Five Years Full-Time: A Letter to Our Student Leaders

Written by Nicole Nidea, Executive Director

As Nicole marks five years serving SODA full-time and eleven years overall with the organization, she has reflected on the journey that brought her from student chapter leader to an organ, eye, and tissue donation professional.

Like many students who first become involved with SODA, Nicole initially joined to make a difference while growing as a leader herself. What began as a campus involvement opportunity ultimately shaped her career path, leadership style, and long-term commitment to advocacy.

Over the past eleven years, she has watched countless student leaders experience similar growth through SODA. Students who once joined to volunteer, build their resumes, or explore healthcare interests have gone on to pursue careers in medicine, public health, nonprofit leadership, communications, and advocacy. Along the way, they have also helped educate communities, amplify donor family and recipient stories, and inspire conversations that save and heal lives.

In recognition of this milestone, Nicole wrote the following letter to current and future SODA student leaders: a reflection on the lasting impact of student advocacy and the ways one “yes” can shape far more than a college experience.

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To the student who just said “yes” to leading a SODA chapter, the one who just joined their campus chapter, and the one wondering what's next after SODA,

Right now, it may feel like a campus commitment. A resume booster. Another meeting added to your already busy schedule.

But I want you to know something I didn’t fully understand when I first got involved with SODA:

Your advocacy may turn into so much more.

During my first few weeks of college, I attended a tour of a local organ procurement organization’s donor care unit. At the time, I thought I wanted to go to medical school, so I signed up because the medical setting sounded interesting. I didn’t really know what an OPO was, and I certainly didn’t expect that one event would shape the next 11 years of my life.

But during that visit, I heard a donor family story shared by one of SODA’s founders. Suddenly, organ donation was no longer an abstract healthcare topic. It became deeply human.

Soon after, I joined the original SODA chapter at Washington University in St. Louis.

At first, I approached SODA the way many students approach leadership opportunities. I wanted to make a difference, but I also wanted to grow professionally. I started in a marketing role and eventually became chapter president.

Nicole celebrating National Donate Life Month as SODA at Washington University in St. Louis's President alongside SODA Founder, Sara Royf, in 2017

What impacted me most, though, were the moments that reminded me this work extended far beyond campus.

Our chapter volunteered regularly with our local OPO. One of our favorite activities was making blankets for donor families alongside transplant recipients and donor family members. Talking with people whose lives had been directly impacted by donation changed my understanding of advocacy. SODA stopped feeling like “just a student organization,” and it became a community built around the power of helping others.

Along the way, I gained experience in leadership, communication, teamwork, and advocacy without fully realizing how much those skills would shape my future.

Years later, after college, I began working in the nonprofit sector. During one of my first staff meetings at another nonprofit organization, I remember thinking, "This feels exactly like a SODA planning meeting."

Without realizing it, SODA had already prepared me for mission-driven work.

It gave me confidence. It taught me how to lead a team, communicate a mission, build partnerships, and advocate for something bigger than myself. Eventually, I returned to SODA as a volunteer to continue growing professionally and personally, and that journey led me to the role of SODA’s first-ever full-time employee.

Now, five years into serving SODA professionally and 11 years after attending that first event, I keep thinking about how one small decision can shape so much of a person’s future.

That’s why I think student leaders often underestimate their impact.

You may think you’re simply planning events or running a campus organization, but you are also building skills and experiences that will follow you long after graduation. You are learning how to lead with empathy, communicate about public health, and turn compassion into action. 

And in many cases, those experiences shape careers.

Over the years, I’ve watched SODA shape future physicians, nonprofit leaders, public health professionals, and advocates. I recently wrote a medical school recommendation letter for one of our chapter leaders, and I’ve watched students discover passions for fields like sociology and public health because of conversations that began through SODA.

Time and time again, our students prove something I wish more organizations recognized: Young people are capable of extraordinary impact when they are trusted with meaningful leadership.

That impact reaches far beyond campus.

Nicole representing SODA National at AOPO's 2025 Annual Meeting as the former Program Director

Sometimes the ripple effect of this work appears in unexpected ways: listening to a podcast episode featuring one of our SODA families that pops up organically in my feed, seeing a student leader featured nationally in People.com for her advocacy, or learning someone recommended a local SODA chapter in conversation without realizing they were speaking to the mother of one of our founders.

Those moments are reminders that this movement continues to grow in ways we cannot always measure.

And that’s what I hope you understand as you begin your own journey with SODA.

You may not remember every meeting or every event you organize. You may never fully know how many people heard your message and reconsidered what they believed about donation. But this experience has the potential to stay with you long after college ends.

It may shape your career.

It may shape your confidence.

It may shape the way you lead for the rest of your life.

So, to the student who just said “yes” to leading a SODA chapter: Thank you.

Thank you for choosing to advocate.

Thank you for choosing to lead.

Thank you for believing young people can make a difference.

You may think you’re joining a campus organization, but you may actually be beginning something that will shape lives, communities, and even your own future in ways you cannot yet imagine.

Together in saving lives,

Nicole Nidea

Executive Director

Nicole in April 2026 with the Gregory family and Leslie Bacardi, whose generosity allowed SODA to hire full-time staff in 2021, alongside Sophia, SODA's Engagement Director, and Susan Angel Miller, SODA Board Member