Sophie Brous ’21 (she/they) wasn’t planning on a career in social work, but when they came across Children’s Corps’s job posting on Handshake, Haverford’s Career Services site, they were inspired to investigate the field.
“As I read more about the program and went through the interview process, I felt drawn to the work and decided I wanted to pursue it,” she said. “I really wanted to work at home in New York City, and so I felt that this would give me the opportunity to contribute to my local community in a really positive way.”
Brous, a linguistics major and a Japanese and psychology double minor, was accepted as a Children’s Corp member and placed with Catholic Guardian Services’ Family Connections program. There, she works in preventative care, providing counseling and services to families and those around them at risk of child neglect or abuse.
Brous only recently started her work and is still learning more about it every day, but it will likely involve making visits to families and children to connect them with services and assisting licensed clinical social workers at the agency who provide counseling. Despite the unknowns, Brous is feeling excited about their future work.
“First and foremost, I’m eager to get out and help strengthen families and protect children’s safety,” they said. “I’m very excited to meet the families I work with and build trusting relationships with them. I also can’t wait to learn more about what social workers do day-to-day, and I’m excited to learn about the particular evidence-based therapeutic model I’ll be working with since I’ve learned about such models in psychology classes.”
In addition to her psychology courses, Brous said that an education course she took last spring also helped her feel prepared for this position.
“I took an education course last semester, ‘Community Learning Collaborative’, in which I did a lot of journaling that helped bring me a lot of clarity surrounding my role in this job and what I need to do to be an effective advocate for the families,” she said.
Brous hopes working at CC helps clarify what she might want to do next. They might pursue a master’s in social work or counseling or decide that they want to pursue a completely different career path.
“I’m looking forward to having some time away from school so that I can focus on figuring out what I enjoy doing for work!” she said.
“Where They’re Headed” is a blog series chronicling the post-collegiate plans of recent Haverford graduates.