Margie Dillenburg
Invisible Children
San Diego, CA USA
"Let your life speak."
Career Roadmap
Margie's work combines: Non-Profit Organizations, Film, and Upholding a Cause and Belief
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Let your life speak—that is, pay active attention to who you used to be before the world started shaping you. I think deep down we all know who we're becoming and what we should be doing. If you pay too much attention to the process and the things that happen to you, you become more of a reactive person instead of who you were meant to become.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
University of Notre Dame
Graduate Degree
Leadership Studies
University of San Diego
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
Going into college, I didn’t have an end goal career-wise, so I decided to just study things that were fascinating to me—this eventually led to me majoring in peace studies and minoring in ceramics.
2.
After graduating, I went to a couple of interviews with consultancy groups and quickly decided that a big corporate job was not for me.
3.
I was inspired by a friend to become a teacher—we moved out to California to teach under the direction of a man who wanted to start a school, but the whole thing ended up being a scam.
4.
Fortunately, the University of San Diego decided to help train us to become teachers, and I was able to get my teaching credential.
5.
I worked as a middle school teacher by day and then continued to take classes at night, which led to me earning a master’s degree in leadership studies.
6.
After I quit teaching, I reached out to the founders of Invisible Children to see if they needed help—their organization aims to free children forcibly recruited by armed forces in Central Africa.
7.
Invisible Children asked me to join their staff as one of their starting members—I'm now the chief operations officer and movement director, overseeing all of the organization’s domestic operations.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Parents:
Working for this start-up non-profit is not a good idea.
How I responded:
My parents were not very supportive of my decision to join Invisible Children, which wasn't even a company yet when I started. Fortunately, they lived in a different state, so I was able to selectively share things with them. I just knew deep down that this was a good idea and that time would eventually show my parents that we'd succeed. I also wasn't very afraid of failing. I knew that if it didn't work out, it wouldn't be the end of the world and I could just start over with something else.