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Christian service shapes vocational goals
Lisa Koop thought of going to graduate school to study psychology. Jon Miller was an automobile mechanic. Nathan Selzer considered teaching as a profession. Then they each moved to another place, lived in community with other young adults and served with a local agency. That’s when Koop’s mind was no longer on psychological pursuits, Miller’s fledgling career broke down and Selzer’s education took a recess. An assignment with Mennonite Voluntary Service or Service Adventure often is seen as a way to serve God and humankind. But as Koop, Miller and Selzer discovered, it also can be a time of vocational training, exposing participants to career opportunities they never might have considered otherwise. Inspired by a stint in the Dominican Republic while a student at Goshen (Ind.) College, Koop joined MVS in 1999 and worked two years as a paralegal with an immigration-assistance program in Harlingen, Texas. There she faced the intense needs of people fleeing their homelands for greater security and comfort in the United States. That led Koop to law school at Indiana University where she focused on immigration law and took internships with nonprofit organizations. After graduating this spring, she began work at a legal aid clinic affiliated with the University of Notre Dame Law school in South Bend, Ind., supervising law students whose work includes immigration cases. “[In MVS] I had to grapple with what it means to be North American, and I came to the realization that I need to use that privilege in some way to improve the circumstances of people coming from different situations,” Koop said. She admitted she has concerns about the legal system and the law profession but said it is a viable and important way to address some of the world’s problems. “The more I work in immigration,” Koop said, “the more I see a need for this kind of advocacy.” Unlike Koop, Miller had a job before his service stint, working as a mechanic in his home community of Kalona, Iowa, since graduating from high school in 2003. But, feeling adventurous, in February he began a Service Adventure assignment in Anchorage, Alaska, where he has been serving with an agency that provides sports and recreational opportunities for people with disabilities. Miller’s responsibilities include clerical work and assisting physical therapists, which was a new experience for him. “I never had interaction before with anything like this,” he said. “After a few months, auto mechanics wasn’t a high priority.” He now is pondering pursuing a career in physical therapy or athletic training when his Service Adventure term concludes in December. A pivotal event for Miller was assisting with Sadler’s Ultra Challenge, the world’s longest wheelchair and handcycle race. Conducted each July, it covers the 267 miles from Fairbanks to Anchorage. “Just reading the biographies of the racers makes me amazed at what they have come through,” Miller said. “It would be an awesome thing to help people advance in their day-to-day lives and be able to do things like this again.” The vocational benefits of a service assignment is a new point of emphasis for recruiting workers, said Del Hershberger, Mennonite Mission Network’s director of Christian Service programs, including MVS and Service Adventure. Because many social-service agencies are not blessed with large staffs or budgets, they often give workers significant responsibility. That means service workers may gain more vocational experience than if they had taken entry-level jobs elsewhere. And experience paves the way for future work. As an MVS worker in Harlingen, Nathan Selzer found himself heavily involved in the cases of immigrants seeking asylum in the United States, even though he had no experience or education beyond two-year Hesston (Kan.) College. “That’s a lot of responsibility for a kid just out of college,” he said. Selzer went to Harlingen in 1994 and a decade later is still there, working with newcomers to this country as a community organizer for a human-rights organization on behalf of refugees. But not only did he find a career, he found a home. Selzer had planned to continue his studies elsewhere, but after his MVS term, he decided to stay. “If one finds moments of joy in a community, one needs to hold on to those tightly,” he said. Selzer owns a house and is engaged to be married in November; his fiancée is from Mexico and also a local community organizer. He has served as president of the local adult soccer league, participants of which are mainly immigrants. “I had a desire to get more connected to the people here,” Selzer said. Regardless of where service workers end up after their assignments, Hershberger said, many will have had the important experience of developing their leadership abilities, which they will use in job, community and church. “People will use their gifts,” he said, “in ways they never expected.” |
