Nass
UNIV100-fc17
Interview Alexandra Paper
For my interview I decided to speak to my future of families teacher, Kimberly Van
Putten-Gardner. I chose to interview this teacher because family sciences is a major that I would
like pursue in my future. Kimberly practices 2 different jobs; She is a adjunct professor and also
has her how clinical practice. As a adjunct professor she teachers for the university under a
contract, working for the university of Maryland, College Park on campus. On the side of this,
she also does online teaching. These jobs are done on Mondays and Wednesdays. On Mondays,
she starts her day off in the morning by responding to emails and feedback to students online,
grading papers, and preparing for her afternoon class. Then, from 3:00pm to 4:14pm she teaches
the future of families class. After class she photocopies papers, and preps for the next day or the
week. On tuedays Kimberly is in her office in the clinical practice from 12:00pm until about
8:00pm or even sometimes 9:00pm. She sees clients back to back every hour on the hour, maybe
having room for a little snack like a smoothie or nuts. She tries to do quick paperwork during
these sessions of people suffering clinical depression, marridel issues, or anxiety. These clients
range in age from teenagers, college students, or even adults. On Thursdays and Fridays she
spends her days with her daughter jordyn, and spratically checks in on postings and emails from
her students. Kimberly told me that the education needed to pursue her job differs. She has a
bachelors in psychology, a masters in counseling psychology with emphasis on family
counseling. She studied for 3 years in counseling phD psychology program, and got her PHD
candacy which is the last stage before the disortation paper, and then later on decided to switch
over to family sciences and received her phD in that. She said there is a lot of flexibility in
clinical work and the qualities needed for the job vary. Someone would need to be able to adjust
to the needs of people because every client is different, so you would have to approach people
differently according their personality. A person would need to be organized, but at the same time
not be too anally structed because it can drive you crazy. As a teacher the most important thing
would having to be able to multitask. With online teaching the flexibility aspect is very important
because your day isnt structured with online teaching, you have to keep checking in multiple
times because of the time difference with students around the world. Kimberly said the best part
of her job is that its very satisfying for her. She likes to feel as if shes helping people to grow in
a certain way. With teaching, she likes knowing she can help students to achieve their career
goals, and help develop their skills in order to become successful in the future. With counseling,
she loves that she feels helpful in achieving personal goals. Kimberly told me that the challenges
she faces during her job is that she works for so many people, whether its patients or students, it
can become overwhelming having the pressure to be needed by everyone. She is constantly
receiving phone and calls, emails from all these different people with all these different issues.
Kimberly knew from the beginning that she wanted to do something on her own and not work
for anybody else clinically. She was a student at the university of Maryland and then taught here
the last 2 years finishing research. After completing her time here she was then asked to teach.
When I asked Kimberly what opportunities of advancement there were in this field she told me
there was so many different opportunities and thats why she loves family science. This degree in
family studies can provide you with the opportunity to teach in family studies, but can also teach
in the psychology department, its very multi-discplinary in which its very easy to find many
different teaching jobs in other areas. She also does grant- renewing for the department of health
and union services where university programs apply for funds, and she is able to read them and
determine which one to fund because she has this degree in family sciences. She told me that
finding work that pays well is hard because the more degrees you have allows you to apply for
higher paying level job. Kimberly told me that she did a lot of entry level work being a
paraprofessional, in which she worked with behavior management and was very hands on with
kids suffering adhd. She assisted in home environments and school settings where she was
allowed to work with population of interest. This wasnt ideal because it was too hands on, but
now she is familiar with how families work. As an entry level job you are paid around $20,000$30,000. Depending on what your doing, if you have your masters you can be paid anywhere
between $45,000- $75,000. And, depending on what you earn your PhD in, you can receive at
least $60,000. When I asked her how jobs in this field changing in the future she told me that the
one thing about this field is that it wont change. There is always a demand for these kinds of jobs
even though the economy is bad. She said her practice isnt suffering because when people are
stressed on economics, they will go to her because they want to fix their marriages or their
problems. There are non-profit organizations that can help, and she can always try and get grant
money to start, because people always need help. When I was explaining to Kimberly that all of
this information is really beneficial to me personally because its something I can see in my
future, I asked her for advice she had for me in this field. Kimberly said to me, Dont limit
yourself to a certain job description because a number of employers will not be familiar with
family studies, but you need to sell yourself to jobs you know your able to do well. She told me
I should also write up a job proposal, so then I can go to a group and see if my proposal can help
that group, which is how she was able to get jobs. Kimberly enjoys her experience with these
jobs because it gives different options and works well with her personal values and lifestyle. As
life changes, personal needs will always be her center of her life not her job profession. All of
this information influenced me ito know I want to continue studying this field as well.