Erin Schaick ’12 honored for work with neighborhood housing

Erin Schaick ’12, assistant vice president of Community Relations for CATCH Neighborhood Housing in Concord, New Hampshire, is being honored on the 2020 40 Under Forty listing by the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper.

Schaick has worked for CATCH Neighborhood Housing for more than six years, and her position has grown to be a combination of marketing, relationship building, public relations, and fundraising as well as developing housing for the workforce in New Hampshire.

She also prioritizes the needs of the community and regularly uses her event-planning skills.

“Even before I attended as a student, I knew Ripon was a place where I could have an impact, write my own story, and create a path that would set me up for a successful career,” Schaick says. She was introduced to Ripon by a friend with whom she attended a few classes over her spring break. She says she felt right at home at Ripon from day one.

Schaick majored in communication and minored in religion and nonprofit management, although she took advantage of the liberal arts education and studied many other subjects as well. Her favorite classes were Professor of Communication Jody Roy’s applied communication classes which taught her tangible and soft skills. These classes, in combination with raising more than $10,000 for HDSA through the Mr. Ripon Contest, are what inspired Schaick to work in nonprofit fundraising.

Looking back at her time at Ripon College, Schaick recalls two experiences that she treasures. One is her trip to China, “which was truly the educational experience of a lifetime,” she says. The second was her opportunity to participate in and be a leader in the Orientation Committee. Her experiences in the Orientation Committee correlate to her career and volunteer roles now because they taught her that being an open, welcoming person is important in all aspects of one’s life, such as workplaces and communities.

The small classes at Ripon also were significant, as well as the close friends she made studying for comprehensive communication department exams and at weekend-long study parties. She still keeps in touch with many of them.

Jillian Heidenreich ’22
Monroe, Wisconsin