Networking and Veterans

My plan for Leadership After City Year has changed significantly while I’ve been with the program. I initially came to CYGP thinking that it was a year-long stop on my way back to Chicago, where a large number of my family and friends live. Midway through my second year, my priorities shifted.

I still want to pursue my Master of Social Work degree in order to make myself a better public servant.

I still want to provide the best possible care to the men and women of our military who return home injured, physically and emotionally struggling to acclimate back into civilian life.

Rather than go to school in Chicago, though, I want to stay in Philadelphia. I have grown to love this city. I am committed to the students here, the neighborhoods here, and the City Year site here.

Rather than seek employment in Chicago, I will be seeking placement as a case manager at a hospital on an overseas airbase. I do not know how plausible this plan is at present, but I know that if I do not try, the answer is automatically, ‘no.’
In addition to the MSW, I also want to pursue my Master of Science in Social Policy. I feel that earning these two degrees will aid not only in my on the ground service to veterans, but will make me a more powerful player in changing the way veterans are treated upon return home and upon discharge from the military.

This change in plans came after learning about different possibilities in round tables and meetings with professionals in the City Year network. When I first heard about 'networking opportunities' as one of the intangible benefits of City Year, I had now real concept of what that actually meant. Now that I've had conversations with some of the people I've met through City Year, I realize that my service years have opened doors to me that I didn't even know to knock on before I got to CYGP.

Megan, 24, recruitment senior corps member