Program to help volunteers transition to careers

Author: Carol Elliott

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For many people who spend a year in service work, transitioning back to a career track isnt a simple move. Where they might have spent their days working on digging wells in an African village or organizing reading programs for children, they now have to turn their attention to interview suits and résumés.

To help volunteers enter the job market, the University of Notre Dame is offering a new weeklong certificate program calledLeaders in Transitionfrom Aug. 3 to 8 on the Notre Dame campus.

The program is open to anyone who has completed a year or more of full-time community service within the last 12 months. Its purpose is to provide attendees with a tool kit of job-seeking skills as well as a network of colleagues with similar experiences. Sessions will cover topics ranging from financial planning, to managing ones image, to keeping the sense of mission alive in a new career, which may or may not be in the nonprofit industry.

Anecdotally, we hear it takes volunteers a little bit when they get home to let go of being a volunteer and to be ready for the job market,said Tom Harvey, director of the Master of Nonprofit Administration (MNA) program in Notre Dames Mendoza College of Business.Their classmates are all working, and theyre still thinking about Ecuador or Uganda, or whatever service field they were on.

Supported by a recent grant from The Arthur Foundation, the program is part of a larger effort by Notre Dames MNA program to provide business management skills to people working in the nonprofit sector through certificate programs.

A $25 application fee is required; otherwise the program is free and includes a $250 stipend to help cover travel, lodging and food. It is sponsored by the MNA program in collaboration with the Universitys Center for Social Concerns, the Alumni Association and the Career Center.The application deadline is July 10.

More information about Leaders in Transition and applications for the program are available at http://socialconcerns.nd.edu/postgraduate/leaders_transition.shtml

_ Contact: Tom Harvey, 574 631-7593 or_ " Harvey.18@nd.edu ":mailto:Harvey.18@nd.edu

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