Transcript

Colin Uthe:

Welcome to Connected, a podcast about the operations and the people that make up Chamberlain Group. As I stated nearly 20 times before, we're a transforming company, and there's a lot to be done around here. Employees working to launch multiple products or programs in tandem with each other is not an unusual sight. We are a fast-paced, heavy-hitting organization. But despite all of this, many of our employees manage to take time out of their working days to give back and to pitch in on community charities, cleanups, mentorships, and much more. With me this month is a very modest but highly accomplished Brian Hugins, who plays a role in coordinating help from our ONETEAM on many of these service opportunities.

Brian Hugins:

Hi, I'm Brian Hugins, senior analyst of social media communications.

Colin Uthe:

All right. Now break that title down for me a little bit, because I know you don't just do social communications.

Brian Hugins:

Well, yes. In my almost five years here at the organization, I've worn many hats. But the two that have stuck have been social media and community relations. Community relations is not part of social media. However, it has been part of my job here at Chamberlain Group and something that I've cherished and I appreciate doing, so it's something that has continued. And of course, I don't do it alone. I need the help of others, but that's the part of it that's carried on.

Colin Uthe:

Fantastic. And when you came along, this was pretty well-established. But you have amplified this to a greater level than we've seen before, so much so that Blackstone, our parent company, has recognized us and given us the opportunity to showcase why our community efforts have been so successful.

Brian Hugins:

Well, that's awfully nice of you. Yes, we have had a long-standing community relationship programming. However, it is different from five years ago. It has to do with the strategy that we've gone along. And when I started, it was more about financial giving to a small group of charities for actual funds, but now we're more about investing our people time. We want to invest our hours and get the most that we can out of how we invest our time. And I'd say that's the main difference and the shape of which the program has taken.

Colin Uthe:

Nice. I hope you feel proud of that. That's not just nothing.

Brian Hugins:

Thank you.

Colin Uthe:

That's getting up on a pedestal in front of a lot of very valuable organizations and teaching them how they can better serve their community. So I hope you feel accomplished there.

Brian Hugins:

Well, I do. It's hard for me to pat myself on the back, but I take the compliment in stride.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah, you and I have that in common. Never allowed to just take the win. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about our strategy. Why are we good at this?

Brian Hugins:

So yeah, so that's a great question. So our approach to volunteerism here at Chamberlain Group is a four-pronged approach. Something that it's not, we don't try to make it too rigid because we want it to be employee-driven. That's one of the main things that we pride ourselves on is that this is an employee-driven program. Employees are encouraged to recommend organizations, which has been done and in the past, and which is how we've created the stable of great events and organizations that we work with today. A great example of an individual employee that has brought their passion to the table is one of our employees, Brian Capo, who had a very special relationship with a group called Marklund Charities, who house and serve really anyone with adaptive or special needs.

There's a wonderful organization that Brian had been a part of for many years, and he really saw an opportunity to bring more people into the fold and realized that they needed the help, and that even our people needed the help of understanding what Marklund was about and what those realities were. And so we've been fortunate enough to plan a few great outings with them at the Brookfield Zoo, which has been a wonderful opportunity for the people of Marklund to get out and about, which they normally don't do, and for our ONETEAMers to really understand what it's like to care and help for others that really need the help.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah. I personally helped out one of those days at the zoo with the Marklund crew and it was a good time.

Brian Hugins:

Heck yeah. I'm glad.

Colin Uthe:

Can't have a bad time at the zoo.

Brian Hugins:

It's pretty hard.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah.

Brian Hugins:

It's a great time for everyone. Additionally, the fact that the opening doors, we call it our opening doors programming, is tied to our purpose and vision because, essentially, we make access simple. And what we're doing out in the community is making access to essential needs and other things that people in need are needing and we're providing to them. So it's a great flow from our business to the community. One of the probably longest-standing charitable giving pieces or parts of our organization has been the Juntos Ayudamos Más program in Nogales, Mexico, which is 100% employee-driven, where its employees actually helping other employees. People are raising money to help others in need when they come up in times of crisis. And that's been going on now for I believe 20 years, which is a very, very special program to our company and Nogales.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah, benefiting families of those employees as well. So-

Brian Hugins:

Absolutely.

