Taylor’s Career Journey
When I was looking at colleges, Messiah was my top pick. I choose Messiah as my early admission school, and when they accepted me, I stopped the college search! I came in as a nursing student—because I thought this was my calling! But I quickly learned that it wasn’t the program for me, and I wasn’t sure what to do. Many people told me to just find another nursing program, but I knew Messiah was where I needed to be—I just needed to find the right program. After many meetings with different professors from various departments, as well as consulting Abby Book from the career center, I took the Foundations of Marriage and Family course. I instantly fell in love with the material, and almost immediately switched my major to HDFS spring of my first year! I realized that my calling was to help people, and I took that to mean that I was called to help people in the health world. However, HDFS also is focused on helping people, but instead of helping through healthcare it was through resource management, interpersonal relationships, and through social services and counseling. This was the help I was called to do!
Working as a Graduate Assistant at Messiah
I am working as a Graduate Assistant for Off-Campus programs here at Messiah University. This is a fancy way of saying that I help students study abroad for academic credit. I will be working in this role for 2 years while I work on my Master’s in Higher Education and Student Affairs.
How has HDFS prepared you?
When I walked away from my undergrad, I wasn’t sure where I was going with my HDFS degree. Even though I didn’t follow the “traditional” HDFS career path like many of my peers, I realized that was okay, because HDFS helped me learn how to simply love and support people. This fact is key in both graduate school and my current career. I am thankful because at its core, HDFS is about helping people—and I feel equipped to empower and push others towards success thanks to the skills I learned during my time as an HDFS student.
Taylor’s Advice
My biggest piece of advice is to use your electives on courses unrelated to your field. I took a lot of classes related to politics and religion at Messiah, and I found that those classes ended up helping me find more specific areas I am passionate about within HDFS. For example, it was thanks to the class “Ethnic and Racial Politics in America” that I learned about the ways race influences the inner-workings of our country, and how people are still hurting because of that. Additionally, you never know when one of those random classes might help you out in a job interview or in your work! I would also recommend finding a minor that combines your passion for HDFS with other interests you have. For instance, I was passionate about working with minority populations, and so I picked up the Multicultural Families minor. HDFS can be so broad, so find classes and experiences that help you find your niche within the field!