By Julia Mericle
News Assignment Editor
Five alumni working in non-profit and service professions returned to campus Friday, Feb. 27 to share their experiences with students as part of the Call to Career: Insight into Non-Profit and Service Professions series.
Panel members included: Ruth Harper-Rhode, ’09, ’10, public relations manager with Girl Scouts of Western New York; Laura McDowell, ’09, social worker with the Catholic Charities of Buffalo; Brianne Rehac, ’10, ’13, counselor with Horizon Health Services of Buffalo; Kevin Cilano, ’11, team member with St. Francis Inn Philadelphia; and Alicia D’Alessandro, ’12, corporate and foundation relations manager with Habitat for Humanity Capital District.
The Career and Professional Readiness Center (CPRC), Franciscan Center for Social Concern and First Year Experience hosted the event, which took place from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Hall of Fame Room in the Reilly Center and was followed by a networking session.
Erica Fleischman Roethel, CPRC career counselor, introduced the alumni. She said she hoped the event would help raise students’ awareness of opportunities in the non-profit world.
The panelists began by easing students’ nerves by telling them it is fine not to know what they are going to do after graduation.
“It really is easy for us now to follow the map backwards,” Rehac said. “But back then I didn’t have a clue. You can’t see the forest through the trees. And that’s really exciting and really terrifying at the same time.”
Rehac said that in today’s world, no one will enter the workforce and hold only one job for the rest of his or her lives, so do not be afraid to try different jobs out.
Michael Specht, a junior theology minor, said hearing the stories of the alumni not know what they wanted to do when they were juniors was helpful.
“There is so much uncertainty in our lives right now because we don’t know what we’re doing after graduation,” Specht said.
According to Fleischman Roethel, this uncertainty is nothing to worry about.
“With time, exploration and allowing yourself to try things that are outside your comfort zone is when one’s calling starts to present itself,” Fleischman Roethel said.
D’Alessandro spent a year serving with Americorps after her graduation. From the time she entered college, D’Alessandro’s vision of what she wanted to do changed greatly. She said that in high school she was focused mainly on herself and traditional success through working hard and going to school.
“That was my dream, but then I came here and was like ‘Wait a second, there is so much more than just me,’” D’Alessandro said. “I definitely caught the service bug, and that’s all I wanted to do.”
D’Alessandro said that she always thought non-profit had to be direct service, as she experienced with her time in AmeriCorps. However, she said she learned that indirect service, such as fundraising in her current position with Habitat for Humanity, is valuable as well.
“If you have a heart for helping others, that can be a desk job, that can be communications or that can be so many different things,” D’Alessandro said. “It is more about the mission of the organization you are working for. If your heart aligns with that then you are going to be happy.”
McDowell agreed with this, saying students should look beyond what they are passionate about in their majors to what they are passionate about in life.
Specht said that he would like to work for a non-profit organization after graduation.
“I definitely feel the education I have gotten here has given me a need and a calling to serve others for as long as I can,” Specht said.
Hannah Schaefer, a freshman international studies major, said she is also interested in working with non-profit groups in the future.
“I went [to the alumni panel] out of curiosity to see how past alum have made it work financially and academically,” Schaefer said.
According to D’Alessandro, non-profits do not deserve the reputation of overworking and underpaying their employees. She told students not to work for anticipation of the weekend, but rather find something they are passionate about.
“I can honestly say that I love my job and no amount of money can give me the amount of fulfillment I have,” D’Alessandro said.
However, the panelists did not ignore the constraints that student loans and financial stress put on new graduates. Rehac said there is a balance between being smart with money and also going after desires.
According to Cilano, non-profit work is not just a career, but rather a style of living.
Fleishman Roethel said the CPRC was excited to reconnect with a panel of alumni with such diverse backgrounds and experiences.
“We’re so blessed at Bona’s to have a strong and committed alumni network who continue to give back and help current students.”
