Meet Matt
Rutgers University Dance Marathon planning has been an iterative process over the last 20 years. Each year the Board of Directors along with their Assistant Directors come up with and implement new ideas. Working alongside the Central Planning Team are the Advisors that are always there to help. One of the advisors, Julia Crimi was a previous Director of Volunteer Management for RUDM. In the same position this year, Christine Tully is the Director of Human Resources.
Julia graduated from Rutgers in the class of 2012 with a major in Mathematics and a minor in Sociology. Julia started her post-grad involvement with DM with her job at Hurricane Productions and worked there for about 2 years. Since she was involved with DM during her time at Rutgers, she was able to use her connections to get her current job. She currently works as the Assistant Director for Major Events and Programs, which is responsible for RUDM, Geek Week, Senior Days, Involvement Fair and RUPA. In Major Events and Programs, Julia serves as an Advisor for RUDM and RUPA. Julia is also pursuing her MBA at Rutgers at night.
Christine is currently a senior at Rutgers and double majoring in Human Resource Management (HRM) and Information Technology and Informatics (ITI). After graduating in May, she will be joining Sanofi, a global pharmaceutical company, in their Rotational IT Development Program. Dance Marathon has made a big impact on Christine’s life, she met amazing people that care so much about a great cause. It is definitely an organization everyone should get involved in.
Both Julia and Christine got involved with Dance Marathon their first year at Rutgers. Julia found out about DM in her Biology Lab where someone asked her if she wanted to help kids with cancer. She started off as a captain her first year. The following year, she became the Assistant Director for Volunteer Management and then Director of Volunteer Management for two years. Dance Marathon was a big part of Julia’s college career. On the other hand, Christine had the Dance Marathon spirit in her family before she even came to Rutgers. Her sister served as a director at Penn State’s THON, so she knew she wanted to be at a school that was involved with Dance Marathon. Although she was nervous during her first semester about getting involved with DM, she applied for a captain position after joining her sorority, Sigma Delta Tau. After having an amazing experience as a captain, she got more involved by applying for Assistant Director and then eventually a Director of Human Resources this year.
Seeing Dance Marathon grow throughout the years has been a great experience for Julia. The first year she was involved, there were about 300 dancers. Everything was low-tech and tracking fundraising was done using Microsoft Access. For RUDM 2011, the organization first converted to using an online database called DonorDrive. She has seen students come in with fresh new ideas and execute them to make the marathon what it is today.
Christine loves having Julia as her advisor this year. Julia has become more than an advisor to her, she is a friend to text and hangout with. Since Julia was in the same position during her time as a part of the Central Planning Team, she is able to serve as a second brain to help with hard decisions and new ideas. Julia also knows that team bonding is an essential part of the organization, she always checks in on the culture of the organization and encourages people to have fun and make memories. Julia always make a point to have fun in addition to doing work. She has made lifelong friends from her involvement in DM and she wants to see the same for everyone else. Julia has scored the golden dream being able to work for an organization that she holds near and dear to her heart.
As DM weekend is approaching, Julia and Christine are excited to see everyone’s ideas and hard work come together. The energy during that week is like nothing else, it’s almost like a holiday when everyone is busy and the hype for the weekend is building up. In the future, Julia and Christine are looking forward to continue seeing DM grow. The biggest thing they would love to see is even more improvement in the experiences for everyone getting involved with DM, no matter how involved they are.
Related posts
