UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — College of Information Sciences and Technology alumnus Kurt Heslop originally joined the board of Hood River Adopt-a-Dog, an animal shelter in his county in Oregon, for a simple reason: He wanted to spend time with dogs. But after a short while of being involved with the nonprofit, he realized how much the organization meant to him and the town he lives in.
“Dog ownership is an important part of people’s lives and it’s an important part of our community,” Heslop said.
As a lead business consultant at Perficient, Heslop said he never felt he had enough time to be a pet owner. But he realized that his expertise could help shelter animals in a unique way.
“I felt that I was able to contribute an interesting perspective to the board being a [technology] consultant and bring that technology experience,” he said.
Since Heslop joined the shelter's board in January 2019, he has helped improve the organization's communications and contributed to the shelter doubling its social media presence. But the novel coronavirus pandemic has since posed new communication and adoption challenges for the organization. Heslop and another board member have been working extensively over the past few months to help the organization function during the pandemic. Part of their work includes helping the shelter move all trainings and fundraisers online.
“[We’ve] been able to use our experience in technology, and my experience from the College of IST, to help assist the shelter in ways that we didn’t think we’d need to a couple of months ago,” said Heslop, who received his degree in 2013.
When the pandemic hit, Heslop and the other board members decided it was time to update the organization’s website, with more people than ever engaging online due to lockdown measures. Heslop said the current website posed usability issues that he wanted to fix, and he immediately thought that College of IST students could help with the task.
“I remember trying to find an internship my junior year,” Heslop said. “I wanted to be able to give back to the College of IST and to also help a student move forward in their career.”
So Heslop posted an ad seeking interns through the College of IST’s Office of Career Solutions and Corporate Engagement. Rising senior and information sciences and technology major Taylor Kost applied immediately.