>> Well, my first job was serving
as a Congressional aide for
Rush Holt in central Jersey.
And I served as a Congressional
aide very briefly.
And then I actually became a high school
teacher, did that for several years.
And I mean, I've always stayed in education.
So I did that.
You know, I worked for the New
York Historical Society briefly,
worked for [inaudible] test prep and
admissions briefly, and circled back to Rutgers.
And this is one of those stories of it's
not what you know, it's who you know.
My original introduction into the
program was as a teaching assistant
in an undergraduate course --
actually, the course that I teach now.
One day in one of my graduate courses
one of the instructors of the course --
this is actually a brand new course.
So I've actually been there from the
very beginning of this course, too.
So another unique experience.
And so she came into one of our grad
courses and said that she's looking
for teaching assistants for the course.
And it's called Work Society
and the Quality of Life.
And I decided to, you know, hop on board.
It was an interesting opportunity.
And, you know, I became a TA.
And that, I think, was in the fall
-- excuse me, spring -- spring 2010.
And then I just stayed on board as a TA
the following semester and, you know,
became a lead TA, eventually
became an assistant instructor.
And that was my lead-in into the
department on a full-time basis
because the instructor who's now the dean
of the school mentioned that they're looking
to bring someone in to do
exactly what I'm doing.
They created the position.
And so because I originally started out as a
TA, that was -- that was my foot in the door,
and that led me to this full-time opportunity.