I spend my days researching companies to see if their sustainable and responsible practices align with our investment criteria and our clients’ values. I also research and write thought-leadership pieces, support proposals for prospective clients, and work on special projects based on clients’ interests.

Senior SRII Research Analyst

You're not allowed to speak up if you're in a junior role or new to the industry.

Passion

Why I Chose Sustainable And Responsible Investing

Investor-in-Residence

Inspiration

I’ve Always Had A Passion For Education And Community Impact

I'd recommend pursuing some college education and then directly working in financial planning, either shadowing a certified financial planner or working at a family office to learn the nuts and bolts of how money management looks and feels for everyday people. I'd also recommend taking public speaking courses or storytelling classes.

I had almost $20,000 in credit card debt by the time I was 23. I pushed myself to learn all that I could about personal finance. I changed my lifestyle and fought my way out of debt. I also started making finance videos which launched into my career.

My days revolve around recording videos about financial literacy topics for teens and young adults, and hosting a video podcast for about financial literacy topics. I'm working with lawmakers to get bills signed into law at the state level that require a semester course in personal finance for high school graduation. I also teach online courses for teacher certification programs in teaching personal financial literacy in high schools and middle schools in the U.S.

Author, Content Creator & Director of Educational Outreach

You're very chatty. You need to quiet yourself if you want to succeed.

Fulfillment

I’m Motivated By Making Measurable Systemic Change

My days are spent helping teams build better learning experiences for students and teachers. I essentially serve as a thought partner for all other leaders within the company. A lot of what I do is elevating and sharpening the work of other teams. On any given day, I may review curriculum, advise pricing, collaborate with product, engineering, marketing, and partnerships, and visit classrooms to see how our work supports real learning.

Head of K-12 Strategy

Find Something You Really Care About

If you want to start cooking, pick something you want to do—like make a roux or sear chicken—and watch videos about it. Watch videos, read comments, and practice until you master that skill and can build off of it. Then move on to the next skill. If you want to get into content creation, just start. Posting is the hardest part but each post you make will help you learn and build confidence. Even when you have doubt, it's important to just start and trust that you'll improve with practice.

Every day starts with a plan. I spend my time developing recipes, filming and editing cooking videos, and preparing content weeks in advance for multiple social media platforms. Beyond the kitchen, I manage partnerships, work on cookbooks, connect with my online community, and support local fundraisers. While no two days are exactly alike, my goal is always to create recipes that make cooking simple and approachable for everyone.

Author & Content Creator

Determination & Hard Work

Favorite And Least Favorite Parts Of Being A Content Creator

I did not get an undergraduate degree because I received my education in Pakistan, where I went from high school directly to medical school. Pathways in the U.S. are different in that there's a requirement for an undergraduate degree. I do believe that earning your undergraduate degree has its value and is a good first step before deciding to pursue medical school.

During my ICU weeks, I care for critically ill patients, make hospital rounds, and stay on call overnight in case someone needs urgent treatment. The rest of the month, I split my time between seeing patients in clinic, performing procedures like bronchoscopies and chest tube insertions, reading sleep studies, and working with specialists to diagnose and treat complex lung diseases. No matter the setting, my focus is always on providing the best possible care for my patients.

