Ricky’s Career Journey
During Ricky’s time as an HDFS student, he was able to find what he felt called to do. While still at Messiah, he was able to get his foot in the door with the Bair Foundation—which is a Christian foster care agency. Throughout Ricky’s senior year, he interned with Bair, which led to interviews and a job offer prior to graduation. Currently, he is an intake coordinator in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania working to recruit and certify foster homes.
Working as an Intake Coordinator
There really isn’t a typical day in the life of an intake coordinator. A large portion of my job includes working with the applicant families—from recruiting, to training, to paperwork, home visits and interviews, to writing approval documents. Communicating and working on and with applicant families is a large portion of my job. I also work on the referrals for the kids who need homes—calling families and seeing who is open to taking in the kid(s). When we get placements, I complete the initial visit and paperwork at the home after the child arrives. In my past week, I’ve done two placement visits, and will have at least one more before the end of my week! Lately, I have also been collaborating with people who provide donations—such as placement bags for kids and homemade blankets. Additionally, I work in collaboration with local countries, as this is where the kids come from!
How has HDFS prepared you?
I am very thankful for the opportunities HDFS presented to me. I met some wonderful friends and professors and learned every step of the way. There are so many different avenues with HDFS, which made me feel very prepared to enter life post-college. Overall, HDFS was very eye-opening to me. This was actually my third major, and I did not know where to go. With the help of an HDFS student, I realized I had a passion that aligned with the HDFS major.
Ricky’s Advice
The best advice I can give revolves around trying many different things. I took and handful of electives and made sure to take numerous HDFS classes in order to see what I liked best. Once you identify those interests, explore those—through internships, shadowing, discussions, etc. If you can get some experience before graduating, that can go a long way.