Ashley Basile Oeken

 

Executive Director
at Engage! Cleveland

 

by Darenzo Reed, crew 2

 

 

 

Ashley Basile Oeken favorite thing about Cleveland are “the people” Oeken, a 28 year old and she has lived in Cleveland for 5 years and her current title and organization is an Executive Director in engage Cleveland. Her favorite thing about Cleveland is the people. Ashley Basile Oeken was born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio. When she was younger, what she wanted her career to be was a pharmacist. When she was younger she said ‘’she was pretty similar she was very outgoing and was involved in activities’’. If she could give advice to her younger self, what she would say is to dream big and experience as much as you can.

 

Ashley Oeken’s inspiration was her mother because she was born overseas and moved to the United States; Ashley grew up with her mom. Ashley Oeken went to Youngstown State and studied marketing for 4 years.

 

How she first became interested in her cause was she looked for ways to get involved; she met individuals who wanted to Engage! Cleveland and got hired. She is in charge of marketing and administration for engage Cleveland.  What progress Ashley Oeken has made was on September 2012, she got hired and got a lot of young people involved. How her work is making a difference is for young professionals to make it a positive city.

 

Her advantages of her career are “running a nonprofit and especially one that is geared at a young professional enables me to fulfill a personal passion”. “It is much more rewarding seeing you work in process face to face than reading a financial report and wondering if you played a part”. EC is also a very forward thinking organization that is entrepreneurial in spirit. This enables me to “practice what I preach”. EC permits teleworking, casual clothing, etc. which is all part of a new work environment that Milennials enjoy. Her disadvantages are being a newer organization in town means constantly having to prove the value of your organization. I am always thinking about the organization’s capacity and sustainability long term as we are funded by others and not making a large enough profit to run EC without philanthropy.

 

Some advice Ashley Oeken has for the students is “experience everything you can.” “Truly embrace the Cleveland community and get engrained in it”. “Be open minded to Cleveland because it will surprise you.”

 

This is how she is making a difference in Cleveland by getting a lot of young people involved in engage Cleveland and telling them to tell the people they know to join if they want. This is how Ashley Basile Oeken is making a difference in Cleveland.