Medical Director of Pulmonary Critical Care and Pulmonary Hypertension

Why I Decided To Become A Pulmonologist

What's wonderful about libraries is that whether it's in a school
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00:00:02.535 --> 00:00:04.738 or an academic institution or a public setting,
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00:00:04.738 --> 00:00:06.840 we're kind of like the anchor institution, right?
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00:00:06.840 --> 00:00:09.542 We're the informational hub things flow in and things flow out.
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00:00:09.542 --> 00:00:11.211 Circulation, kind of like a heart.
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00:00:11.211 --> 00:00:13.880 And I felt intimidated.
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00:00:13.880 --> 00:00:14.848 Right.
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00:00:14.848 --> 00:00:17.851 And what I love about librarianship is that it
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00:00:18.318 --> 00:00:21.421 it's good to feel that this is a really pretty library, isn't it?
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00:00:21.521 --> 00:00:24.090 But you have to walk through 40ft of lobby,
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00:00:24.090 --> 00:00:28.728 and then you come up to this opulent granite desk, and you have two people who
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00:00:28.728 --> 00:00:32.232 are working at one of the most productive and effective libraries in the state.
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00:00:32.732 --> 00:00:34.868 That can be intimidating too.
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00:00:34.868 --> 00:00:38.471 And so this teaches us that folks come in every single day to learn something.
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00:00:38.471 --> 00:00:40.607 And learning is a vulnerable process.
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00:00:40.607 --> 00:00:42.675 And so I think understanding what that feels like,
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00:00:42.675 --> 00:00:46.179 tasting that on your tongue and recognizing that for me, potentially
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00:00:46.179 --> 00:00:49.716 115 people come in every hour and they feel that reminds me
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00:00:50.850 --> 00:00:53.787 to be welcoming, to be kind, to be supportive to.
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00:00:53.787 --> 00:00:56.456 You want to know where the restroom is? That is a great question.
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00:00:56.456 --> 00:00:57.924 That's a very good question.
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00:00:57.924 --> 00:00:59.959 Everybody needs the answer to that question.
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00:00:59.959 --> 00:01:03.630 And you shouldn't feel like you're small for coming up and seeking me
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00:01:03.630 --> 00:01:04.798 because this is where I'm at.
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00:01:04.798 --> 00:01:08.868 My name is Sam Helmick, and my 9 to 5 job is I am the Community
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00:01:08.868 --> 00:01:11.871 and Access Services Coordinator at the Iowa City Public Library.
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00:01:12.172 --> 00:01:15.542 I advocate, resource and support three excellent teams of staff
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00:01:15.542 --> 00:01:19.045 because that's what leaders are here to do advocate, resource, and support.
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00:01:19.345 --> 00:01:23.183 And the excellent teams of staff that I have the privilege to support
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00:01:23.183 --> 00:01:27.187 are the outreach and bookmobile and book bike staff, the circulation
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00:01:27.187 --> 00:01:30.824 and cards management staff, and then the public relations and marketing staff
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00:01:31.257 --> 00:01:33.993 and I work in a library that has the largest per capita
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00:01:33.993 --> 00:01:36.996 circulation in the state, despite not being the state's capital.
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00:01:36.996 --> 00:01:40.533 And so every single day I kind of walk in here humbled by a community
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00:01:40.533 --> 00:01:44.871 that loves their library, loves literacy, and the library is invested in.
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00:01:44.871 --> 00:01:47.440 And so it reflects that love every single day.
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00:01:48.408 --> 00:01:49.776 I started in Iowa, in Burlington,
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00:01:49.776 --> 00:01:52.846 Iowa as a public services manager, so I always knew that
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00:01:52.846 --> 00:01:56.883 public was going to be in my middle name, but I sort of fell into libraries.
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00:01:56.916 --> 00:01:58.718 When I was a teenager in Burlington, Iowa,
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00:01:58.718 --> 00:02:01.488 they didn't have a teen space, and I didn't think I was welcome.
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00:02:01.488 --> 00:02:03.623 And so because I didn't feel I belonged there,
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00:02:03.623 --> 00:02:07.160 I didn't feel invested in my library or see how it made change in my community.
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00:02:07.193 --> 00:02:10.597 And during the summer reading program when I volunteered, I just fell in love
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00:02:10.830 --> 00:02:14.801 because, the Iowa State Extension office would bring, like, insect zoos
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00:02:14.801 --> 00:02:18.938 to different libraries around the state because in many smaller
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00:02:18.938 --> 00:02:22.142 communities, the summer reading program is the family vacation.
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00:02:22.142 --> 00:02:25.445 And so educational edifying
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00:02:25.445 --> 00:02:28.581 recreational program is really where libraries shine in the summer.
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00:02:29.115 --> 00:02:33.119 And this little person of a completely different gender and age
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00:02:33.119 --> 00:02:37.423 and race came up to me and said, Sam, if you'll hold this tarantula, I'll pet them.
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00:02:38.691 --> 00:02:39.959 And I had
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00:02:39.959 --> 00:02:43.763 this moment where I realized that I was going to love libraries
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00:02:43.763 --> 00:02:44.497 the rest of my life,
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00:02:44.497 --> 00:02:46.099 and I was never going to stop talking about it
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00:02:46.099 --> 00:02:49.102 because there are so many Sam Helmick's out there who don't yet know
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00:02:49.335 --> 00:02:52.572 that two people from completely different backgrounds can come together
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00:02:52.805 --> 00:02:56.643 and have a transformative experience and face like a fear.
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00:02:57.143 --> 00:02:59.679 And like that little kiddo grew up in my library.
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00:02:59.679 --> 00:03:00.880 I got a job there.
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00:03:00.880 --> 00:03:05.351 I continued to grow, and re-shifted my career because I saw the impact.
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00:03:05.451 --> 00:03:06.486 We are two people now
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00:03:06.486 --> 00:03:10.557 whose lives have intersected, because a library creates an opportunity
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00:03:10.557 --> 00:03:13.893 for neighbors to be thought partners, and for relative strangers
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00:03:13.893 --> 00:03:16.896 who may not organically see each other in a community otherwise,
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00:03:18.064 --> 00:03:20.133 to have these moments of transformation.
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00:03:20.133 --> 00:03:23.870 And so that led me to applying for a job.
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00:03:23.870 --> 00:03:26.739 It led me to serving on the American Library Association's
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00:03:26.739 --> 00:03:29.876 Libraries transform campaigns so that there were others out there
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00:03:29.876 --> 00:03:32.745 that could be told, hey, you're going to want to do a 180 on this.
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00:03:32.745 --> 00:03:34.314 Libraries are incredible.
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00:03:34.314 --> 00:03:38.351 And, now I get to do that every single day at the Iowa City Public Library.
 

