Working in these fields...

A wide variety of options is open to students interested in education, at a time when the nation’s need for bright, committed educators has never been greater. While it can be hard as an undergraduate to gain direct teaching experience, there are a myriad of extracurricular opportunities to mentor, tutor, and facilitate groups of school age children to gain experience. Apprentice programs in private schools and two-year immersion/certification programs in public systems provide entry paths to these institutions.

There are certainly opportunities beyond teaching as well. Among the most common are government education departments and boards, cultural institutions, human resources departments in private industry, and educational technology designers and providers.

Psychology as a field is another "helping" profession, perhaps more research-focused than teaching or social work. Clinical psychology is a quite competitive branch of this field, enabling the degree-holder to engage in deep one-on-one therapy; the aspiring practitioner takes rigorous classes and then practices in a supervised setting, a process that takes about five years. Other, less time-consuming paths exist within the profession, such as helping facilitate change within business and monitoring youthful offenders.

Social work is closely related to education, psychology, and the ministry in that it can be practiced in the same environments and makes use of many of the same skills, such as counseling, educating, and communication. Social workers can practice at the micro level, which entails working one-on-one with clients, often in a clinical capacity, or on a macro level, which involves policy work. Social workers may work in private practice, schools, hospitals, private or government agencies, correctional facilities, or in hospice, to name just a few work environments. In order to practice as a clinical social worker it is necessary to obtain a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree and pass a licensing exam