By Dave Cucchiara
Communications & Program Associate
Career trajectories are almost never linear. For most, they hinge on good timing, a stroke of luck, and enough self-motivation to keep pushing forward when the path ahead isn’t necessarily clear. That’s the mix that changed things for William Sanchez.
At 19, he was managing a QuickChek convenience store and working a gas station job on the side to make ends meet. The hours were steady, but it wasn’t the fulfilling work he longed for.
“I remember one day I woke up and thought, I need to do something with my life,” William said. “I’ve always wanted to help people, from a very young age.”
So, he did something that felt, in his own words, “maybe ill-advised.” He quit both jobs without another one lined up and started applying for positions in the human services field — rehabilitation centers, direct support positions, anything that would let him help people directly.
The Arc of Morris County was the first organization to call him back.
William came to the field with more than good intentions. He’s a first-generation immigrant whose family is from Peru, and growing up, he helped his parents navigate systems and paperwork in a language they were still adapting to, often leading them to community programs and outside support along the way. He also has an older sister in the IDD (intellectual and developmental disabilities) community, which gave him, as he puts it, “a closer relationship with, and deeper understanding of, this community than the average employee.” At the very least, he carried with him a different perspective earned through his life experience.
That background is what he brought to his first interview at the ArcMorris — fifteen minutes early, as it turned out. The organization’s future CEO, who happened to be in the building prepping the interviewer, saw William waiting, and stepped in. What was scheduled as a group interview became a more intimate meeting. Rather than the typical two-to-three week wait to evaluate all the candidates, he was hired on the spot.
“That was great,” William said. “I started training and immediately fell in love with the job.”
From there, the Arc continued to open doors for him to grow. He started as a DSP Recreational Specialist in the McARP program under Leeann Essig, the Assistant Director of Camp & Recreation, and within a couple of months was already stepping into informal leadership, delegating tasks, documenting everything, and staying calm through emergencies. When a leadership opening came up, William walked through the open door and asked to be considered for team lead. Instead, after checking in across every program he’d touched, the Arc offered him something bigger, Program Supervisor.
“They were confident in giving me the Program Supervisor role,” he said.
In a little over a year, William went from convenience store manager to front-line recreational specialist to supervising a team of six. He now coordinates coverage for events that draw nearly 100 people, manages McARPs vans, helps with new safety policies, outreach to families, group homes, and venues, negotiates accessible spaces and private instructors for McARP. He’s also brought Special Olympics programming back into the recreation program, a direct outgrowth of his own belief in the value of fitness.
“I do think the Arc gives a lot of opportunities to people who are clearly striving for it,” he said, “not just people who are coming in for a paycheck.”
William’s story is a story of two doors opening. One is the door the Arc opened for him, hiring him on the spot, then promoting him based on personal initiative rather than seniority. The other is the door he’s now opening for the people he serves and the staff he leads, building a more engaged, human-centered program from the ground up. It’s a crystal-clear example of what the F. M. Kirby Foundation looks for in its grantee partnerships — an investment in one person’s self-reliance that compounds quietly and diligently into something that strengthens an entire community.
