Graduate of transitional employee program shares advice

Marcus
Graduated from the TE program in November 2009

Marcus is from Oakland and is now in his 2nd semester at Merritt College studying community social services and substance abuse.

What brought to you to SVDP?
I was looking for an internship for a community health class. This is a community that I knew had a lot of diversity, location of community center.

How has working at SVDP helped you?
It’s enabled me to get a first hand experience dealing with people in their disparities. Instead of being amongst it, I’m now on the other side trying to help. It lets me to see what people are really going through. It also sets the stage for me to go out in the community and do outreach for the clinic, make connections and gain good resources within the community.

How has SVDP been part of your journey towards self-progress?
It's widened my skills dealing with resources, understand delivery of resources.

SVDP helped me realize that it’s not just about money. Three years ago, it was all about asking “how much do you pay an hour?”, but now I’m so centered on how to help and volunteer. I get more out of it from just helping people. I still volunteer to understand people and myself.

Looking at how nonprofits are structured and some of the things I want to do, schooling is number one. Having a BA is going to be very important to have a voice in some situations. When I first came to SVDP, I was just focused on completing certificate, then I wanted to get an AA and now I am set on working towards a BA.

If I want to help people, being knowledgeable is the best tool I can have to help people. In the next 5-10 years jobs will be in community and preventive health.

What’s advice can you give to people job searching?
I would tell them that don’t get discouraged, sure the job market is hard, but at this day and time, school is going to be a good place to start because you can get a certificate or degree that’s sustainable for the long run. It’s not what you can do but what you know, a teacher told me “strong back, weak mind could live a middle class life, but today it’s not possible. All those jobs have been outsourced and now its about what you know.”

Even though things may not look up, you must stick with it, because in the long run, any hard work will pay off, sometimes you ask yourself what am I doing here. When you stick to stuff, things start to happen.