CLDC’s March 20 National Service Panel to highlight service as a pathway to careers

Ohio University’s Career and Leadership Development Center (CLDC) will be hosting a National Service Panel, designed to highlight opportunities to jump-start a career through service, on Tuesday, March 20, from 6 to 7 p.m. Free and open to all Ohio University students and alumni, the event will take place in Baker University Center 503.

The panel will feature representatives from: 

• City Year, an AmeriCorps program whose members work in underprivileged school systems, providing academic support and afterschool programming
• Peace Corps, a government-operated volunteer program, providing assistance to communities outside of the United States with a goal of facilitating global connections and cultural understanding
• Teach for America, a non-profit organization that recruits college graduates to teach in schools located in some of the country’s low-income communities

The panelists will share their personal stories of service and provide insight into the recruitment and application process for each of their respective organizations. The panel will be followed by a question-and-answer session. 

The panelists are:

• Carlos Jean-Baptiste, a recruiter from the Peace Corps whose Peace Corps service provided him an opportunity to work with local and international governments in the fields of disaster response and recovery, community and economic development, and regional planning. A resident of Cincinnati, he has worked for two of the three branches of federal government, a county in Maryland and a city in Ohio.
• Rod Swain, a strategic initiatives director for City Year’s recruitment and admissions department, is in his ninth year with AmeriCorps and has been a campus recruiter for nearly five years. Swain joined the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps out of college and served as a corps member and team leader before joining the City Year staff.
• Kaelyn Thomas, a recruitment manager for Teach for America, works with colleges and universities in Ohio. Through the organization, she has taught sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade math classes in Cincinnati.

While the National Service Panel is free for both students and alumni, registration is required and is available here.  

For more information about the CLDC and its other programs and events, click here.