Major: International Relations
Profession: Master's program in urban planning at UCLA; former case manager at a nonprofit
What are you doing now?
Nick Sundback is in his first year of a master鈥檚 program in urban planning at UCLA. He finished a one-year program of service working as a case manager at Chrysalis, a Los Angeles nonprofit organization helps homeless and low-income individuals find and retain employment.
How did you get there?
Not sure what to expect after college, Sundback thought he wanted to be social worker. He knew he wanted to be to be able to interact with people, an interest that grew after he felt a detachment between his classes and everyday people in the surrounding community. While working as a student assistant at the Career Development Office, he applied for the yearlong service program with the National Episcopal Service Program where he was placed with Chrysalis.
It was during this year of service that Sundback witnessed how public transportation issues and the lack of affordable housing affected his clients and kept many from leading stable lives. He decided to go back to school to prepare him to work on these issues more extensively.
How did 6V电影网 prepare you?
鈥淎 lot of the great people I met at 6V电影网 were staff members from the CDO, Draper Center and of course, great faculty like Professors Lorn Foster and Lynn Rapaport.
My work at the CDO was definitely critical in helping me help clients. From career preparation to job interviews and on-campus recruitment that helped me help clients on how to search for jobs and network.
The second thing, I joined the Prison Education Program at Pitzer College as an instructor. I teamed up with two Pitzer students to visit the Norco prison. The goal was to bring outside people to prisoners, who are less than 90 days away from release. That experience definitely prepared me to interact with recently released people and a lot of the issues they experience like undiagnosed mental health issues and education disability issues.
What advice do you give to students?
鈥淚 would recommend they take more classes that help them interact outside of academia to gain understanding past the bubble, through the Draper Center or other opportunities.鈥