>> I actually started at Girls Inc.
as a facilitator, teen program
facilitator in 2006.
And I started a month after
I graduated from UCI.
And that pretty much means that I was out
in the field, that's called direct service.
I was in the front lines.
So I was working at different high schools,
junior highs and the 2 detention facilities,
Orange County Juvenile Hall
and the Youth Guidance Center.
And you really get a feel for other
organizations within the county so I was able
to learn about other agencies
doing similar work and Girls Inc.
came up. I applied, I became
a teen program facilitator.
About a year later, I was promoted
to a Prevention Programs Coordinator
which meant I was facilitating a
little bit, but also overseeing staff.
And then, recently, I was promoted to a
Program Services Manager which is a lot
of the behind the scenes work, but a lot
of high level thinking which is great
because I get to use my graduate degree now.
I went to UCI, I'm a 2 timer
so a die-hard Anteater.
And in my undergraduate degree was in
comparative literature and I minored
in science in criminology among society.
And then my graduate degree was in DASA
which is demographic and social analysis.
I chose the bachelor's in comparative
literature because I really liked it.
I think it's really important to also realize
that, yes, I majored in comparative literature,
but I'm not necessarily using that
per se, right now in my career.
I have to write reports for grants for internal,
external purposes, but I really made sure
that I picked a major that I enjoyed,
that was useful in a certain degree.
But I had experience to fall back
on, to land me into an industry
and an organization like Girls Inc.
I did have an internship.
I was actually a part of Sage
here at UCI and I was a marketing
and communications intern at Beckman Coulter.
Having that experience as an intern,
people are a little bit more forgiving.
Oh, it's okay, you don't know how to
facts analyze, here I'll show you.
So I was able to really kind
of fine tune some of my skills
that I would have had to
struggle with at Girls Inc.
had I started right off the bat.
After college-- so I graduated
in the summer of 2006.
I took a few summer classes to finish it out.
A month later, I applied to Girls Inc.
and I was accepted as teen program facilitator.
So I jumped right in to the workforce.