Whether it’s over email or on one of her visits to Grounds for reunions with her UVA Swimming & Diving teammates, we are always delighted to catch up with Emily Lloyd. Emily graduated from the College in 2014 with a Women, Gender & Sexuality Major. We appreciate all of Emily’s contributions to our work as both a YWLP Big Sister and an Iris intern while she was a student and her insights as a colleague building healthy relationship programming for college students while working with the One Love Foundation. Wherever Emily goes after she completes her MBA at the University of Denver, they’ll be fortunate to have her and we know she’ll make a positive impact.
Tell us about the path you’ve taken to where you are now in your career. Has it been planned? Organic? Some of both?
My path has been pretty organic! I definitely walked into UVA without knowing at all what I wanted to do, I left still not knowing, and am still working through that process today. Initially after school, I took an AmeriCorps position as a domestic violence advocate in New Hampshire. I spent time both in NH and MD (where I grew up) working with people who were experiencing abuse all over the spectrum, which was incredibly meaningful work. It was here that I learned one of my strengths was to recognize patterns – I was really passionate about seeing the connections among these different abusive relationships and figuring out simple solutions on the prevention side. This passion drew me to the One Love Foundation, where I spent about six years in a number of different roles. I absolutely loved my work at One Love and the mission of the organization – I was able to do everything from leading workshops with middle schoolers through adults to leading more internal projects around new educational curricula. It was a great experience, but during Covid I really realized I was ready for a change and decided to move to Denver and get my MBA.
What mistakes or failures have helped you get to where you are now?
I’m not sure that this is one specific mistake, but in my early 20s I think I saw the world a little more black and white, and it didn’t help me. If I had an opinion on a topic, whether it was something big like a political issue, or even just an idea I had to contribute at work, it felt like I had to pick a side and stick to it. A few years ago, someone told me, “you are not your ideas – if you define yourself by every idea you have, you’ll never grow,” and I realized how important it is to separate myself from my opinions. I am able to look at issues or conflicts more objectively now, and it’s really inspired my work moving forward. For example, in group projects now in school, I can see some folks getting really heated about something and empathize with them, but also think from a more objective, rational perspective and tap into my problem-solving brain instead of being overwhelmed with emotion.
What was your very first job and what’s something you learned from it?
Like I mentioned above, my first job after college was as a domestic violence advocate, originally through AmeriCorps. From this, I definitely learned the importance of boundaries and maintaining a work/life balance. Dealing with such emotionally difficult work every day forces you to take care of yourself so that you can come back tomorrow and do it again. I realized early on that I needed an outlet that could bring me out of the DV-world and into something else that brought more regular joy, so I started a second job as an assistant swim coach at a club swim team in NH, coaching middle school swimmers. The ability to come from something as scary as domestic violence and appear on a pool deck in front of 30 smiling middle schoolers definitely helped me separate my work from the other things I enjoyed, and meant I came home at the end of the day happy. I still coach part-time today because I realized in this time how much joy it brings me!
How do you practice work/life fit?
I mentioned above about how I learned the importance of boundaries early on in my professional career, and how I used swim coaching as a way to separate my heavy work from my “fun” work. Additionally, I recently took a neuroscience class through my MBA where we learned exactly what happens in the brain when we try and multi-task, and when we do things like sleep, exercise, or other ways of letting our brain rest. Science showed me how important these things are in order for our brain to perform how we really want it to, and this learning only helped me frame activities that I had always labeled as “self-care” or optional into mandatory if I wanted my brain to be on point for whatever big presentation or meeting I had the next day. Now knowing how important these activities are to my own performance, it’s easier to prioritize them even when I’m busy with other things.
What is your favorite UVA memory?
I was on the swim team at UVA and while we were never as successful as they’ve been in recent years, we won ACCs all four years I was there. Every time we got home after that win was pretty much my favorite memory – the opportunity to celebrate with my teammates after so many months of hard work was always SO much fun, and usually ended in the classic tradition of streaking the lawn. 😊
Looking back, what advice would you give your former, student-self?
I would definitely tell myself to get involved in things outside of swimming at UVA much earlier. I loved the opportunities I got through the Women’s Center and through One Less, but I didn’t really get involved until the summer before my 4th year. Having an identity outside of swimming really helped me grow as a person and meeting people outside my teammates was incredibly important for taking a step into the “real world.” I wish I would have started this journey earlier and gotten involved in my 2nd year rather than 4th.
What has been your most rewarding/favorite experience with YWLP?
I LOVED working with my mentee at YWLP. It was great to learn what I did in the fall, especially coming from a non-educational background, but what I remember most from that experience was taking my mentee on outings in the spring when it was just the two of us. It taught me a lot of responsibility and helped me learn active listening skills that were crucial in every part of my career following that experience.