculty in 2008, we moved with him and I started my work in the Leatherby Libraries ay Chapman O’Dell: Initially, there weren’t any openings at the library, so she began as a volunteer. Nawar: They gave me a temp project where I worked at the basement of the library for about a year and then later they offered me a job as the assistant to the dean for Communications and Marketing. Then a couple of years later, because of my degree here Brandman, I got promoted to be the coordinator of development and have and I have my own team that I supervise, really focused on marketing and events and I focus on donor relations and fundraising. O'Dell: We wanted to know what attracted her to library work. Nawar: Working for the Library of Alexandria opened a lot of doors for me and really made me fall in love with libraries.