National Leadership Program, Spring 2021
Donjeta Sahiti
Donjeta Sahiti was a Nonprofit Management Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program for Spring 2021, and is now the Special Assistant to the President at RespectAbility. RespectAbility is a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so that people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community.
Sahiti earned her Masters in Public Administration from Seton Hall University. She hopes to one day run her own nonprofit organization with a focus on educational advancements.
She has previous work experience in public office and nonprofit organizations. She has previously interned at Senator Cory Booker’s Office and for a nonprofit organization called JESPY House. Her experiences have inspired her to enter the nonprofit management field because it is where she feels she will be making the greatest change in society moving forward.
Sahiti was excited about joining the RespectAbility team as a Nonprofit Management Fellow in order to learn all that it takes to successfully fund and grow a nonprofit. She is excited about gaining invaluable skills that will assist her in understanding how a nonprofit organization is run, from top to bottom, to ensure maximum positive social impact and mission achievement. She understands the importance of entrepreneurial stewardship to a nonprofit organization and hopes to gain leadership skills that will help her successfully run her own nonprofit one day.
In the future, Sahiti will start her own nonprofit organization with a focus on education. She has always believed that the true path to independence and empowerment is education. She lives by Aristotle’s quote, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” She believes that high quality education is a human right and now a privilege. Throughout her life, and especially now throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of distance-learning to all education levels, she has seen the difficulties that immigrant children and children of immigrant parents face in the education system. She has seen the frustration non-English speaking parents feel when they are unable to help their children with elementary school homework and studies. A good elementary school education is critical to a good foundation for the future success of every child and Sahiti is working towards opening her own nonprofit organization to bridge the gap and ensure that immigrant students and students of immigrant parents are able to get the proper support on their way towards achieving academic success.
