You can sum up her passion in one five-letter word: music. You can sum up her work experience in another word: leadership. Put them together and you begin to understand Melissa J. Paul’s place as new program director at Leadership Greater Hartford.
Paul, 23, has taken on a position that puts her in contact with young Hartford professionals that are near her age. Instead of joining them in team-building exercises, she’s leading the group and organizing their activities. Paul can see the correlation between that work and her post-college interests.
“After I graduated I took time to do something to give back in some way,” she said. “I applied to AmeriCorp and was sent to a site in New Hampshire where I worked at a middle school for at-risk youth. It was a great experience.”
Paul graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in music in 2006. She left for Cape Cod in Massachusetts where she became co-founder of a semi-professional, all-female a cappella group, “Cape Harmony.” The Manchester native brought her music background to New Hampshire when the Nashua school where she was volunteering lacked a performing arts program.
“I wanted to do something about that,” she said. “I sat with the principal and the art teacher and basically put a curriculum together. I started their guitar instruction, vocals and piano. A few girls were interested in dance and we started a group.”
Paul saw an opportunity to move back home when her friend Julie Daly, Leadership Greater Hartford’s past program coordinator, left her position.
“I think that the atmosphere is the same here as it was with my volunteering,” Paul said. “We all work better as a team for our organization.”
She just launched OnTrack Hartford, a program for young professionals that shows them interesting spots in Hartford and ways to get involved in the community.
“It went really well for the first session,” Paul said. “I think it’s going to be a great group.”
With a total of five weeks at her post, Paul has seen her volunteering strengths already come to good use.
“It’s a lot of organizing and coordinating and no day is really typical,” she said. “I’m using my public speaking, networking and communications skills, everything I learned about working with others. Time management is also key in a job like this.”
Paul also recently joined the South Congregational Church of Hartford’s choir and the Vernon chorale.
“I need to keep my music degree fresh,” she said. “It’s always been a part of my life.”
Emily Boisvert is a Hartford Business Journal staff writer.
