What Career Should I Pursue?
What will bring me the greatest joy and satisfaction?
Many students in high school and college struggle to decide what subject they should major in and what career they should pursue? This Web Site sponsors a course that can help students consider one career they may not have thought of. Below are seven types of motives for choosing a career: Rank the following types of work that you would prefer? Put a seven by the item that would be most important, a six by the one that would be second most important, then a five, four, three and two for those less important and finally a one for the least important to you.
You might start first with the motive that is least important, then work backwards to the one that is most important:
A. Allows you to be your own boss.
B. Allows you to help people, especially the disadvantaged, to solve their problems.
C. Allows you to develop your talents and abilities.
D. Allows you to travel and see the world.
E. Allows you to stay close to where your parents and family live.
F. Allows you to feel you were making a difference in the world.
If you list C, D, E G as one of the four that is most important, you might be surprised there is a career available that you never considered before.
A Career in Development Studies: Is this for You?
The field of Development Studies has been around since the1950s, but most students in High School and even Universities are often unaware of this important career option. When President Jack Kennedy introduced the Peace Corps in March 1961, very few American students had the opportunity to work and live in a country in Africa, Asia, or Latin America. Through the Peace Corps, thousands of students spent two years working abroad. Put in a link to short videos explaining what the peace corps is.
For more than five decades, Peace Corps Volunteers in 141 countries have demonstrated ingenuity, creativity, and grit to solve critical challenges alongside community leaders.
Through the years, Peace Corps Volunteers have been connected by their passion for service, an opportunity to travel abroad and experience other cultures and help solve some of the worse problems in the world (poverty, illiteracy, climate change, the spread of deadly viruses and perhaps most meaningful from a personal perspective: a love developed for the people in their host countries.
In career success
Returned Peace Corps Volunteers have gone on to achieve extraordinary success in all kinds of fields. Some, inspired by their service, stay in education or health-related professions, or choose to join the Foreign Service. Others pursue careers in business, from entrepreneurial startups to management at major companies. Returned Peace Corps Volunteers are working as journalists, writers, members of Congress, and even astronauts.
The transformative impact of the Peace Corps on the communities served and the volunteers themselves can be measured in many ways. A shared cup of tea with a host mother that leads to a greater understanding of Americans. A new school library built, or a safe latrine where there wasn't one before. A young boy prepared to serve his own community, a young girl who sees herself as equal to her male classmates. A Volunteer with a clear career path and a lifelong passion. Here are just some of the ways the Peace Corps measures impact.
In the field
- Finding and Training Village Health Workers to improve health services
- Fighting Hunger and malnutrition among the poorest of the poor.
- Protecting the Environment (Forests, Wet Lands, Rivers, Lakes and the Oceans).
- Providing training, credit and improved technology that helps the poor to fund and develop Agriculture and Non- Agriculture Enterprises, thereby coming out of extreme poverty
- Finding and Strengthen Local Transformative Community Leaders.
- Documenting and Enhancing Village Core Values and local cultures.
From this experience, a new career for young people was spawned inviting people to work in the field of Development. This word “development” has a special meaning: training individuals to work in the poor countries of the world,
- Finding ways to alleviate poverty (1970s – 1980s);
- Reducing poverty (1990s);
- And now in the 21st century to eliminate extreme poverty.
We provide a course that has been structured for a high school level presentation, and a university level presentation. it can also be taught as a special class, with in-house teachers or professors using this courses material, or it can be offered though an on-line course.
It is structured:
- To outline the various aspects of rural development theory: a. education/adult-literacy, b. health/good nutrition, c. income generation through agriculture and non-agriculture enterprises, d. issues of infra-structure, and e. local culture enhancement/villager-determined core values.
- Defines what poverty means and the ways it can be measured.
- Assesses the history over the past 70 years of different approaches used to alleviate, reduce and now eliminate extreme poverty.
- Considers what a career in development might entail, what you would need to know to pursue a career in development and to determine if such a career is for you.
Is a Career in Rural Development for You?
Many books deal with the theories and techniques associated with the general field of Development Administration. Few books deal specifically with the problems involved in pursuing a career in this field or what it takes to become a professional in rural development. There are many sub fields in development related to agriculture, public health, non-formal education, rural entrepreneurship, project management and policy implementation. We focus on the work of those who specialize in village development, who tend to work at the grassroots level and who seek to become facilitators in the process of village development.
This is a challenging profession that requires people willing to work in isolated rural communities in Africa, Latin America or Asia over an extended period of time. There are six levels in the career:
- An intern working as a volunteer for a government agency or a non government organization (NGO) implementing a program in rural communities in a given country, usually for 3 months to a year or more (example would be a Peace Corps volunteer or a student volunteer for some NGO in Africa, Asia, or Latin America).
- A beginning full-time Rural Development Facilitator (RDF) usually with some university or technical training related to some aspect of rural development.
- An experienced RDF Supervisory, training, managing, and supporting.
- A Project Manager (In country director) working with a number of teams of RDFs usually with 4-5 years of experience and a master degree in some subfield of rural development.
- A Technical Specialist with a master’s level training in public health, nutritionist, maternal/child care, adult literacy, non formal education, telecommunication/village-level internets, agronomy, micro credit and rural enterprise development, contractor experience, accountant, etc.
- A Professional Rural Development Specialist
usually with a PhD and some years of experience in the field Development Management with skills in management training, research, program consulting and evaluation.