What is your current role at Yale University?
I am a Community Wellness Specialist (CWS) within Yale College Community Care. What we affectionately call YC3. We are an additional mental health and wellness resource for Yale College students that are focused on accessibility and feasibility; meeting students where they are in terms of where they live, learn, and socialize.
What are your main responsibilities?
As a CWS, I meet with students non-clinically, for one-on-one wellness check-ins. In these sessions, students and I work together to create effective strategies and skill building that will help improve areas of their well-being, like sleep or motivation, for example. The other half of our program are College Care Clinicians, or CCCs, who are therapists, and consists of licensed social workers and psychologists. The difference between us is that CCCs are HIPAA bound, and more therapeutic and process focused, while CWSs are not bound by HIPAA, but are more skill building and strategy focused. We also work closely to support the Deans and Heads of the fourteen Residential Colleges, as well as different departments, and student groups on campus, to plan wellness programs around a topic they are interested in.
What do you like most about your work?
I think I would have to say working with the students. I have so much passion for this work. It derives from when I was an undergraduate student. It felt like my voice mattered. When I’m working with students, I feel like I’m having that impact; at least I’m hoping I’m having that impact on them. In this setting, it’s more of a collaboration. We work together. I’ll ask leading questions like ‘How can I help you?’ or ‘What do you think you need to be supported’? I work with them to find their own vision and drive to identify the changes they may need to make. I’m there as a guide to steer them in the right direction. I love the fact that I get to connect with students regularly. It also makes me think about what more I can do to support their overall wellbeing.
How does your job affect your general lifestyle?
I think it has impacted me greatly because I can’t talk the talk without walking the walk! What I mean by that is, if I’m giving a student a recommendation, promoting certain strategies or making statements on wellness, and not practicing them in my own life, I feel that it’s not genuine. That’s not me committing myself to the work that I’m promoting.
This aspect of the job has influenced my life for sure. This role, in several ways, can be transformative elsewhere in whatever setting I’m in.
How did you begin your career?
My first experience that connected me with student affairs was as a resident assistant (RA) when I was in college. That impacted me greatly. My supervisor of the RA program, was my mentor. I told him I wanted to do this full time and asked him how I do this professionally. His initial response was to steer me outside of the field because it is a lot of work. Being a successful RA, leading student programs and initiatives, lead to an internship in my senior year of college in the Dean of Students Office.
What steps would you recommend one take to prepare to enter this field?
Many people don’t know what they want until they are seniors or graduate. Then they stumble on this field. This is not a degree that you can get at an undergraduate level. What I would say to a college level student thinking about this is to get involved on campus. Find different student groups and organizations that speak to you. Applying to be an RA or an orientation leader would be a good first step. Connect with mentors on campus. Leaders that are within orientation and residential life. If you can, try to start early, say in your sophomore year, working within the Dean of Students Office, or different community centers would also support your journey into this field.
If you could do it all over again, would you choose the same path for yourself? If not, what would you change?
Yes! Everything in my life up to this point has worked out insanely well and I couldn’t be more grateful. The only thing I would add would be allowing myself to find that balance of creativity.
I have a background in theater, and I miss it. I am trying to find little ways to bring it back into my life, but I think everything has lined up beyond my wildest imagination. I never thought at 24 I would wind up with a great job, a master’s degree, and employed by a wonderful institution.
What does YAAA mean to you and how have you contributed as a member?
I’ve gone to some of the events and workshops YAAA has had. I try to be involved with programming that happens in the Afro American Cultural Center, or The House, and cross collaborations with the AACC and the YAAA. I’m hoping to get more involved in the future, possibly on the steering committee.