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Please join us in congratulating one of our alumni and 2020 Nonprofit Leader of Tomorrow, Danielle Drake ’20, on her newest adventure. Danielle is now Nationwide Expat Recruitment and Engagement Manager at Apollo English Vietnam.

Apollo English Vietnam was the first fully foreign-owned English education and training organization in Vietnam. The company’s values are passion, innovation, partnership, accountability, and integrity. As Recruitment and Engagement Manager, Danielle works with senior leadership to develop and implement strategic goals and business objectives for recruitment and engagement. Currently, Danielle leads a team of three and is responsible for recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and retaining all expatriate staff nationwide.

Danielle prefers to work in roles where she can continue to develop both personally and professionally. She hopes to keep challenging herself and learning new skills while remaining a globally-minded citizen.

Danielle’s career first began in the for-profit world after graduating in 2006 from SUNY Buffalo with a degree in Communications. She worked in financial services and real estate for 10 years and then transferred to the nonprofit sector, where she worked in refugee settlement at two resettlement agencies in Cleveland. In 2018, Danielle began her journey at JCU in the Nonprofit Administration program. Since her 2020 graduation, Danielle spent last year living in Nepal and working for an NGO that operates in 10 developing countries to promote accountability and transparency within government agencies. She moved to Vietnam in March of 2021 and plans to stay until at least 2023 or longer.

Danielle said that John Carroll University’s Nonprofit Administration Program is “unique” because it combines both the foundational knowledge needed in the sector as well as supplemental knowledge from classes like business ethics in the Boler College that are necessary for any organization. Danielle said, “As the only ex-pat staff in human resources, my education in classes such as Cultural Diversity helped prepare me for this role and to work in Vietnam.”

We are immensely proud of Danielle’s hard work and ambition. We know she is going to continue to do amazing things worldwide. She truly is an unapologetic social justice leader!