Sushma Santhana served as the Executive Director for Dance Marathon 2024.
Sushma Santhana speaks on stage at Dance Marathon 2024.
In her narrative, Sushma Santhana writes about the ups and down of being the Executive Director of Dance Marathon. Santhana shares the memories she made, the hardships she faced, and how she grew as a leader all throughout this experience. From running the Chicago Marathon in support of the cause, to staying awake for over 30 hours, Santhana showed a strong level of commitment to her role as a leader. "My Executive Council and I often said, "we can do hard things" to remind ourselves of our strength and how far we had come when things got busy and difficult."
This past year I had the honor of serving as the Executive Director of University of Iowa Dance Marathon. In this role, I oversaw the year-round fundraising efforts and operations of this multi-million-dollar organization. Dance Marathon is dedicated to raising financial and emotional support for pediatric oncology patients and their families treated at UI Stead Family Children's Hospital. I led a leadership team of nearly 180 other students and worked with them to recruit hundreds of dancers to fundraise for and attend our 24-hour Big Event in February.
It's difficult to fully describe a year of laughs, tears, stress, and joy with Dance Marathon for those who have never been a part of it before, but I can wholeheartedly say that my experience with this organization was the best thing I have done with my time at the University of Iowa, and it has shaped me into who I am today. While the Executive Director position is filled with meetings, strategizing, conflict management, and difficult conversations, it also gave me the ability to connect with the most passionate students, the strongest kiddos and families, and the most supportive organization partners. My favorite memories come from the endless games of UNO with kiddos at the hospital, silly conversations with my leadership team at all-leadership meetings, basketball games at the Big Event, and allocation meetings where I discovered the true impact of all of our fundraised dollars. These memories only scratch the surface of what I was able to experience in just one year.
I knew coming to college here that I was going to be a part of UIDM - there was never a question about it. As a senior in high school, the thought of being the Executive Director of the org was enticing, but always felt out of reach. I had never seen anyone in engineering take on such a role on campus, and I didn't think it would be possible to do so. But after my first in person Big Event in 2023, the passion and excitement from those 24 hours made me truly believe that I could do anything I set my mind to. This mental toughness and passion carried me through this role, even pushing myself to run the Chicago Marathon through UIDM. I had never really enjoyed running, but as the leader of the organization, I wanted to lead by example. I couldn't expect members of UIDM to do things that I wouldn't do myself. This mindset, coupled with the inspiration from all the kids I was running for, motivated me to do something I never thought I would. Time and time again, I found myself pushing my limits, aided by the encouragement of those around me and the realization that life is short.
Santhana is pictured after finishing the Chicago Marathon.
While my time as the Executive Director was amazing, it did not come without its struggles. With this organization having been around for 30 years, garnering attention from across the country, there are thousands of stakeholders that have their own opinions on how things should be done. I was faced with the unfortunate reality that I couldn't make everyone happy, no matter how much I wanted to or tried. There was always someone that disagreed, and I realized that in this type of position with so many people working with you, there would always be someone that didn't like you. Throughout my time as ED, I learned how to accept this and ground my decision making in what my goals were for the organization as a whole. Prior to this position, I hated making decisions, but this role forced me to do so, and taught me how to do so strategically and effectively.
Overall, I grew in my confidence as a leader. The number of times imposter syndrome crept in this year was countless, but I was consistently supported by those around me who emphasized that I was right for this role. My Executive Council and I often said "we can do hard things" to remind ourselves of our strength and how far we had come when things got busy and difficult. We could do hard things, because we planned and led a fundraising push day that raised over $250K. We could do hard things because we planned and executed the organization's first ever gala. We could do hard things because we recruited over 1,100 registrants for our Big Event. When I found out the fundraising numbers were not where we thought they were in the remaining few hours of our Big Event, knowing that I could do hard things pushed me to motivate a crowd to raise over $20K in 45 minutes, after I had been awake for over 30 hours. These were experiences, that while incredibly stressful, are memories that I will keep forever and have shaped me into the leader I am today.
I came into this position having witnessed the total amount fundraised by the organization go down each year I had participated. While the impact of UIDM goes way beyond the numbers held up at the end of the Big Event, at its core, UIDM is a fundraising organization, and without pushing to raise more, we would be unable to do more. Because of that, I came into the Executive Director position with a goal of ending the total's downward trend. Through an emphasis on pushing to fundraise more, implementation of more education on how to fundraise, and the hard work and dedication of all who were involved, DM30 was able to do just that. $1,454,929.30 held up in the final minutes of the Big Event was the first time since 2018 that the number was higher than the year before. With a nearly 24% increase in fundraising from the previous year, it was the highest percent increase the organization has seen in over 15 years. The Executive Council created our campaign as "Build Lasting Legacies" this year, and I believe we did just that by hopefully setting the organization up for many more years of success.
Author Bio:
Sushma Santhana is a fourth-year student majoring in biomedical engineering with a certificate in entrepreneurial management. With this, she hopes to develop medical devices for pediatric patients post grad. In her free time, Sushma enjoys spending time outdoors and with her friends and family.
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