Caitlin Rogers, Chief Storyteller at Next Day Animations

How Rotary Youth Exchange Program Influenced Starting Next Day Animations

In 2001, Caitlin Rogers was a Junior at Edina High School when she mentioned wanting to be an exchange student. About a year later, she was on an airplane to New Zealand. From this, she learned that Rotarians make this happen. In New Zealand, she lived in Kumeau Village, which was in a primarily farming area. That year, she lived with four different host families. She attended high school in New Zealand, and she also was able to graduate from Edina High School. From being an exchange student, Caitlin learned many new useful professional skills. These include being able to talk to strangers, running a website, and structuring a joke. She also had many adventures and discovered multiple differences in culture between the United States and New Zealand. 

After being an exchange student, she attended college and began working in nonprofits. Additionally, she managed trips for a Quaker camp for teenagers in Virgina. It was an incredible experience, and the summer camp was also where she met her business partner who was the director of the camp. Currently, they are now Next Day Animations, which is a company that makes explainer videos. Next Day Animations are based all around the world, and there are twenty-six individuals working at Next Day Animations right now.

 At Next Day Animations, they make very short animations, which last between thirty seconds and three minutes long. They focus on making animations quickly and making animations that are persuasive and engaging. Next Day Animations is a Certified B Corporation, which means that they meet the highest standards of social and environmental impact. There are two types of animations that Next Day Animations make, which are whiteboard and vector animations. Next Day Animations has clients from all kinds of industries, including nonprofits, Fortune 500’s and tech groups. All of these groups are working on complex topics and/or important messages, so Next Day Animations is trying to leverage animation and humor to capture audiences.

 

Next Day Animations works with companies who mostly mission based. The company works using consensus, shared leadership, intentionality, commitment to equity, and daily appreciations. Additionally, Next Day Animations do good through their grant program, giving out scholarships, and spending a lot of time volunteering. 

Vocational

Jenifer Loon is a South Dakota native, and she grew up on a small dairy farm in Willow Lake. She went to college at Augustana University at Sioux Falls, South Dakota where she majored in Government and International Affairs. While in college, she had the opportunity to do a summer internship for one of the United States senators from South Dakota. For the internship, she went to Washington D.C. for six weeks, and it was a life-changing event for her. After college, she moved to Washington D.C. and ended up working in Capitol Hill for about thirteen years.

Jenifer's husband also went to Augustana University and moved to Washington D.C where they eventually got married. Jenifer has two daughters, Erika and Rachel, who were both born in Washington D.C. Jenifer’s family moved to Minnesota in 1998. Currently, Erika is a third year medical student and Rachel is working for a commercial construction company doing marketing and communications work. In addition to her Capital Hill career, Jenifer worked in legislative policy for trade associations, and she ran for State Representative in 2008. She won that seat in 2008, and she served until the end of 2018. Throughout that time and since then, she has been an active volunteer in the community. Currently, she is on the board of the PROP Shop, Rotary, and Eden Prairie Local News. Additionally, she is doing some advocacy work for an education nonprofit called EdAllies.

Announcements:

  • We have a fundraiser in partnership with Fat Pants Brewing Company on Sunday, August 15th. The tickets will be sold in two hour frames, so we can follow any COVID-19 guidelines that are in place at that time. Irene will send out a list of opportunities for members to help organize the fundraiser.

  • Please join for the services for Bruce Hutchinson’s wife, Terry Hutchinson. It will take place at 2:00 pm on Saturday, May 8th at Grace Church.