It's not how you start... it's where you finish
2025 - Arlene Short
2025 The Arthur O. Eve Education and Community Service Award
BEOC Class of 1989
Ms. Arlene Short refers to those who have positively influenced her and her life’s trajectory as “sparkle people”. Now she has become a “sparkle person” to others. A single mother on public assistance who raised two children, she is currently the Manager of Outreach and Recruitment at Goodwill of Western New York.
“Serving people in some way is the ultimate way I use my experience to help people whose life hasn’t gone their way..”
Ms. Short graduated from the College Preparation program at the Buffalo Educational Opportunity Center in 1989. Her professional interest evolved, and she later pursued an allied health career. To prepare to sit for the BOCES LPN program, she re-enrolled at the BEOC and took additional math classes. It was here that Mr. Morris, her teacher, inspired her. “Mr. Morris was my ‘sparkle person’. He had an aura about him that taught students how to think critically. He helped me see that I had a right to make decisions for myself and that I had worth.”
Arlene enrolled in the BOCES LPN program and for 18 months she balanced family and school responsibilities. She recalls getting her children on the bus at 6:00am and to daycare and then traveling to school. Upon graduation, Arlene worked as an LPN for ten years at Buffalo General Hospital in the Medical Surgical Unit. Most of her patients were uninsured and struggling to meet the demands of everyday life, like she had.
Ms. Short’s additional work experience includes being the Account Executive for 97 Rock, Oldies 104 and WBLK. She and her former husband co-owned a Buffalo West Side restaurant and a sausage making business in Puerto Rico where they lived for four years. Upon moving back to Buffalo, Arlene worked as a Patient Navigator for GBUAHN, Greater Buffalo United Accountable Healthcare Network.
Inherently understanding that her passion is to help people, Arlene accepted the Goodwill position in 2019. Serving as the community outreach voice and media spokesperson, she promotes Goodwill’s two areas of study: manufacturing and information technology. These 15-day programs mimic a workday and embrace the Goodskills Career Builder workforce development initiative which offers on-site experiential training at factories and businesses, industry certifications, career soft skills workshops and financial literacy awareness. As a recruiter, Arlene builds partnerships with community organizations, including with the BEOC, to support the agency’s wrap around services for its enrollees while also referring those who can benefit to the BEOC for additional training.
Ms. Arlene Short has shared that she approaches each day with the intent “to make a difference in someone’s life, like Mr. Morris at BEOC did for mine”. That is exactly what a “sparkle person” does.
Alumni Affairs and Student Development Office