Outside of work as ServiceNow’s Content Producing Manager, Kristin Royer explores the Pacific Northwest life, filled with hiking, running, and open-water swimming. When asked how many hours she’s volunteered, she answered, “200 plus or maybe more!”
Like many who donate their time and energy to causes they care about, Royer began with traditional volunteering. However, she didn’t feel as fulfilled as she had hoped.
“I have volunteered with various causes before, such as collecting resources and serving food at shelters for the unhoused,” Royer said. “While I found those experiences meaningful, I realized that there were individuals better equipped than me to make a substantial difference in communities. I even envied the doctors and social workers who volunteered beside me, as their expertise had a visible impact.”
Opportunity to volunteer differently
When her company, ServiceNow, offered access to Taproot Plus, our online volunteer match-making platform, she said that was “the push to get me looking for opportunities.”
“Taproot helped me search through a number of organizations to find a cause that really spoke to me and felt meaningful to me and needed my specific skills to help support the good work they are doing,” Royer explained.
She found this Taproot project request from The Community Bots that was a perfect match for her skills: “edit up to twelve videos that we can use to showcase our programming on YouTube and other online communications and social media.”
She also felt a deep connection to their mission to provide STEM-robotics training and equipment for young women in underserved communities around the world.
Passion to purpose
The Community Bots’ work tied with Royer’s passion for “empowering women and girls to believe in themselves and their abilities, especially in science and technology.”
“I was once a girl myself who was very curious and interested in taking things apart and putting them back together again, but I also live in the United States and that brought with it a lot more opportunities for me to explore that throughout my time in school. I would love to see those opportunities available to all girls everywhere.”
The organization’s focus on serving Latin American countries piqued Kristin’s interest as well. “I am uniquely drawn to Latin America (where the Community Bots does a lot of their work) because I have been increasing my fluency in Spanish over the last several years and have traveled to many Central and South American countries while doing so, and I have seen disparities from country to country first hand and so those firsthand experiences make me feel more connected to that region of the world as well.”
With my experience with Community Bots, I feel like I have found the right partnership between my skills and a cause that speaks to me, and I can see how MY expertise has a real impact.
Beyond Taproot
“I did get much more involved with the organization after the first project I applied for on Taproot, and my work with the Community Bots took me to the Dominican Republic to film videos for the org.” Watch one of her videos from Community Bots’ YouTube channel:
“I got to interact with the girls and teachers who are touched by the work the Community Bots does, and it was SO rewarding to see the joy and confidence the girls felt from learning STEM and Lego robotics. Being able to be a part of that made me feel so lucky and privileged to be even a little part of that.
Kristin’s support extended beyond the initial Taproot project. She asked colleagues and friends to consult with the Community Bots, resulting in increased support and even financial donations from ServiceNow employees through the company’s volunteer matching program.
But her commitment didn’t stop there. “I joined the organization’s advisory board, and I have continued working on projects with them…we are currently planning another video project for 2023.”