Making a Difference With Make-A-Wish

After completing the honors service-learning course Social Change, Corrin Tangarone, BS ’24, MPA, Class of 2025, had just one wish: She wanted to make a difference in the lives of others.

That wish is now coming true thanks to her work with Make-A-Wish Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the nonprofit organization whose mission is to grant the wishes of children living with critical illnesses.

As a wish coordinator, Tangarone is part of a team that helps make those dreams a reality. “The most rewarding part of what I do is meeting the families and being part of making their child’s wish come true,” she says.

During the last 42 years, Make-A-Wish Massachusetts and Rhode Island has worked with more than 10,000 children, sending them and their families to special travel destinations, arranging meetings with favorite athletes, and fielding other, more specialized requests. “We had a 4-year-old who wanted to be a garbage truck driver,” says Tangarone with a smile. “It’s very easy to love my job.”

Studying nonprofit management

It was Professor Sonia Alleyne, says Tangarone, who inspired her to follow her own dreams and work for a nonprofit. “She gave me the spark I needed by working closely with me to make this happen,” she says. Already a public relations major in the College of Arts & Sciences, Tangarone decided to minor in nonprofit management through the Sawyer Business School.

The Social Change service-learning course that Tangarone took with Alleyne is one of the components of SBS’s Business With Purpose initiative. “It really planted a seed for Corrin,” says Alleyne, who also serves as executive-in-residence in the Department of Public Service and Healthcare Administration. “She is such a mature, determined, and innovative person, and she was on a quest to learn about public service and make her imprint on society.”

As part of the course, students worked with Home Base, a Boston Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital program whose mission is to heal the invisible wounds of military veterans and their families through clinical care, wellness, education, and research.

Tangarone and her fellow students worked in teams to create a PowerPoint presentation and research paper that identified programs that address the needs of BIPOC veterans in the New England region.

“Pitching my ideas to a real client gave me the confidence to view myself as a working professional,” says Tangarone. “Working in a group setting also taught me how to play to everyone’s strengths for an end goal.”

‘A joy you don’t find anywhere else’

With Alleyne’s encouragement and guidance, Tangarone ignited her public service career by enrolling in Suffolk’s 4 + 1 Master of Public Administration Program. She now works as a grad fellow for Alleyne, organizing projects and events, managing class rosters, and coordinating the calendar for distinguished lecturer Geoff Beckwith.

“Corrin is a good listener, which is very important,” says Alleyne. “You can give her any task and know that she will do it to the best of her ability.”

Tangarone first joined Make-A-Wish last fall as an intern, and was promoted to wish coordinator in December. In this part-time role, she accepts referrals, conducts research, and handles project management, all while working one-on-one with the wish families.

Make-A-Wish Chief Mission Officer Amy Carroll calls Tangarone “professional beyond her years. She is detail-oriented and a quick learner who seeks solutions voluntarily. Our team adores her.”

One of Tangarone’s favorite experiences was interacting with five families from the United States and Canada on Make-A-Wish Night during a Boston Celtics-Minnesota Timberwolves game early this season. Before tipoff, the families were invited onto the court at TD Garden to meet such Celtics’ stars as Jason Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis, and Jrue Holiday. Being part of such a powerful moment was, she says, “just indescribable.”

Following her Suffolk graduation in May, Tangarone will join Make-A-Wish on a full-time basis.

“I’m committed to their mission,” she says. “There is a certain joy working in public service and impacting the lives of people that you just don’t find anywhere else.”