Nitita Pongsanarakul

Upon graduating high school, I thought business school was the smart and safe career choice since I grew up with parents who owned a restaurant, and I had to work there as soon as I could reach the cash register! I graduated from Bentley University with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and International Studies minor. After graduation, I spent two years sitting in a cubicle crunching numbers. One day I thought to myself, “Is this really what I want to be doing for the rest of my life?” And it clearly wasn’t.

I left my first job to teach English as a Second Language to elementary students in Thailand for a year. It was easily the scariest and best decision of my life. It was such a fulfilling learning experience, and I wanted more of it. I returned to the U.S. determined to find a job in the education or non-profit sector. Without much of an education background aside from a year of teaching abroad, I got my foot through the door by becoming an AmeriCorps servicemember for a non-profit organization that teaches entrepreneurship to low-income high school students. Since then, I have spent the last 10 years dedicating myself to serving students and communities across various sectors, specifically through the use of data and technology, to which I attribute my foundational skills and training from my background in business! I am a Salesforce Certified Administrator and plan to become a Salesforce Certified Non-Profit Cloud Consultant in the near future. I’m excited to be leading NAF’s Salesforce implementation to improve relationship management and coordination across departments, academies, and stakeholders and ultimately improve services and experiences for NAF students and alumni.