Peninsula Academic Program Manager Sarah Bloem with a BUILD student.

Staff Spotlight on Sarah Bloem

For about the past two years, I have been privileged to be the Academic Program Manager for the BUILD Peninsula site. I moved out to the Bay Area from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) where I finished my Master of Social Work degree in Leadership, Advocacy, and Social Change. In this degree, I specifically focused on public policy, nonprofit management, social entrepreneurship, and advocacy for historically underrepresented and under-resourced populations. In addition to my class work and research, I also worked for a residential treatment center counseling the high school girls there while, at the same time, working for the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership at UIUC. The accomplishment I am most proud of at the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership is laying the foundation for Entrepreneurs Without Borders, a student-centered organization that utilizes faculty experts and entrepreneurs to guide students in helping communities worldwide solve social issues through entrepreneurship. I also had the privilege of co-leading a workshop in the first annual Social Entrepreneurship Summer Institute supporting local nonprofit leaders in Urbana-Champaign offered by UIUC’s College of Business and the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership.

To BUILD, I bring not only enthusiasm about entrepreneurship (in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors) being an exceptional vehicle for social change, but also a strong desire to get BUILD’s high school students into four-year universities. I came to BUILD because I wanted to get direct experience working with a cutting-edge, award-winning social venture that gives high school students real-world entrepreneurial experience with the ultimate goal of getting them to college.

I have fallen absolutely in love with BUILD’s mission and, above all, the unique students I get to work with! I work with the students in the second and third years of the program, preparing them to be eligible and apply for college after high school. My favorite part of the job is building relationships with the students and their families. It is the quality of these relationships that then enables me to push the students to work harder in school, make sure that they are getting into the college-prep classes they need, and help them realize how valuable and uniquely gifted they are for contributing great things to society through college. My hopes for all of the students are that they leave BUILD embodying professionalism, initiative, passion, and commitment to succeeding in college and beyond in their careers and personal lives.