Health and Human Services Professional Development

Start Planning for Grad School by   Jill Bowers   on   August 6, 2013   If you are a junior or senior, you have probably started thinking about whether or not you want to go to graduate school or what programs you may want to apply to. If you are just beginning your undergraduate studies, graduate school may not be on your mind at all yet being proactive NOW will ensure you have good options later…AND many of the things you can do now to start preparing for applying for graduate schools are similar to activities that will help you on the job market! Whether or not graduate school (for example, getting a Master’s Degree or PhD) is right for you depends on your career goals, your major, and many other factors. Many individuals want to pursue graduate school because it gives them greater earning power and more opportunities to advance their career, allows them to switch career paths, buys them time to think more about what they want to do after their academic...

What’s YOUR Plan? by   Jill Bowers   on   August 22, 2013   Are you planning for tomorrow? Next week? Next semester? Next Year? All are vital to your career. No plan = no productivity = no job. Begin by thinking about your long-term goals and then, the shorter-term goals. Then, plan out the weekly, daily, and monthly activities that help you to reach your goals. Below is a sample plan for someone who wants to become an administrator in a domestic violence agency (as an example).    Long-term goal: Become an administrator at a domestic violence agency within 8 years. Intermediate goals: Finish bachelor’s degree in human services program administration , human development and family studies, or program that trains you in family services (4 years on average). Receive a Master’s degree in human services program administration, HDFS, business administration, or other field that will train you for an administrator role (1.5 – 3 years, depen...

Sup, Doc? Approaching Professionals At Conferences the Right Way by   Jeremy Kanter, Guest Author   on   October 18, 2013   I attended my first national conferences last year for professional organizations in my field, The National Council on Family Relations and The Association of Family & Conciliation Courts. I had worked with a few professors, and our conference proposals were accepted. I was stoked because 1 – I got free trips to California and Arizona, 2 – I was excited to present my research and learn from other research presentations (yes, I am a dork), and 3 – I knew I would be applying for graduate schools this year and these conferences would be a great opportunity to network with students and professors at other Universities! At the same time, I had no idea what to do with myself.  So, I talked to my professors and other mentors about what I should wear, how I should approach others at the conferences, and how I could make the most out of my ...

What Do You Wish You Knew Before College? by   Mikki Sherwood   on   February 9, 2014 What do you wish you knew before you went to college? Do you have any hints for those starting an academic journey? Hannah Flom writes of the 14 things she wished she had known before college. I think her list is fun; you can go over to  Thought Catalo g to read the entire post. Some of her thoughts: • Making real friends takes time • It is hard to be away from home • Go to your professors’ office hours • Transferring schools is not the end of the world • College is a time for mistakes I especially like the fact that she allows for mistakes to be made. College is about trying new experiences. Some of those experiments are going to go very well, some….not so much. But, if you are afraid to try something new, and afraid of possible failure, you will miss so many opportunities. *Originally posted on the Career Skillet website (Permission granted by Jill Bowers).

Future PhD’s Success Guide         by   Jeremy Kanter, Guest Author   on   May 12, 2014           Many underclassmen don’t realize all of the necessary steps involved in applying for a PhD program, and research training is just one of those steps. Many of us use our first couple of years just to get acclimated to undergraduate life and focus on “the now.” I recently read,   Publish and Prosper , by Nathaniel Lambert, highly recommend if you are pursuing a PhD, and wanted to share some of the guidelines I followed.         Find out what interests you.   This is the greatest place to start. It is VITAL to understand what ignites your passion and find the research questions you want to answer or areas you want to study in graduate school. This can be done by reviewing classes you have taken and topics you have enjoyed learning about. Obviously, as an undergraduate, you will n...

Don’t Let Credit Card Use Drown You in Debt! by   Ashley Bigard, Guest Author   on   November 17, 2014 It is not uncommon to graduate from college with a high amount of debt. While student loans can quickly add up, another contributing factor is the use of credit cards. Credit cards are more available than in the past, enticing a majority of today’s college students to use credit cards to pay for their living expenses. This is making it even easier for students to end up in debt upon graduation. Knowledge about positive financial behavior is related to responsible credit card use among college students. Luckily, there are many tools that can help students gain the knowledge they need to live within their means so that credit cards do not have to be an option. There are apps, websites and calculators that can assist with budgeting. In addition, many universities provide financial literacy education to students. The best thing a student can do is figur...