Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Nelli.
Katie, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I moved to San Diego in 2011 for college, which is only an hour south of where I grew up in Mission Viejo, a suburb of Orange County. When I was in school, I start working as an Office Assistant at the Mission Bay Aquatic Center, which is an instructional watersports facility in Mission Beach. During my four years of working there, I gained so much confidence, so many friendships, and had the opportunity to work with incredibly inspiring people. I was lucky enough to be exposed to a ton of international students studying abroad in San Diego, with the most excitement and energy you could ever imagine to be in a new place.
I would consider that to be my ultimate inspiration to move abroad. Right before I graduated, I saved my spot in a program that promised me a TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) certificate, and three weeks on a Thai island. I ended up finishing the program, teaching English in a Thai high school to over 1,000 students a week, and traveling southeast Asia until I was ready to come home.
Has it been a smooth road?
Honestly, I am fortunate to say I have had a fairly smooth road. I am lucky that my parents have been incredibly supportive of my decisions, although it took some convincing at first. They always knew I would not leave college with a concrete idea of what I wanted to do with my life, and a typical full-time job was not in my near future. I did a lot of research and planning and was very open and honest about where my head was at. I worked multiple jobs while finishing school, and started planning a trip to Thailand that was way out of my comfort zone.
My advice for other women is to make a plan and commit to it, regardless of how much it scares you. I think that the best life lessons I have learned have come from experiences and people I have met along the way. It may take multiple jobs, multiple travel adventures, and multiple bumps in the road to end up where you are meant to be, and there is no rush or a right time to make it there.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into your business story. Tell us more about the business.
I am currently a manager at the Aztec Recreation Center, which is the recreation center for San Diego State University. I manage 50-60 college students who work as frontline staff for three different facilities on campus. I started as a student employee for the same company, and I feel that my time working at the Mission Bay Aquatic Center helped guide me to where I am today. I now have the opportunity to give back and have the same impact on students that my supervisors had on me. I love working with people, and I can’t imagine working in an environment that is not working towards enhancing student and member’s lives.
What do you feel are the biggest barriers today to female leadership, in your industry or generally?
I think that a huge barrier in female leadership is recognizing our voice and how much of an impact it does have in any industry that we work in. We need to be confident in our opinions and decisions in order to better all organizations.
Contact Info:
- Email: katienelli11@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katienelli/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katie.nelli
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