Colin Uthe:

... any sort of hardships, housing, healthcare, just basic needs being met.

Brian Hugins:

Basic needs, and absolutely, taking care of what people need when they need it. Thirdly, the piece about how, again, I preface that I'm here in Oak Brook and we do a lot of great, great work here at headquarters.

Colin Uthe:

But it's not our only building.

Brian Hugins:

It is not our only building. And so it is central to our mission of Chamberlain Group of making access simple and helping our communities that we work and live in. And that's important to recognize that it's happening all throughout the globe, all throughout our different office locations, Mexico, Australia, Wisconsin, you name it. We're helping out the community in those locales. For instance, in our Australia offices, they have worked with their local Habitat for Humanity. In Australia, it's a little bit different. Here, we do builds a lot of the time, new home builds, remodels. There, they do a lot of helping people in need that maybe already have a home that need their home cleaned up or organized or just aren't able to care for themselves all the time. And our systems location in Germantown, Wisconsin, they've got a great ongoing relationship with a local homeless shelter where they do many collections for essential needs over the course of the year and have a giving event each year to the local homeless shelter.

And finally ending up, we've got a handful of organizations that we deal with because we want to have deep, meaningful relationships with those organizations. We don't want to just do things just to check a box. We want to make sure that we're doing right by those people and organizations that we are helping. And that's one way that we've gotten really involved with the Chicago Scholars, a group that our business resource group, the POCA, People of Color and Allies, they did a wonderful job of engaging some mentorship opportunities with Chicago Scholars, who help underserved high school kids get access to funding for college or just get into college. So we've really done some great work with them, some deep, meaningful work with them where our employees have helped and mentored their students to make the transition from high school into college, making essays, helping them with interviews, really just giving them the tools that they need to take it to the next level in college.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah. And I think there's been some mutual benefit there because I believe in the past POCA has invited leaders from Chicago Scholars' program to come speak at Chamberlain Group to attendees of the BRG-sponsored events, talk about why they're succeeding in what they're doing, but also creating that networking opportunities to get people involved on their own time.

Brian Hugins:

That's a great example of how, yes, the symbiotic relationship of our work with charitable organizations has helped our ONETEAM. It's not just us helping them, it's them helping us, really, them showing us the realities of what's going on out there and learn from it and be better people for it. And also, like you say, create some really neat networking opportunities in places that we might not have had before.

Colin Uthe:

Now, Brian, I know that not only do you have a hand in coordinating a lot of this, but you're also there when it's time to help out at a lot of these charities. And I know that you are a boots on the ground type. You walk the walk. And I understand that you maintain a pretty close relationship with the people that you frequently see out at a lot of these outings.

Brian Hugins:

Yeah. That's another part that's a privilege and an honor is to be able to be there and to be doing the great work that our ONETEAMers are doing as well. And yes, really, it's hard to put into words, but it is very rewarding once you've done an event. I mean, that's all I that's can say is-

Colin Uthe:

Yeah.

Brian Hugins:

... it's super rewarding. And I've seen that across the board in lots of people who come out to these volunteer events. And some folks really get a charge out of it and come to more than just one, and that's great to see as well.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah. I've managed to sit down and talk with a couple of employees who have played a big hand in the amount of time that they've been with the company-

Brian Hugins:

Awesome.

Colin Uthe:

... by participating in a lot of these events.

Jennifer Hirschorn:

Hi, I am Jennifer Hirschorn. I am the university relations program manager here at Chamberlain Group. So I have had the opportunity to volunteer for two of our Habitat for Humanity builds so far. I have my third coming up here soon.

Colin Uthe:

And you haven't been here that long, right? You've only been here a little over a year, right?

Jennifer Hirschorn:

Correct, 15 months. And then I also have helped out with St. James, where we volunteer, and different local schools and groups that have students or young adults that are special needs come in. We put on programming for them so that they can get out in the fresh air and have a great day outdoors.

Hamin Tien:

I'm Hamin Tien. I'm a senior firmware engineer at Chamberlain. I've been with Chamberlain over 22 years. I try to do at least two a year. I like doing the Earth Day. St. James Farm is where we've gone mostly for the Earth Day events, and they need volunteer work to help get ready for the summer and clean things up, especially after winter. And also, in the fall time when the leaves fall and they need to cut back on brush. There was Feeding America, it's volunteering work at the Geneva Food Bank. All the food that we package goes out to the various food pantries.

Colin Uthe:

What do you get from participating in this? At the end of the day, how do you feel after wrapping up a literal hard day's work?

Hamin Tien:

The reason why I do it is I feel good helping people out. Second of all, it gets you out of the office and gets you physically active.

Jennifer Hirschorn:

I find that these events are extremely fulfilling, as they're a great way to feel like not only you're giving back in a broad sense, but that we're really giving back to our local community here. It's really rewarding to feel like you're making a difference, especially in your own community.

Hamin Tien:

No, yeah. I drive by and say, "Hey, we did that work."

Colin Uthe:

Oh, very cool.

Hamin Tien:

It feels good.

Jennifer Hirschorn:

It's exciting not only for me to personally get fulfillment from these events, but to also see our interns and co-ops get to participate in these events and give back as well. I have been able to watch all of our interns, their final presentations talk about their highlights of their entire intern program. And several of our interns, their highlight was actually our Habitat for Humanity build that we did specifically for them this summer. So it was really cool for them to get to not only bond with each other and spend that time outdoors working together when they're often in different departments working on their projects, but also an opportunity for them to feel like they're giving back as well and making a difference.

Colin Uthe:

Have you had the chance to communicate with other Chamberlain Group employees, other ONETEAMers that you may not have the opportunity to really interact with in the office?

Jennifer Hirschorn:

Absolutely. And funny enough, there have been a few times where I've met someone at one of these events, our paths had not crossed before, and then our paths end up crossing at work and we already have that initial foundation of getting to know each other outside of the office through volunteering. So it's not only a great way to create new relationships, but also strengthen relationships, sometimes even before they've become true work relationships.

Colin Uthe:

Tell me what's recently come out of the Opening Doors program and what's to come that you're really proud of showing off.

Brian Hugins:

Yes. So really exciting that we just did for the first time ever, the Cradles to Crayons Giving Factory came to our work. Cradles to Crayons is one of our giving partners, volunteer partners whose mission is to provide essential needs to underserved Chicagoland schoolchildren. They have the Giving Factory in Chicago that many of our ONETEAMers have been to for MLK Day of Service the last three years. But for the first time ever, we were able to donate to the backpack-a-thon for Cradles to Crayons and were able to bring the Giving Factory to Oak Brook. And we were packing 1,500 backpacks-

Colin Uthe:

Oh my God.

Brian Hugins:

... in just a very short time of a couple sessions here in Oak Brook with some of our great volunteers.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah. When you get that many people involved, it just flies right by, doesn't it?

Brian Hugins:

Yeah. And crazy to say, our 1,500 backpacks was only a drop in the bucket to the 105,000 backpacks that were totally packed as part of the larger backpack-a-thon that Cradles the Crayons Chicago put on.

Colin Uthe:

That's very cool.

Brian Hugins:

So as you can see, we're just one piece of the puzzle to this great effort that's going on in the community. On the very near horizons, got some real exciting programming coming up. October 4th at the St. James Farm Forest Preserve here near Oak Brook headquarters will be the Adaptive Needs Adventure Day. Adaptive Needs Adventure Day is a wonderful day that the Forest Preserve puts on for people with adaptive needs and special needs where they have the Forest Preserve, the police, the fire trucks all come out, set up a big interactive camp, basically, where there's stations for fishing, for archery, exploring, and our favorite is for kayaking. It is amazing. That's also something that we've been fortunate enough to donate some kayaks to this wonderful organization and to this event. But it's just a great chance, again, for people that normally don't have the ability to be outside and enjoy to really do so at a level that you've never seen. And the joy-

Colin Uthe:

Yeah.

