Janice has a strong passion for and commitment to youth in her community.  For more than10 years she has made a difference in the lives of children through coaching, one-on-one behavioral training, and leading parent support groups.  In 2009, Janice moved from California to Tennessee and enrolled full time in Walden’s PhD in Psychology program to help her further promote social change.  She met with Career Services to discuss her long-term career goal of making a greater impact in the lives of troubled youth. 

When Janice contacted Career Services, she wanted to focus her efforts on her education rather than seek full-time employment.  Nevertheless, we encouraged her to gain substantive experience by seeking out volunteer opportunities in alignment with her future career goals. Janice researched volunteer opportunities on www.volunteermatch.org  by doing an advanced search and selecting “virtual opportunities.”  Her efforts paid off.  She landed a virtual volunteer position where she designed a comprehensive Life Skills Guide for other life skills coaches at a non-profit organization. 

Janice applied her knowledge of effective group facilitation to develop materials for other behavior specialists to use with their clients.  This project gave her train-the-trainer experience and advanced her expertise to the next level; she plans to develop additional life skills resources and market them to organizations.

Janice demonstrated that volunteering can be a great way to build one’s resume, acquire new skills, and develop expertise in a particular area.  She plans to continue her volunteer efforts and combine them with paid work in the future, all while fostering her social change mission.

Written by Career Services Advisor Dina Bergren

If you have a success story to share with us, please email careerservices@waldenu.edu.