01 Mar Welcome Sarah Woessner as our new Director of Student-Run Businesses

We’re thrilled to announce our newest team member, Sarah Woessner. She’s joining us as Director, Student-Run Businesses, overseeing the work that student interns do on site and managing the client relationships they forge with local businesses. Get to know Sarah by checking out our Q&A below.

In your short time at Rêve, what has stood out to you? Any cool moments?

My first “That’s awesome!” moment happened in my third or fourth day at Rêve Academy. One intern was providing coaching to another intern around how to avoid using notecards during a presentation. The intern suggested a strategy that was fantastic. After offering the suggestion, he said, “That’s the idea a Digiteer told me about yesterday because it helps him with presentations.” Hearing how knowledge is passed between our volunteers and interns made me so excited!

Tell me a little about your background and education.

Before coming to Rêve, I worked for eight years at the University of Minnesota. My experiences working in student development, supporting student success, and building programs and processes seemed really transferrable to the work that Rêve Academy does. After studying journalism and Spanish in undergrad, I decided to pursue a complementary skill set by getting a master’s degree in business administration. My MBA experience helped me develop a new lens for problem solving and expand my strategic thinking abilities. So far, I’ve enjoyed connecting concepts that I learned in school to the real-world challenges of solving business problems—both for clients and interns.

How did you find out about Rêve?

A business school classmate and friend started working at Rêve Acdemy a few years ago. I remember asking him at graduation, “What’s next?” He replied with elation, “I’m going to Rêve Academy!” Over time, I saw news articles in the Star Tribune about the Academy and learned about partnerships between the Carlson School of Management and Rêve Academy. Now I know why—every day I’m impressed with the community of engaged supporters, the insights from interns, and the talent and passion of my colleagues.

How do you spend your free time and what’s something that people might not know about you?

I love cross country skiing and snow! I bike commute as much as possible, and I took a career break in 2016-17 to long term travel for 11 months in Asia and South America. I learned a lot about my ability to tackle new challenges and find community, even when I’m far from home.

Thanks for sitting down with us, Sarah. We’re so excited to have you on the team!