Brian Hugins:

... on people's faces is just unreal. Even more exciting will be that the Marklund residents will be participating for the first time ever in this event because of our involvement.

Colin Uthe:

Cool.

Brian Hugins:

So it's a really neat little relationship that we've created and will be even more fun this year than the last couple of years.

Colin Uthe:

And is that available for anybody who wants to help out?

Brian Hugins:

That is available for all ONETEAMers. With the Forest Preserve, it is available for the public to sign up as well. They need volunteers. We show up en masse for these events, so that's huge for event type of programming. But the organizations that we work with, they're in need of volunteers all the time. So I highly recommend if you're listening to this to check those organizations out and give them a hand. So additionally, one of our favorite, we can't play total favorites, but good old Habitat for Humanity. Coming up in the beginning of October as well is the Women's Build, which is a big deal for the Habitat for Humanity organization because that is their biggest time of year for fundraising.

That is where they raise the most amount of funds that they can then use to buy more housing, to buy more things that are needed for their operations. Single women, single mothers specifically, are the biggest tenants of Habitat for Humanity homes. They are the people who are most affected by housing insecurity, and they are most affected and most positively affected by Habitat for Humanity when they're able to apply, register, put the work and time in, and then finally get themselves and their family into a new house. Additionally, it's being coordinated and run by our Women's Network business resource group. This will the first time that the Women's Network has been a part of this Women's Build, but I bet you it won't be the last.

Colin Uthe:

By women for women.

Brian Hugins:

Absolutely.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah, awesome. Before I sign off here, what would you say to people thinking about getting more involved with their community, either within Chamberlain Group's or outside of Chamberlain Group even, but maybe they haven't done it yet due to various factors in their life?

Hamin Tien:

Yeah. It's easy not to do because you're not required to do it. And nobody has time. I would say you have to make time and just try something that you feel you want to support and see how you feel afterwards. If it makes you feel good, then that's great.

Jennifer Hirschorn:

I recognize a lot of folks have a lot on their plate right now in terms of business needs, but when you are able to get away, it's really nice to get some fresh air, meet new people. And I would argue it looks really good to your management, to your boss, to leaders to show that you are really growing outside of just what is required day-to-day, that you're doing things to better our community. It makes Chamberlain look good when we're out there representing our company by making a difference on their behalf. And so I am appealing to those that may have the best intentions, but feel like they can't step away. I think you would be surprised how supportive those in your upline would be to afford you that opportunity to volunteer for the company.

Brian Hugins:

It could seem like a tough threshold to cross over into. But really, all this is about investing of our time. And if you can see it as that and you can see the fact that we are giving our time to make our community better, I can't tell you upfront how that'll make you feel, but I can promise you that, on the other side of it, you will feel plenty rewarded and that your investment was well worth the time and effort.

Colin Uthe:

All right. Well, thank you Brian. I really, really appreciate you sitting down with me for a little bit and chatting about what's the latest and greatest in this sector of our ONETEAM.

Brian Hugins:

Well, thank you for the opportunity, Colin, and I really appreciate it. This has been wonderful.

Colin Uthe:

If anybody's looking forward to getting involved with any future Opening Doors activities, feel free to message corporatecommunications@chamberlaingroup.com or reach out to your local charity on your own time.

Brian Hugins:

And also check out All Access for registrations.

Colin Uthe:

Yes, employees are encouraged to check out All Access online and their company internet for registrations. They should be available right on the front page or just a hop, skip, and a jump away from there. Thank you for listening. Tune in next month to hear more stories of how all of us at Chamberlain Group are connected. This episode is written, recorded, and edited by me, Colin Uthe. Our producer is Jim Kozyra. Our music was provided by soundstripe.com.