Every day is different because I support the many ways our library connects with the community. I work alongside outreach, bookmobile, circulation, and marketing teams to expand access to library services and remove barriers for the people we serve. Some days I'm helping develop community partnerships, advocating for intellectual freedom, or supporting staff as they bring new ideas to life.

Community & Access Services Coordinator

Librarians are just gatekeepers of information.

Falling In Love With Libraries

Can you tell us what your favorite part of your job is?
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00:00:02.168 --> 00:00:06.906 Being able to uncover, a hidden gem almost every week, whether I'm
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00:00:06.906 --> 00:00:11.277 being spurred by a reference question and having to go dig for answers,
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00:00:11.277 --> 00:00:14.280 or I'm curating specific materials
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00:00:14.314 --> 00:00:17.183 for a group visit to the library,
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00:00:17.183 --> 00:00:21.788 I'm stumbling across things that spanned ten hundreds of years ago
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00:00:21.788 --> 00:00:25.358 that are incredible works, things that, you know,
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00:00:25.358 --> 00:00:28.728 live outside of the rare book vault that I would still find,
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00:00:28.728 --> 00:00:33.466 you know, incredibly unique, but especially if they have to do with art
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00:00:33.466 --> 00:00:37.704 or can relate to art history, because then I can see myself in the collection.
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00:00:38.438 --> 00:00:43.043 And I like to tell people that while we are a STEM library, and
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00:00:43.043 --> 00:00:47.080 that can come off as really intimidating to some folks outside of academia.
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00:00:47.414 --> 00:00:52.385 There is something in here for everyone, and you would not believe
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00:00:52.385 --> 00:00:55.488 the hidden gems you know, from works on
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00:00:55.955 --> 00:00:59.626 printmaking or cookbooks or photography.
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00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:00.727 You know, all of these things
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00:01:00.727 --> 00:01:05.432 that might find themselves on the outskirts of science and technology.
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00:01:05.432 --> 00:01:10.370 What really ends up being is this holistic view of how society is built,
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00:01:10.370 --> 00:01:14.174 this framework of information that has been accrued over
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00:01:14.174 --> 00:01:17.343 time, that lends itself to things that we take advantage of every day.
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00:01:17.710 --> 00:01:19.946 It's really opened my eyes to a lot of things
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00:01:19.946 --> 00:01:23.850 that I've never learned before or never even conceptualized before.
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00:01:23.850 --> 00:01:27.087 So my favorite part is just getting to spend time with this collection,
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00:01:27.554 --> 00:01:31.224 and having the opportunity to explore it, in depth as I can.
 

My one regret is that I didn't diversify my educational experience as much as I could. There are so many paths under the library and information services umbrella. I'd encourage students to look at all the different aspects that make information services work: cataloging, metadata, archives, management, etc. Look at your course catalog, find the thing that intimidates you, and see if you can face it head on. The more you can expand your toolset, the better!

My days are split between helping people navigate our unique STEM and history-of-science collections and introducing new audiences to all that the library has to offer. As a reference librarian, I answer research questions from visitors, scholars, and researchers around the world. As an instruction librarian, I curate materials for class visits, exhibits, and programs that help people engage with the collection. My favorite part of my job is being able to uncover a hidden gem almost every week.

Passion

Why I Chose Sustainable And Responsible Investing

Why I Chose Sustainable And Responsible Investing

Madison Hardy

886 videos on Passion: