About a month about completing my PhD and graduating, I accepted a 6 month Americorps position with the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida as an outdoor program intern. The things that attracted me to the position were: 1) service/giving back 2) gaining experience in outreach in a non profit organization with a mission I believed in 3) paying off student loan debt. As part of the Americorps program, an education award is given if you complete a certain number of hours (900 hours in my case) which can be used to pay off student loan debt or current tuition.
"Respond to every call that excites your spirit." ~Rumi
In my path toward finding my niche after a Phd, I decided to only take on jobs/projects that got me excited, that made me feel happy to accept and not dread the first day. Applied work, giving back to the community, and teaching those who are lacking high quality information about scientific issues are all things that actually excite me. I realize that it may take time find out where I fit in with my degree and what sort of non-traditional (non academic) career it might be. But I am glad to have finally made the decision to start listening to my intuition.
My experience at Girl Scouts of West Central Florida was a major change for me from my PhD and a great learning experience. I had a lot of freedom in what I worked on--which allowed me to work on projects I was passionate about or thought would make the biggest difference. Thus, when I noticed that gardening was not a part of the experience available for Girl Scouts in our area at the camps or in their general programming, I started gardening projects at 2 of the Girl Scout camps in our area and connected with a non profit urban farm in St Petersburg, FL to provide free programs for girls. I learned so much in the process about preparing different sizes of land for vegetable and native plant gardens and how to engage girls of different ages in garden activities.
I had to get outside of my comfort zone and make connections with a lot of local organizations, government agencies and others in the environmental education or land management fields to set up events, activities and establish connections for future programs. I also got to experience working in a large non profit with a full marketing department, customer service department, finances department and a CEO and COO and learned how that functions as a team. It was such a nice group of people who lifted me up everyday, which was a big change from being a Phd student finishing my dissertation from home and often feeling very alone.
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