Jennifer Lauren

“What will you do with a business major from the Haas Undergraduate Program?” The keyboard clicked and clacked as I punched out my application for the business school at UC Berkeley. My goal is to create a vacation Bible study and dance camp for underprivileged youth. Talking about faith and the performing arts must have made me sound like an aspiring, broke do-gooder and the exact opposite of the type of Fortune 500 CEO and alumni donor they’d prefer to groom. 

But I got in.

Going to Haas put me on a path to management consulting and more business school. I went from a full-time business student and part-time collegiate dancer to a business consultant who squeezed in dance classes between client trips. My daytime expertise was taking me from the core to the periphery of the craft. As my knowledge increased, so did the brands on my resume and the expectations that made me self-conscious about the dream that motivated me to get into business in the first place. 

You are a business person who is supposed to maximize financial return. The arts don’t pay. Save the nonprofit stuff for later. That’s what everyone will think if I do what I really want. 

So, I started to tweak my vision whenever people asked me about my career. I genuinely wanted to push beyond a dance nonprofit to create a sustainable social enterprise, but I voiced tradeoffs in my pursuit for validation. I reframed my motivation from faith to service, and I positioned dance as a means to an end. To the Suits, I wanted to drive leadership development and 21st-century skill-building through dance. I figured it was slightly more marketable than attaching dance to an evangelical mission.

Fast forward to mid-March 2020, my husband and I returned to San Francisco after coronavirus disrupted a six-month sabbatical to travel and volunteer with social enterprises in developing countries. We adapted to shelter in place by pursuing passion projects. I searched our church website for Christian organizations to serve, and I found Because Justice Matters (BJM), a ministry for exploited women in the adult entertainment industry and girls in underserved urban communities. Even crazier – BJM uses dance to drive outreach, discipleship, and mentorship. 

After a few cold emails and weeks later, I spoke with Gabby, the youth director, and she expressed her vision for developing diverse girls into Christ-centered community leaders, supporting them from early childhood through college and career. She even talked about building a social enterprise to employ the girls with paid internships. My jaw dropped: Finding a kindred spirit added legitimacy, possibility, and companionship toward a dream that seemed far-fetched. 

I plugged into BJM as a part-time, pro-bono consultant, partnering with Gabby to evolve the youth ministry. As I got to know her and other women in the team, I started to feel like I found my flock: I could finally engage my vision for a dance ministry with integrity. I didn’t have to tip-toe around faith or rationalize the value of dance.

I recently reread an email from a mentor who told me why he made a career change. You have to pursue what interests you because as you compromise, you will live the compromise. It will become a part of you. Life is too short to care what everyone else thinks, and there are few things more haunting than compromise because it almost always leads to regret.

I started our sabbatical expecting to travel, then hatch a dance social enterprise. But by messing up my plans, COVID-19 has given me space to reorder priorities and guard against compromises. Instead of chasing countries, I’m learning to care for my city, San Francisco. Instead of becoming a founder, I am following other leaders to advance an existing mission. Instead of caring about what everyone thinks, I’m aligning myself with like-minded folks to strive towards a dream with authenticity, integrity, and audacity.

Now, my vision is to build a multi-generational community of women helping girls achieve their potentials, using dance to develop faith and pathways to economic opportunity. And I want to do it with other birds of this feather.