Meet Nene Castelan: The First Female Runner

For the first time in history, SOS has a female runner!! This historically male dominated job has been integrated as Nene Castelan hits the ground running this summer in her new position. We're so blessed to have her motivation and good humored personality on summer staff again!

Nene moved to Memphis at the age of 6, but says that she did not really consider herself a true Memphian until about a year ago when she became more exposed to the city through organizations like SOS.  She shared with us that after failing the first grade, she later was able to skip the fifth grade and eventually graduate from Collegiate School of Memphis! In addition to her school smarts, her bilingual abilities have also served her in many different ways.

Currently, Nene is a student at Christian Brothers University and says she chose CBU to be close to her family. After graduation, she hopes to have her own sock business or modernize and sell classical paintings. Painting and changing existing art to make it different and unique is one of her favorite hobbies! You'll also often find her lounging in her Eno hammock at Shelby Farms.

Nene applied to work at SOS after coming as a camper one year. Initially she came for the heavy duty work of roofing and to help people, but she said, "the same way I came into SOS was not the same way I left. I was definitely impacted and I knew I needed to come back because I wanted more than a week here and this is my second summer I get to spend at SOS."

When Nene was asked about the impact she hoped to leave with SOS, she replied, "As the first female runner SOS has had I hope to see a lot more diversity in every position offered here at SOS. I hope I'm not the first and last female runner. "

Thank you, Nene, for making SOS history!